“Hills Like White Elephants” is a short story written by Ernest Hemingway. Set in Spain in the year 1927, and narrated in the third person limited, this is the story of the internal conflict of an unmarried expectant couple in route to have an abortion. Hemingway cleverly uses several literary elements to describe underlying conflicts between the couple as they discuss the procedure. The central idea is an identity crisis regarding self-identity, and how conflict, setting, diction, and symbolism are used to tell the story. The central idea is an identity crisis, Jig experiences an identity crisis as she realizes her feelings about the pregnancy are in direct contradiction to the feelings expressed by the man concerning her pregnancy.
The man impregnated Jig and he doesn’t want to take care of the child. The man wants to be free from responsibility. He thinks an abortion is a way out of this problem. Jig wants to make the man happy, but her as well. She knows that her decision doesn’t only affect her, but everyone who is in her situation.
She questioned what they would do post-abortion, so he explained that they would be happy, just like the couples they knew. The man put on a facade about how he wanted Jig to be happy and make the decision herself, yet he continually tried to convince her to have the abortion. Undoubtedly, the man did not want to take any responsibility for their relationship and the baby, and wanted the easy way out. He did not respect her view on the subject, therefore he forced the idea that the abortion would be their best option. Since Jig was submissive and dependent, she agreed, “Oh, yes.
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.
Literature exam Question 1: Short Story What kind of narrator do we encounter in Ernest Hemingway’s “Hills Like White Elephants”? Comment in your discussion on the significance of Hemingway leaving certain important details unsaid in the short story. Ernest Hemingway´s “Hills Like White Elephants” Begins its story with a long description of the settings, a small village with a train station out in nowhere. It is a crossroad surrounded mainly by hills and fields. The main characters in the story are two people.
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). If the white elephant
Which is why he starts laughing. Hills like white elephants is a story based on man vs self since the topic of this story would be jig, the girl. She refers to the hills like “white elephants”, she is referring the elephants to her unborn baby. You can also recall the expression,”There’s an elephant in the room” because of something painfully obviously no ones wants to
Usually older men are said to acquire more knowledge and experience because of their age. In “Hills Like White Elephants” the young girl, Jig, is powerless, but expresses ideas of her own in the end and takes her power back. “I said the mountains looked like white elephants. Wasn’t that bright” (Hemingway31). Her lack of being able to make her own decision contributes to her loss of power.
He immediately shows his dominance as he demands to know what is going on. We also feel the alienation of John in this moment. Baldwin emphasizes the tension of the relationship between Gabriel and his stepson, “John stood just before him, it seemed to her astonished vision just below him, beneath his fist, his heavy shoe. The child stared at the man in fascination and terror…” (22). I could immediately feel Gabriel’s presence in the story because all of the characters seem to be afraid of what Gabriel’s reaction will be.
Abortion: to be or not to be? ‘Hills Like White Elephants’ is a short story written by Ernest Hemingway in May 1927. It was published in Transition Magazine in August 1927. The story is situated in Spain, more specific in the bar of the train station, according to some sources the location is Casestas. A girl, named Jig, and a boy (the American) are waiting for the train, as regular people they are having a discussion.