Hills Like White Elephants Literary Devices
If taken literally, Hemingway’s story is one in which very little happens. The story takes place at a shaded table of a bar outside of a train station in Spain where a couple argue about a vague event over drinks. From the very start of the short story, the text creates an overbearing uneasiness felt as the unnamed male and the girl, Jig, hold what seems to be—on the surface—an innocent conversation. By using a limiting third person point of view that consists mostly of dialogue, Hemingway creates an obstacle in the way of understanding as there is no clear insight to what is going on inside of either party’s head. The conflict that the pair seem to be discussing is never named and it becomes the metaphorical elephant in the room much like the white elephants that Jig sees in the mountains. One 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. Hemingway takes this metaphor one step further, specifying …show more content…
The ambiguity of the pronouns encompasses the “everything” that the couple can not have and the “nothing” that is wrong with Jig at the end of the short story. The dialogue suggests a struggle between the couple, neither party willing to truly speak of the elephant in the room while seemingly trying to get the other to talk about the subject. The apparent power imbalance between the couple makes it difficult for Jig and the man to navigate the content-less conversation full of metaphors and ambiguous
Compare And Contrast Hills Like White Elephant And The Story Of An Hour
1004 Words | 5 PagesChopin may suggest that Mrs. Mallard feels restricted to live her life with a partner in her life. Hemmingway does not reveal the thoughts of the characters leaving readers at suspense. Readers must interpret what is going on between the girlfriend and her boyfriend in Hills Like White Elephants (Hemmingway). The white elephants in his story represent fertility. Both the woman and her boyfriend struggle to speak of abortion.
Hills Like White Elephants Literary Analysis
1554 Words | 7 PagesThroughout the short story (1), “Hills Like White Elephants,” Ernest Hemingway is speaking about a seemingly unwanted pregnancy and a woman’s uneasiness with going through an abortion. However, Hemingway never explicitly says in this work of fiction (2) that it is about abortion or that the woman, Jig, is uncomfortable with it, but uses symbolism (3) to present this to the audience. At the time “Hills like White Elephants” was published, in 1927, abortion was illegal in most places and a very taboo subject that wasn’t to be openly discussed in public. Thus, Hemingway relied greatly upon the use of symbolism to get his message across for this reason as well as the third person narrator (4) that did not give insight into the character’s thoughts within this piece of literature (5) . He uses symbols such as the train station, white hills, the baggage, and the drinks to point towards the underlying internal conflict (6) of Jig’s decision that is being heavily influenced by the American man, who wants Jig to get the abortion.
Hills Like White Elephants Rhetorical Analysis
739 Words | 3 PagesHemingway sets the story environment at a train station, with two very different sides of the tracks. This setting is interpreted as a metaphor for the choice at hand, an interpretation of life or death. One side reflecting a dry harsh area, with no trees, and devoid of life, on the other side of the
Theme Of Disconnection In Ernest Hemingway's Hills Like White Elephants
1013 Words | 5 PagesIn the story we see how the conversation develops between both of the characters. In Scott Consigny’s article, “Hemingway's Hills like White Elephants”, he talks about the bamboo curtain that was hanging in the door of the bar. Consigny begins to tell us the symbolism behind this curtain and how it is “a symbolic barrier between jig and her American lover” (p.1). We can only agree to this as we keep reading and notice the different decisions that both characters want to make. The conversation between both of them is very lively up until he mentions the operation.
Hills Like White Elephants Point Of View Analysis
969 Words | 4 PagesThis tells us that his point of view is subjective by writing about each character equally by giving their thoughts about each other's choices and letting their actions speak louder than their words. Furthermore, this shows the theme of the not appreciating what's in front of you because the American already made up his decision by his actions to move the luggage to the train station meanwhile Jig sat by herself trying to make her decision of what to
Hills Like White Elephants Literary Criticism
1098 Words | 5 PagesWhich 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. Jig is a Spanish pregnant girl, and she is about to have an abortion. She seems young because she is depending on a careless man.
Hills Like White Elephant Symbolism Analysis
1012 Words | 5 PagesThis story symbolizes a couple’s opinion about life. It also symbolizes how people approach different opportunities that come through the course of life. The man clearly wants to live a life that is favored around living care free and traveling. He wants to see and do as much as possible with less responsibilities. Jig, the women in the relationship, is seemingly interested in keeping the child.
Relationships In Ernest Hemingway's Hills Like White Elephants
853 Words | 4 PagesThe struggles presented between these two characters bring to light issues in human relationships that weigh into everyday life. Hemingway’s short story reveals to readers how relationships affect communication, decision
The Theme Of Abortion In Hills Like White Elephants
893 Words | 4 PagesIn the short story, “Hills Like White Elephants” by Ernest Hemingway, Hemingway from the start makes us draw out our own conclusions and does not give us a great deal of information. For example, we are only told about two characters, an American man and a girl who are waiting for their train to arrive. Other than this, we are not told what relationship the characters share together or where their final destination is. The protagonist who is referred to as “the girl” is in the middle of a tragic situation which can take a turn for the best or the worst and her partner, the “American man” is not helping but making the situation more heated.
Hills Like White Elephants Character Analysis
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?'
Hills Like White Elephant Literary Analysis
746 Words | 3 PagesThey each bring up different points as to why throughout the story. In Earnest Hemingway’s short story Hills like White Elephants written in 1927 he uses the hills themselves, the scenery that the couple is surrounded by, and the beaded curtain as symbols to describe the situation that the couple faces. 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
The Dialogue In Hemingway's Hills Like White Elephants
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.
Theme Of Disillusionment In Ernest Hemingway
987 Words | 4 PagesErnest Hemingway’s characters are frequently tested in their faith, beliefs, and ideas. To Hemingway’s characters, things that appear to be grounded in reality and unmovable facts frequently are not, revealing themselves to be hollow, personal mythologies. Hemingway shakes his characters out of their comfortable ignorance through traumatic events that usually cause a certain sense of disillusionment with characters mythologies, moving them to change their way of life. His characters usually, after becoming disillusioned, respond with depression, suicide, and nihilism. However, this is not always the case.
Literary Analysis Of Hills Like White Elephants, By Ernest Hemingway
2016 Words | 9 PagesIf taken literally, Hemingway’s story is one in which very little happens. The story takes place in a train station in Spain where a couple argue about a vague event over drinks. From the very start of the short story, there is an overbearing uneasiness felt in the text as the unnamed male and the girl, Jig, hold what seems to be—on the surface—an innocent conversation. By using a limiting third person point of view that consists mostly of dialogue, Hemingway creates an obstacle in the way of understanding as there is no clear insight to what is going on inside of either party’s head. The conflict that the pair seem to be discussing is never named and it becomes the metaphorical elephant in the room much like the white elephants that Jig sees in the mountains.
A Brief Story In Ernest Hemingway's A Very Short Story
793 Words | 4 PagesA Very Short Story Ernest Hemingway is considered one of the most significant fiction writers of the 20th century. He is famous for his specific style of writing, the so called iceberg theory, which is clearly seen in his short stories and novels. Undoubtedly the unique thing that makes his short stories so special is the fact that after you read them you get the main idea but there are many things that remain unspoken or have a deeper meaning. You have to reread the text and use your imagination to get the whole picture of the text.
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