Hills Like A White Elephant Literary Analysis Essay
Literary Analysis #2
Hills Like White Elephants
This short story by Ernest Hemmingway, is about a man and woman’s difference in opinion with one another. The couple is waiting on a train to arrive at the junction station to take them to Madrid, Spain so that the woman can have an operation. In this story, Hemmingway utilizes symbolism and clues to explain the plot of the story and the conflict the two characters are having. Some of the symbolism in the story is difficult to decipher and this analysis will help understand the story by explaining the symbolism.
Hemmingway calls the main characters in this story “the American and the girl.” The main characters seem to be in a romantic relationship with one another and have spent some time
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She even has difficulty making decisions about how she wants her drink served and only ordered her drink after getting the Americans opinion. This is the same with deciding whether or not to get the operation. She has her own views and opinions about the operation, but is obedient with the American, and will do what he wants rather than doing what she thinks is right.
The girl seems to make symbolic jabs at the American throughout the story. She starts by making comments about the mountains that appear to her like a white elephant. White elephants are rare animals and a small amount of people have ever seen a white elephant. The elephant symbolizes that the operation that the woman is going to get is an operation that not everyone gets, only the privileged people. She also makes statements about not caring about herself in attempt to get the American to change his mind about the operation.
The American states that this pregnancy is what is causing turmoil in their relationship and causing the couple unhappiness. He explains to the girl that when she goes through with the operation everything will go back to normal and the American and the girl can be happy and carefree
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Hills Like White Elephants Literary Analysis
1554 Words | 7 PagesThe setting (7) of the story, the train station, is a symbol for the place where Jig and the American man are at in their relationship and what lies ahead for them. This symbol also portrays the theme (8) of choice and consequences. They are at an impasse due to the pregnancy, and the train tracks are the futures that could happen based on Jig’s decision about the abortion and the baby. For instance, Jig could agree politely to the American man and go ahead
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970 Words | 4 PagesLane Jr. who's struggling with his faith will support and stand by Sheri and her decision concerning the pregnancy. Ernest Hemingway's" Hills Like White Elephants” allows his readers to come to the conclusion as to whether the couple in question will terminate or keep the unborn child. As Jig, and the American are
Hills Like White Elephants Relationship Analysis
813 Words | 4 PagesThe relationship between the American and the girl in “Hills Like White Elephants.” In the 1900s, there was a distinct relationship between a man and a woman, with each having their own traits. During this time, Ernest Hemingway also had his own idea of this relationship which he portrays in his story, “Hills Like White Elephants”. Within this story, the relationship between the two characters, the American and the girl, is portrayed as strained and distanced by their constant avoidance of the “elephant in the room”.
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Hills Like White Elephants Point Of View Analysis
969 Words | 4 PagesIn the short story "Hills Like White Elephants" by Ernest Hemingway the central idea is people sometimes don't appreciate something special when it's in front them. This story can put in the category of Drama because at the end the reader is left with a open ending unlike other dramas that have a closing. The story is about a couple who is waiting for a train at a railroad junction in Spain they decide to have a beer then have a conversation of whether to go through the abortion of their child. Next, the bartender tells the couple that the train arrives in 5 minutes so the American moves their bags onto the other side of the train station and gets a drink at the bar while Jig sits by herself. The theme of the story is people sometimes don't appreciate what's in front of them and is shown through characterization, point of view and symbolism.
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1098 Words | 5 PagesHills 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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2023 Words | 9 PagesOne of the most notable facets of “Hills Like White Elephants” is the use of repetition within the dialogue. With the story running at barely two thousand words, the repetition of these key phrases stands out among the dialogue. The phrase from which the title comes from, “like white elephants”, reoccurs five times within the text. In cultural context, an elephant in the room is an idiom for a burden or an issue at hand that no one wants to discuss.
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1044 Words | 5 PagesAccording to Smiley, “The dialogue contains the essence of the story's power; for to read Jig's and the American conversation is to recognize the powerless frustration of parallel interchanges” (2). The girl's character passes changes throughout the story. It appears that “Hemingway works out the story's conflict, which revolves around the development of his female character” (Renner 28). The girl gains power and frees herself from the following the American man. In the beginning of the story, the girl take the initiative to speak which leads to the discussion: “'what should we drink?'
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741 Words | 3 PagesIn the short story “Hills Like White Elephants,” by Ernest Hemingway, there is a relationship unfolding, a complex relationship difficult to understand. The relationship reveals itself by a conversation between a man and a woman, a topic of conversation that people rarely discussed in the period that the story takes place. After researching interpretations, most of my findings resemble “She is pregnant, and he wants her to have an abortion” (Weeks 76), to which I agree that this conversation is about abortion. With the man seemingly pushing the topic and the girl hesitant and questionable, it is unsure as to the result of their conversation. However, it is my belief that she chose to follow her heart and not get the abortion.
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1629 Words | 7 PagesThe 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.
Compare And Contrast Hills Like White Elephant By Ernest Hemingway
1068 Words | 5 PagesThe result afterward of whether or not she does it is never said in the story, but it is obvious that she will. When arguing with the American about whether getting an abortion is the right thing to do, the girl gets up from her seat and out of the shade of the train junction, and the man exclaims, “‘Come on back in the shade,’ he said. ‘You mustn’t feel that way’” (Hemingway 3). This excerpt from the text shows how the man tries to control her but also how she tries to get out of his “shade” and dominance even if it's as small as this.
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