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Summary Of Hills Like White Elephants

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For this assignment, I chose to do a compare and contrast paper based on the two short stories I 've selected, “The Jewelry” and “Hills Like White Elephants”. The two stories share some similarities as well as being complete opposites when it comes to certain matters. First off here 's a short summary for “The Jewelry”. The story is about the main character, Mr. Lantin, is a widower who reminisce about the times he had with his late wife who passed away due to pneumonia. Due to being unable to live comfortably and being in debt, Mr. Lantin has no other choice but to sell his wife 's jewelry. But the twist in the story is that it seems as if Madam Lantin was living a double life as Mr. Lantin finds out later on. Satisfied with this great fortune he received from selling his former wife 's jewelry, Mr. Lantin gets remarried for a second time but this time it is said that Mr. Lantin 's current wife is the total opposite of the first wife which many can come to the conclusion that money can 't buy you happiness and if being happy by dishonest values is worth the financial gains or if the unhappiness from honest values is worth the pain. …show more content…

(Baccellia, 2007) The second story is about a woman named Jig and a nameless American man waiting in Barcelona for a train trip to Madrid. Assuming that the man involved in this story is Jig 's boyfriend or husband due to their interactions with one another, the two discussed the possibility of abortion, which leads to Jig describing the two hills she sees while waiting for the train as white elephants. The meaning of the hills looking like white elephants is that Jig is debating if the abortion procedure is the best decision. Almost like she has something precious that she has to get rid of. In the end, Jig decides to go through with the operation but as the story closes we 're left without knowing what happens next for the couple 's future and how this crucial decision will affect the two later on down the road.

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1. Who is the protagonist of the story? What are the conflicts? Are they physical, intellectual, moral, or emotional? - The protagonist of this story is the American and Jig.

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Freedom within Hills like White Elephants and Story of an Hour Freedom: the power or right to act, speak, or think as one wants without hindrance or restraint. Many people strive for it, but it is nerveless undefined. Everyone wants to be free,

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“Hills like White Elephants” & “The Yellow Wallpaper” Once upon a time, a romantic fairy tale was a dream come true. A handsome prince and his beautiful princess fall in love and live happily ever after. Furthermore, in modern literature this phrase “happily ever after” is now questionable. In Ernest Hemingway’s “Hills like White Elephants” and Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper” are short stories driven by conflict.

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Besides the literal similarities meanings of the stories, both also have a symbolic meaning. Throughout “Hills like White Elephants” Jig have some moments where she expresses symbolic objects that influence her attitudes. Jig’s imagination is key for the story, for example in the beginning of the story she states, “They look like white elephants” (Hemingway 475). According to the dictionary, a white elephant is “a possession that is useless or troublesome, especially one that is expensive to maintain or difficult to dispose of.” After this definition it is important to bring the response the American man about jig reference he says, “I’ve never seen one” to which Jig responses with, “No, you wouldn’t have” (Hemingway 475).

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Throughout the short story (1), “Hills Like White Elephants,” Ernest Hemingway is speaking about a seemingly unwanted pregnancy and a woman’s uneasiness with going through an abortion. However, Hemingway never explicitly says in this work of fiction (2) that it is about abortion or that the woman, Jig, is uncomfortable with it, but uses symbolism (3) to present this to the audience. At the time “Hills like White Elephants” was published, in 1927, abortion was illegal in most places and a very taboo subject that wasn’t to be openly discussed in public. Thus, Hemingway relied greatly upon the use of symbolism to get his message across for this reason as well as the third person narrator (4) that did not give insight into the character’s thoughts within this piece of literature (5) . He uses symbols such as the train station, white hills, the baggage, and the drinks to point towards the underlying internal conflict (6) of Jig’s decision that is being heavily influenced by the American man, who wants Jig to get the abortion.

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The author sets “Hills Like White Elephants” at a train station to highlight the fact that the relationship between the American man and the girl is at a crossroads. Planted in the middle of a desolate valley, the station isn’t a final destination but merely a stopping point between Barcelona and Madrid. Travelers, including the main characters, must therefore decide where to go and, in this case, whether to go with each other and continue their relationship. Moreover, the contrast between the white hills and barren valley possibly highlights the dichotomy between life and death, fertility and sterility, and mirrors the choice the girl faces between having the baby or having the abortion. The girl seems torn between the two landscapes, not only commenting on the beauty of the hills but also physically walking to the end of the platform and gazing out at the brown emptiness around the station.

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White Elephants are symbolic for the child. The woman is conflicted, because this operation is taking away her unborn child—an apparent internal conflict. She asks the man numerous times, “"And if I do it you 'll be happy and things will be like they were and you 'll love me?" (Hemingway 3) The man is constantly reassuring his love and desire to be with her, but only her. When he speaks to the woman his manipulation of wording portrays the he’s concerned for her, but in reality he is pushing on his hidden agenda—having her go through with the operation.

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The man is manipulating her through his words to get his girl to go through with the operation. First, he brings up the operation and goes on to say that “It’s really an awfully simple operation”(42) hinting at the fact that it is easily done and not a big deal at all. Secondly, the man uses the idea of happiness to win her over in this decision, “That’s the only thing that bothers us. It’s the only thing that’s made us unhappy”(50) he is manipulating her into thinking that this operation will revive their happiness they once shared in this relationship. Thirdly, he tries to normalize the operation to make her feel like it’s a common thing, no big deal, he tells her she doesn’t “have to be afraid.

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The Female Desire to be Free The story takes in place in the 1920’s. During that era, women were living under the influence of men. They were not so free to make decisions for themselves without being judged upon by society. Seeing a pregnant woman who was unwed was viewed upon negatively.

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In the story “Hills like White Elephants” a girl is forced to make a choice of whether to get an abortion or not. I believe that the girl didn't get an abortion because for the entire story the man says how easy it is and tries to make it sound not painful but in her heart she believes that she should keep it. In the story she is a young girl with a lot of innocence still with an older man. She wants to keep the baby but the man makes a point by saying that as soon as she gives birth to it that there will be no more adventure, and no more him. She doesn't have a lot of time to decide.

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The dialogue in Hemingway’s “Hills Like White Elephants” reveals a man’s and a woman’s incongruent conflict on abortion, and the author’s fundamentally feminist position is visible in the portrayal of the woman’s independent choice of whether or not to keep the baby she is carrying. The plot is very simple in the story which is less than 1500 words long. A woman and a man spend less than an hour on a hot summers day at a Spanish train station in the valley of Ebro as they are waiting for a train heading for Madrid. Their dialogue takes up most of the space and only few major actions take place.

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Hills Like White Elephant is a short story by Earnest Hemingway from 1927. The story is talking about a failing relationship between an American man and his girlfriend. This couple is at a critical point on their lives. At the bar in a train station in Spain, the girl, Jig, does not want to end up her pregnancy, but she is going to sacrifice the baby to satisfied him. Because he is critical of the exploitation of his girl’s feelings concerning the continuation of unbalanced relationship.

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Agony Between Fascinating Ridge Hills like white elephant is a short story that was written by Ernest Hemingway in 1924 with two main characters; an American man and Jig. It all happened in Ebro, Spain where both of them are in a train station waiting for the train that heads to Madrid. The location is described as bounded by alluring fields, wonderful trees, and magnificent hills. Although the story do not contain a background information about the characters, reading their dialogues and the whole story will give the interpretation that both of them were sharing a deep and sensual relationship. The whole idea is when the couple were enjoying the beer and the scenery, until the man consequently opened up about an operation.

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In his story “Hills Like White Elephants”, Ernest Hemingway points out the couple's inability to make the decision: whether to abort the unborn child or not. The reader finds that the story deals with couple's miscommunication through the conversation and the emotions that they express. One can observe that no descriptions are given to the characters, thus, Hemingway creates universal dilemma to focus on the crucial issue. In this way, Hemingway leads the reader to identify with his female character that undergoes a struggle.

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“Hills Like White Elephants” is a short story told from a third person narrator. I believe that the narrator is their waitress. She hears everything that they are saying and acts like a fly on the wall watching them. The narrator said, “It was very hot and the express from Barcelona would come in 40 minutes.” If the narrator is the woman then she knows that the woman is about to leave on the next train.

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