The Hills Like White Elephants By Ernest Hemingway

Ernest Hemingway's short story "Hills Like White Elephants" touches on an issue as ageless as time: communication problems in a relationship. He tells his story through conversations between the two main characters, the American and the girl. Conflict is created through dialogue as these characters face what most readers believe to be the obstacle of an unexpected pregnancy. Their plight is further complicated by their inability to convey their differing opinions to each other. Symbolism and the title's meaning are other effective means of communicating conflict.

In the readings about men and women, there were two stories that stuck out for me. Ernest Hemingway’s “Hills Like White Elephants” and "Shiloh," by Bobbie Ann Mason. To me these stories had many peculiar similarities. I felt that there were so comparable that there seemed to be a true connection between these two novels.

“Hills Like White Elephants” is a short story of a pair of couples having an argument with an operation of whether the girl should do the abortion during their travel. The story shows the audience two different views and attitudes between two different genders--men and women. By using ethos, pathos,and logos, Hemingway gives people a social message that men were short of responsibility and encouragement to get into a family, and they were supposed change this situation by understanding and care more about women. Nowadays, as the time changed, the social message people get from the story change as well-- women are taught to be more independent.

Ernest Hemingway was a groundbreaking author during the 20th century and he left behind many famous pieces of work. He used his own life experiences to contribute ideas and inspiration for his stories whether they involve his military career or his family life (“Ernest Hemingway). Hemingway also uses language in such ways that can convey feelings and ideas throughout his pieces. His use of language and dialogue in some of his short stories really paint a picture for the reader on the situations presented (Link). In the short story, “Hills Like White Elephants,” Hemingway uses Jig’s ambivalence towards the whole situation with herself and the American to convey the idea that Jig holds all the power in the decision although the American, who is powerless, believes he has a say in the matter.

Ernest Hemingway's short story "Hills Like White Elephants" relies on symbolism to carry the theme of either choosing to live selfishly and dealing with the results, or choosing a more difficult and selfless path and reveling in the rewards. The symbolic materials and the symbolic characters aid the reader's understanding of the subtle theme of this story. The hills symbolize two different decisions that the pregnant girl in our story is faced with. Both hills are completely opposite of each other, and each "hill" or decision has a consequence that is just as different as the appearance of the hills.

Swaying trees in the distance, blue skies and birds chirping, all of these are examples of setting. Setting can create the mood and tone of characters in a story. In the story Hills Like White Elephants, the story starts out with our two characters, Jig and the American, also referred to as the man, on a train overlooking mountains. “The girl was looking off at the line of hills. They were white in the sun and the country was brown and dry” (Hemingway). In the case of this short story, the hills provided Jig something to take her mind off of the grueling conversation she was having with the Man. As said by a critic, “the story itself is comprised almost entirely of dialogue. Although there is a situation, there is no plot”

In literature, authors use a certain image or collection of images in order to produce a particular effect, eliciting a response from the reader’s senses. Ernest Hemingway’s “Hills Like White Elephants” utilizes the imagery of the train station in order to produce the effect of transition between the characters, both in terms of physical location and emotional mindset. Much like Hemingway, James Baldwin’s “Sonny’s Blues” takes a similar approach, using Sonny’s passion for music to expose his deepest insecurities. Though their approaches are different, both authors use imagery to create a pathway to the character’s internal thoughts.

In “Hills Like White Elephants” by Ernest Hemingway, the setting of the train station mirrors the couple's circumstances. The story begins at a train station. This could be metaphorically considered as a crossroads in their relationship. The couple has the choice of which road they will travel. This means they may be choosing whether to stay together, or part ways. The train station is located in an isolated area, therefore, they cannot stay, and thus have to decide whether or not to continue onward with each other. The white hills and isolated train station represent opposite endpoints for the couple. The white hills represent a rich gift provided by a baby, whereas isolation symbolizes barren loneliness, and death. Death in this case would

Throughout history, power dynamics between men and women has persisted in literature, and it makes for good entertainment.

“Hills like White Elephants” by Ernest Hemingway and “Happy Endings” by Margaret Atwood share a gender-oriented theme. They both show women struggling to attain equality against their male partners. This theme is depicted through the use of symbolism, point of view and plot conflict.

In the short story by Ernest Hemingway, "Hills Like White Elephants," a couple is delayed at a train station en route to Madrid and is observed in conflict over the girl's impending abortion. In his writing, Hemingway does not offer any commentary through a specific character's point of view, nor, in the storytelling, does he offer his explicit opinions on how to feel or think about the issues that emerge. The narrative seems to be purely objective, somewhat like a newspaper or journal article, and in true Hemingway form the story ends abruptly, without the couple's conflict clearly being resolved. The ambiguity of the ending has been a subject of much debate; however, the impact of what is not said in words can be gleaned through the

In his short story "Hills like White Elephants," Ernest Hemingway uses symbolism and landscape subtly but effectively to emphasize the tension between the main characters. The reader is asked to extrapolate much of the information in an indirect fashion. The reader must look into the symbolism and imagery used alongside the words the characters share and don’t share. The natural landscape covers almost the entire story, offering vivid images that contain a large amount of interpretive insight into the story. The setting puts the couple at a crossroads, a stopping place in their journey through not just Spain, but through their lives as well. Though the exact location of the train station is not given, it is often thought to be in Zaragoza, Spain. The train station is a midpoint between their past time together and the future time that they will move toward when they leave on a train. Train stations, airports, bus stations, and ports give us a sense of transition, of being between worlds, and between experiences. Placing the stage for the drama in such a locale really grabs the reader’s attention and drives further symbolism in the story. Joseph Urgo points this out in his writing quite well by stating ”the ‘junction’ where the train will stop in the story is not just the meeting of the Barcelona and Madrid lines, but the clash of male and female sources of power and authority.” (Urgo 36)

Ernest Hemmingway is known for his barren and minimal stories; thus, his work requires one to think deeply about what is happening. In turn, this often leads to a greater understanding of his stories. One cannot just skim over Hemmingway’s literature, they have to decipher the movement and underlying meaning behind his words, basically, one can think of it like this—a silent movie does not have words, inversely, Hemmingway’s stories had words, but did not illustrate thoughts and movement. This was particularly true for his short story—Hills Like White Elephants, which surrounded a couple and their short conversation while waiting for a train. They conversed over drinks, which foretold the stressful nature of their conversation. The man in the

“Hills Like White Elephants” by Ernest Hemmingway is a short story about a man and woman succumbing to society’s unjust view of the female-male relationship. Although, there is more to the story than just the oppression and powerlessness of a woman and the controlling, cunning nature of a man, one must first focus their attention on the formal elements of the story before examining the gender aspect of it. There are some significance in how parts of the text relate to one another and to the whole, and the reader can create meaning by unfolding and examining these relationships, and once they understand the symbolism, tone and setting, they have dissect it far enough that other literary devices, like gender criticism, has become apparent. Hemmingway illustrates this perfectly. “Hills Like White Elephants” can be viewed through a formalist and gender critical lens.

Communication is inarguably the most effective way of understanding and interacting with one another. In the stories “Hills Like White Elephants” by Ernest Hemingway, and “My Son the Fanatic” by Hanif Kureishi, the main characters communicate verbally. The American guy and the girl who are presumably dating each other in “Hills Like White Elephants”, as well as Parvez a Pakistani immigrant to England and his teenage son Ali in “My Son the Fanatic”, communicate throughout the stories. The characters’ communication tells their characteristics, we can acknowledge the broken relationship between the American and the girl, and between Parvez and Ali through their communication. On the other hand, the characters in both the stories have different