What Is Hills Like White Elephant Modernism

Ernest Hemingway’s writing reflects the historical landscape and artistic movements of his time. As the world changed, the flourishing age of Victorian writing transformed into the era of Modernism. One can see this noticeable change through the structure of Hemingway’s signature writing style, as well as his focus on the great internal and external struggles presented at the turn of the century. Hemingway’s In Our Time fits cohesively within the expression of visual art, poetry, and prose--including the artist’s willingness to break out of the typical structure and traditional form of storytelling.

Hemingway uses a variety of literary elements to portray his message. The setting of the story is the summer of 1919 in a small Oklahoma town. World War 1 just ended two years prior and the main character, Harold Krebs, explains his post-war experiences (Meyer 129). Krebs is the protagonist who is “suffering from an inability to readjust to society” (Imamura para. 3). He is a dynamic, round character. At first he “did not want to talk about the war

Ernest Hemingway has a very unique style of writing. He captures the readers’ attention with strong imagery, metaphors, and symbolism. In both the Sun Also Rises and Hills Like White Elephants, Hemingway uses a simple writing style that allows the audience to have a clear image of the main argument. The reader must pay very close attention to the dialogue, as different subliminal messages are exposed throughout the story. Also, in both stories the women protagonist is the main source of the argument.

Seeing as there can be a number of different themes in a story, Ernest Hemingway does not hold back from ever giving the reader a chance to fall in love with the story. The reader’s first glimpse of reality in the story is shot through the depths of the theme. One of the most common themes in the book is war. War marks and defines the characters in the book. It is the death in their eyes and fear in their hearts. The reader knows this. Because the reader can easily define war as one of the major themes in this book, the reader can also feel the loss and pain that the characters experience throughout the story as well.

In “Hills like white elephants,” Hemingway uses symbolic details of the setting to stress the incompatibility of the couple.

Although Ernest Hemingway’s “Hills like White Elephants” has great use of direct language, direct presentation of subjects, amazing

Symbolism has the power to further the audience’s understanding of the story and convey what the author is really trying to express. In Ernest Hemingway’s short story “Hills like White Elephants,” a seemingly simple story is crafted into an intricate plot. In the story, a man and woman are awaiting a train between Barcelona and Madrid, Spain; while waiting, the couple appears to have a normal conversation concerning an operation the woman is considering. However, due to Hemingway’s use of symbolism, the audience is able to depict a story that travels further than what is blatantly stated. Through Hemingway’s symbolism of the white elephants, the conversation between the couple, and the contrasting sides of the station, the audience is able

​Hemingway style of writing is very indirect. He tells the story in third-person and avoids getting straight to

due to Hemingway’s style. Not only is it prominent in this story but in others as well.

During the course of the story “Hills Like White Elephants” the author Ernest Hemingway uses symbolism to describe the main idea of the girl having the “operation.” Hemingway uses the landscape, the white elephant, and the term “elephant in the room” to represent different aspects of the pregnancy and abortion.

Ernest Hemingway’s overall style is journalistic and succinct, and excludes unnecessary material, allowing his stories underlying meanings to become that much more powerful. This simplistic mode of writing forces the reader to deduce fundamental truths and emotions. Referred to as the Iceberg Theory of story telling, Hemingway employs a style of omission, as the only information offered is external, as within Hills Like White Elephants. Via a third person narrative approach, he creates a decidedly telling account of a man and woman through seemingly ordinary dialogue. The more one explores the text, the more one can understand what value each sentence holds. A catalyst for Hemingway’s style in this short story is its symbolic elements, which contribute to the deeper meaning of the work. The significance behind Hills Like White Elephants lies in the

What is the purpose of the trip the two travelers are taking? (The narrator never tells us, but the careful reader can deduce this with relative certainty.)

Without much research a reader might incorrectly conclude several statements about Hemingway’s style as it focuses on masculinity and is biased towards men. The short and choppy writing style with little emotion is deemed more of a masculine approach to writing, as it is assumed a feminine approach would be laden with more sensory and descriptive wording. Such an assumption is sexist in itself and there is no correlation linking his style to being biased towards men. Unusually long excerpts found in some Hemingway stories are justified by claiming that they are linked to male bonding scenes. While in some cases such as “The Three-Day Blow” that statement is true due to the story only being two males talking, that statement is not completely

Hemingway’s particular style of writing effects the overall tone of the novel. His short, clipped conversation between characters make the discussions more realistic and creates the illusion that an actual conversation is going on. There is not any “he

Ernest Hemingway and William Faulkner were two of the most influential writers of the twentieth century. While they lived during the same period, their writing styles differed drastically. This can be seen in texts such as Hemingway’s “Hills Like White Elephants” and “A Clean, Well-Lighted Place,” and Faulkner’s “Barn Burning”. Hemingway’s style puts little focus on specific character details, which makes his stories seem like they could be about any person, including the reader, while Faulkner’s style puts a lot of focus on specific character details, which makes every detail and every character seem important to the reader. Both authors have styles indirect to their points, which forces the readers to figure out information on their own and leaves the purposes of texts more open to interpretation.