Hills Like White Elephants Literary Analysis

Literature and the arts are similar, they require us to tap into a deeper level of understand in what we read and see. The words are often an author’s experiences, thoughts, feeling, ideas or convictions. As readers we can sometimes connect with the author, having an emotional reaction to their works. In Ernest Hemingway’s Hills Like White Elephants, the young couple is making a life decision about going through an abortion. I too was faced this decision in my own life at a young age. The question here in these three literature pieces is when we are faced with “life and death” situations what is the morally right thing to do? There are some decisions we can make for ourselves and our own life, and then there are other decisions we are confronted with that effects another person/animal’s life.

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

jig and the American begin to argue back-and-forth about an abortion he is proposing. But the setting plays a very important part as well. They are sitting in between two different landscapes. Representing both characters in the middle of a life changing decision This is significantly showing symbolism comparing life to both types of environmental scenes. One side of the landscape is dry and barren and unsuitable for life which is closely connected to what her life would be if she goes with the operation. On the opposite side of them there is a beautiful lush green fertile for wildlife. Since they don't know what to do, Hemingway set them in the middle of both.

The openness and loneliness around the railroad station imply that there is no way to back out of the problem at hand and that the man and the girl must address it now. The heat turns the scene into a virtual teakettle, boiling and screaming under pressure. The landscape that encompasses the station plays a fundamental role in the conflict of the story through its extensive symbolism.

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.

Hemingway describes the barren side of the railroad where “there was no shade and no trees” (313), to contrast the more fertile land on the opposite side where there “were fields of grain and trees along the banks of the Ebro” (315). The fertile side represents the thoughts that Jig is playing with in her mind about keeping the baby and starting a family with the American. She does not outright suggest that her and the American settle down, in fear that he may not be ready for that and leave her. On the other hand, she clearly does not see having an abortion as something that she is entirely sure of. She sees nothing pleasant about the barren side and yet the best she can do to dissuade the American from the idea of the abortion is to ask him to stop talking. In reference to the barren side of the tracks, Jig states that the distant hills “look like white elephants” (313). A white elephant is a common symbol for a possession that is troublesome and generally unwanted; it can also be something that is difficult to maintain or dispose of. In this case, Jig is referring to the baby that the American seems to want little to do with. The presence of the baby is definitely causing turmoil in their relationship and yet Jig is not exactly ready to give it up, though

The landscape in the story represents choosing the abortion or choosing to keep the baby. The setting of the story is at a train station. On one side of the train track the landscape is “brown and dry” (Hemingway 123) and the other side is green and has rivers and mountains. The discussion that the man and girl are having is whether or not she wants to and will have an abortion. When the girl mentions the landscape she expresses that by going through with the abortion and trying to “drift through life they are choosing emotional and spiritual desiccation” (Holladay) meaning life will not be the same after it, therefore the dull and dead side of the track represents the abortion while the other side represents keeping the baby because it is obvious that the girl does not want to have an abortion as much as the man does. In the same way that the baby will be alive if she chooses not to abort it the green side of the track is lively and if she aborts the baby the baby will be dead just like the dead side of the track.

The author’s intent in “Hills Like White Elephants” is to show what happens when people don’t communicate and aren’t honest about their feelings. In this story the two main character are clearly trying to avoid talking about something, and they do so by drinking. The man, who is given no name, but is called the American, is trying to act indifferent about the situation at hand. He claims he wants to the girl to do what she wants, but is clearly oversimplifying the matter. The girl seems very indecisive about what to do, and can’t seem to make any decisions, including what to drink, without first consulting the American.

If analyzed in a more generic view, the short story can be used to show how a male and female stereotypically understand a subject. The American speaks more literal and materialistic as Jig is seen to speak in a more figurative and abstract manner. Ernest Hemingway’s use of symbolism gives the reader a more visual effect to the conflict between the man and the girl as well as the idea of their inner thoughts. The white rounded hills, the beads on the curtain hanging from the bar’s doorframe, and the cool shade and blazing light all represent different aspects of the two choices that the American and the girl have to decide on, just like the railroad tracks on either side of the

Symbolism plays a fundamental role in Hemingway’s “Hills Like White Elephants”. The different symbols used throughout the story are capable of subtly conveying intricate concepts to the readers of this recognized literary work. It then becomes essential for them to detect all these symbols, and discern the deep meanings which they hold in order to truly grasp the story’s message which the author intended to transmit. Without this insight, many first-time readers may view the story as a simple and casual dialog between two people, a man and a woman, waiting for a train from Barcelona to Madrid. Thus, they become unaware of the intense conflict the two main characters are actually facing, haunted by the difficult decision of terminating a pregnancy

In this short story, the hills that the train station overlook are compared to white elephants. This is because the conversation Jig is wanting to have with the American consists of whether or not to keep the

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. In the middle of their conversation he states, "if you don 't want to you don 't have to. I wouldn’t have you do it if you didn 't want to. But I know it 's perfectly simple.” (Hemingway 4). When the women attempt to show hope and talk about the beauty of bring a child into this world; the American man continues to state that the operation is simple. In the end, the women choose to stop talking with the American man about the operation, he has pleaded his case. He has stated that this unborn child is, “the only thing that bothers us. It 's the only thing that 's made us unhappy." (Hemingway 2). Thus the result, she has chosen to proceed with this operation, despite her

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. Which is making him more selfish and he does not to have any responsibilities. Also, the reader is also left with a great doubt, as there is no solution.

A white elephant signifies something that has a high value but is not quite beneficial. When this proverb is placed in context, it would be possible to assume that Jig’s pregnancy might be a ‘white elephant’, considering a human life is very valuable but the couple is not ready to have a child at the moment. According to Joseph M. Flora, a white elephant in nature is rare (44) and this can signify that maybe it would be the only chance for the girl to get a baby, for the reason that a woman can get possibly infertile after an abortion. The question arises what the hills might have to do with white elephants. The hills can be seen as a boundary between the couple. It is obvious from what the American says to Jig, that perhaps the hills could stand for the unborn baby. Further in the story, the girl suddenly calls these hills ‘mountains’. (252) In my interpretation, it seems that she also might have realised that the baby would be a barrier between them. Well, in this case she has to ‘move mountains’ and make that difficult decision. If we observe their relationship, it seems like it is not going too well either. With attention to Jig’s view and the man’s view we can say that they both have a different attitude towards the abortion and their relationship. Remarkably, the girl’s thoughts change through their conversation. Renner divides the stages of the decision-making process into four – what he calls – ‘movements’. (28) Along with these movements Jig also changes her mind about her relationship with the American. In the first stage Hemingway creates the impression that the girl still has to make the decision about the surgery. This idea is created by the description of the scenery in which the station is amidst the two lines of rails and what the girl sees on the other side. (251) The dryness and the brown colour of the country refer to a lack

In the life of Hemingway "oppressive sense of morality" was learned and this could have also affect the way he thought as he wrote down the short story. The moralities he had learned and the disappointments he had during his romances could have managed a way to write "Hills like White Elephants" (SparkNotes). I understand that people might criticize the writer like Peter, but people actually express their life through writing. The writer committing suicide might have been expressed in one of his intense stories. A person might act normal but the people that surrounds them cannot actually see what goes inside the person's mind. I'm sure that apart from a negative communication he wrote in the short story, Hemingway might have also wrote positive stories or