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Ernest Hemingway Hills Like White Elephant Feminist Analysis

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Hear my train coming

For centuries, men have swayed the scepter while their wives were compelled to face the consequences with a silenced voice. Even on this very day, though much improved since then, men and women are not equally treated. That silenced voice has now made way for a blaring roar for equality from several fronts as from the feminists, LGBT(Lesbian,Gay,Bisexual Transgender) organisations and many other minorities. Hemingway’s ‘Hills Like White Elephants’ also touches this topic touched, though not everyone agrees. Ernest Hemingway, a well-known modernist writer, adopts the iceberg principle, a typical feature of modernist literature in his works. According to this principle, the top represents the given story, while the foot depicts the concealed story. This principle restricts the writer’s dictatorship, the reader however has to pay a price. The writer only provides, mostly vague, information, it is now up to the reader to …show more content…

The story is about a couple, an American, whose name is unknown, and a Spanish girl, who is referred to as Jig. The two are spending their time in a small establishment in Ebro, a small village which can be found in Spain, while waiting for the next train to Madrid. Their conversation on the first two pages is rather ordinary, however it does take more serious approach on the third page with the American saying “ It’s really an awfully simple operation, Jig”(253). For the following two pages the discussion dedicates itself to this topic. It is important to note that the operation is never explained, though many critics acknowledge that this represents an abortion. The reader has to be concentrated at all times in order not to miss any vital information. As Mathew J. Bolton states:” inexperienced or inattentive readers might miss the unnamed subject of the couple’s conversation-abortion-entirely” (Bolton

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