The characters of Hills Like White Elephants Hemingway’s Hills Like White Elephants short story takes place in a train station in Spain around the 1920s. The two main characters of his story are that of a man and girl waiting for train while drinking and the story is almost entirely told through a conversational dialogue of the characters with a few small descriptive paragraphs of the surrounding scenery of the train station in between. Additionally, Hemingway doesn’t give any characterisation of the mood or theme of the conversation, it is written in a completely neutral manner as if he were only reporting the conversation. He also doesn’t give any context to this conversation leaving the reader for the most part in the dark in regards to the subject matter of the dialogue of the main characters. This can lead many readers to view the story and characters essentially without any actual character or plot making the story pointless.
Next, it would seem that the involvement of reader to understand the characters in “Good People” is greater than in “Hills Like White Elephants”. Based on these two short stories, Wallace introduces his idea through the minds of his characters, which is Lane and Sheri. Yet Hemingway uses a documentary style such as dialogue in order to express the idea of abortion. The differences in their writing can make the reader either to understand their stories and their characters
The short story “Hills Like White Elephants,” by Ernest Hemingway, is about a young couple and the polemic (controversial) issue of abortion. Though the word “abortion” is nowhere in the story, it is doubtlessly understood through Hemingway’s powerful use of two literary elements: setting and symbolism. From the first paragraph the setting immediately introduces the tense atmosphere that will surround the rest of the story. The story takes place in Spain in the late 1920’s. The setting is described as follows: The hills across the valley of the Ebro were long and white.
Neglecting to acknowledge something one finds unwanted in a relationship, is often a result of other issues in the relationship itself, as shown in “Hills Like White Elephants” by Ernest Hemingway. With the lack of descriptions in general, the description of the train station and the hills that are seen from there catches the attention of the reader. This creates the question; what importance can there be found in the setting and the metaphor white elephants? The first conversation the American and the woman have is when the woman gives an off-hand remark on some hills nearby. According to the woman the hills, “‘Look like white elephants,’ she said.
Hemingway used a simple story to hide a deep, sensitive message for his readers to discover for themselves. He wanted people to put more thought into reading his story, therefore he left it up the oneself to discover hidden messages. Hemingway hid clues of abortion through the usage of white elephants, the drinking habits of the two characters, and the landscape. Never once did he straight up tell the readers that the two characters were having a secret, coded discussion about abortion. Things are not always what they
The work of Ernest Hemingway offers the reader a chance to dwell in the world of struggle and decision-making. Moreover, the interaction between the girl and the American keenly reveals a sense of insecurity within a relationship built on persistent distractions. In “Hills Like White Elephants,” Hemingway uses simplicity in conversation, essential symbolism, and character development to expose the couple’s immaturity and the choice between romance and family. Hemingway effectively disguises the growing tension between the girl and the American through idle conversation. Several instances demonstrated the uncomfortable air that surrounded the two.
“The story of an hour” by Kate Chopin and “Hills like white elephants’’ by Ernest Hemingway are two wonderful short stories that talks about two women dealing with major moments of change. Though both stories seem different from each other but after reading the story more in depth, I realized that both women are dealing differently with a situation beyond their control. Ernest Hemingway style of writing is confusing In a sense that I had to reread “Hills like white elephants” four times to fully understand the story. He only gives his readers bare facts. He doesn’t say or clarifies his sentence leaving little clues for his readers to figure out the rest.
It is in Ernest Hemingway’s 1927 short story “Hills like White Elephants” that the commonality of problems of communication between two is cited as a reoccurring theme. Clearly identified by the two unnamed characters that the dialogue expresses miscommunication, confusion and switching between two languages; English and Spanish. Never directly diagnosing what exactly the operation they discuss is for, presumptions can be made of an abortion and refer to it as “it” (Hemingway P.3). Despite a strong presence of miscommunication, Hemingway manages to incorporate literary techniques such as realism throughout his story, which allows readers to connect and understand the reality of the story with plenty of dialogue and the use of imagery. The discretely included metaphor of the elephants is also considered an example of miscommunication as many commodities that the two wish to convey goes discoursed.
Alcohol is used as a way to cope and bring out a character’s feelings, war is used to represent how brutal, instinct of survival and how it can bring out the worst in a person and the rain is used as a way to portray and foreshadow death are all common symbols used by Hemingway. A theme that Hemingway uses a lot is love between Henry and Catherine. Hemingway shows that symbols and themes can have an impact on a character and the tone of the story. A farewell to arms A farewell
This story was talking about a British police officer in Lower Burma got the information that there is one elephant was causing damage in the town, and the officer killed the elephant in the end. The symbol of this story I will identify as the ‘Elephant’. The elephant can be represented as a symbol of the people oppressed by the British Imperialism and also the British Empire. (Viswanathan, Apr 19) George Orwell used the elephant as the symbol is because the elephant is a very strong and huge animal on the ground, and at that time, a live elephant can make big money and very valuable and expensive. Therefore, in India elephant was an animal which gains lots of respected.