Theme Of Uncertainty In Ernest Hemingway's Hills Like White Elephants
Uncertainty
Uncertainty, the unknown-not knowing what comes next- can be very stressful, even frightening for some. To others, uncertainty is curiosity, the willingness to learn, to explore the unknown. Ernest Hemingway illustrates his view on doubt and uncertainty through his writing. The theme of uncertainty is exemplified throughout several of Ernest Hemingway’s works.
I.
Topic Sentence - Uncertainty runs throughout Hemingway’s short story “Hills like White Elephants”. 1. In “Hills like White Elephants” the couple is indecisive on the subject of having the child. The American wants the girl to get an abortion but “ ‘ wouldn’t have [her] do it if [she] didn’t want to’ ” (55-56).
The girl “[will] do it if because [she doesn’t] care about [herself]” (64).
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The American tries to convince himself that they will “ ‘be fine afterward. Just like [they] were before’’,but the girl shows her uncertainty asking him “‘What makes you think so’”(48-49)?
The girl expresses her concern if “‘[they will] be happy and [if] things will be like they were’” (57-58).
The girl suggests that ‘“Once they take it away, you never get it back’” but the American quickly refutes the idea (81).
II.
Topic Sentence- In Hemingway’s “In Another Country” and “A Day’s Wait” uncertainty is a prominent theme.
1. In the short story “In Another Country” the patients experience tremendous doubt relating to the effectiveness of the machines, their own honor, and experience, first hand, the uncertainty of life.
They doubted if the machines would be successful because “ The machines were new and it was [they] who were to prove them” (208).
Nick liked the boy who was wounded the first day on the front “because perhaps he would not have turned out to be a hawk either” which made Nick feel better about the uncertainty of his own bravery (208).
The uncertainty of life was shown to the major when his wife dies even though “no one expected her to die”
Their Eyes Were Watching God And Hurston's Treatment Of Women
620 Words | 3 PagesThe man she is with keeps pushing her to make a life-changing decision about an abortion and she says, “I realize… Can’t we maybe stop talking?,” (Hemingway 3). Including this issue specifically is bold for Hemingway as it is controversial, yet he crafts it to bring even more attention to the Girl’s rights and intentionally characterizes her with this strong will and independence. She later threatens to scream, demonstrating that the Girl is unafraid to bring attention to this altercation. Hemingway provides the Girl with a voice that many women did not have. The man craves authority and manipulates her by saying, “I think [getting the abortion is] the best thing to do.
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.
Plagiarism In Tobias Wolff's Old School
1312 Words | 6 PagesThe narrator distanced his path of finding his own voice even more when he imitated Hemingway’s stories. Rather than expressing his own voice and identity into his stories, the narrator “typed out Hemingway’s stories” (Wolff 110) causing his search to find his voice much longer. It is clear that Hemingway’s contributions to the school’s literacy contest motivated the narrator erroneously by discouraging the narrator from finding his own
Hills Like White Elephants Relationship Analysis
813 Words | 4 PagesNevertheless, Ernest Hemingway soon shows that this relationship contains a rift. This becomes apparent once they try conversing to one another. The girl attempts to spark a conversation by mentioning that the hills look like white elephants, but this topic soon turns hostile with the American’s replies. How this conversation is handled already shows that the couple “are trapped in a state of imbalance and disagreement” from the beginning (Link). The problem with the conversation is that the American’s personality of being simple and serious.
Hills Like White Elephants Jig Character Analysis
699 Words | 3 PagesIn Hemingway’s “Hills like White Elephants”, the American and Jig are like parallel lines, they can never meet. As they struggle to find common ground, the very discussion that can bring them together only tears them apart. The relationship between Jig and the American is complex from the very beginning since their personalities, methods of communicating, and desires are different. The American represents infertility, selfishness and death but how can he not be when he’s a single man, traveling, trying new drinks, spending nights in hotels with no worry about money and now he has impregnated a women, of course he will lose his zest for her (Hannum).
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 PagesOne main theme in Ernest Hemingway’s “Hills Like White Elephants” is the idea of disconnection. In this story, we eavesdrop on a conversation held between both characters. In their dialogue, conflict is created as the characters face what most readers believe to be the obstacle of unexpected pregnancy. This is assumed through symbolism and the titles meaning. The term “white elephant” was used for an unwanted gift.
Hills Like White Elephants Literary Criticism
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.
Religion In Ernest Hemingway's Hills Like White Elephants
1204 Words | 5 PagesIn the story Hills Like White Elephants by Ernest Hemingway, Jig turns to religion when making a life changing decision. Jig, a women, and an American man are at a Spanish train station while waiting for a train to Madrid. The women compares the hills nearby to white elephants, a symbol of overcoming obstacles and connected to fertility and knowledge. In document d, Jig is believed to be making a decision on whether to have an abortion or not.
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
Hills Like White Elephants Character Analysis
1044 Words | 5 PagesIn his story “Hills Like White Elephants”, Ernest Hemingway points out the couple's inability to make the decision: whether to abort the unborn child or not. The reader finds that the story deals with couple's miscommunication through the conversation and the emotions that they express. One can observe that no descriptions are given to the characters, thus, Hemingway creates universal dilemma to focus on the crucial issue. In this way, Hemingway leads the reader to identify with his female character that undergoes a struggle.
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.
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.
Masculinity And Womanhood In Hills Like White Elephants
797 Words | 4 Pages“Hills Like White Elephants” may be a short story about two people just talking in a bar of a station, but behind every word Hemingway uses lies a deeper meaning. It is necessary to point out that omitting further information is something that is typical to Hemingway’s writing style. The reader has to contemplate what the author wants to portray in his story in the first place. Although the author probably had one meaning in mind, the metaphors can be interpreted in many ways. While reading the story, what came up to my mind was whether the author’s personal life had to do something with it or not.
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