Upon an initial reading, Earnest Hemingway’s “Hills Like White Elephants” is a very vague story of a man and a woman, named Jig, going back and forth in dialogue about their “predicament,” that is not specifically named. However, with the use of descriptive settings, Hemingway is able to give great detail as to what the couple is discussing. Without it being specifically named, the reader is able to infer that the woman, Jig, is pregnant, and the man wants her to get an “operation,” assumed to be
The conflict in "Hills like White Elephants" isn't the operation being talked about in the story but rather, the inability of the two characters to compromise and communicate. The characters are built in a way that what is their strongest foundation is also their weakest. As the protagonist, the American is written as a man of well-off background and good education; he has the capabilities to travel the world with his girlfriend and understand Spanish. He is also written as a man of rationale and
Draft In “Hills Like White Elephants” by Ernest Hemingway presents a story of a girl names Jig having to make a decision at a train station before the train she is waiting for comes. She is accompanied with an American man who pressures her to hurry and make her decision to get on the train when the train arrives. The theme of the story is not about making decision on time but a women’s limited time to choose whether she wants to abort her unborn child. Throughout the story there is evidence indicating
develop his characters in “Hills Like White Elephants”. Instead of discussing his characters' dilemma directly, Hemingway uses symbolic words like “white”, “two”, “beaded curtain”, “dry side” to create a setting that suggests the struggle that the characters are engaged in while making a life-changing decision. The word white, according to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, is defined as “free from color, free from spot or blemish”2. I feel Hemingway uses the word “white” in his story to create just
literary movement. Modernist Literature has several very specific characteristics. “Hills like White Elephants” by Ernest Hemingway belongs to Modernist Literature because it has an ominous setting, is based around a spiritually compromising topic, and because it displays the workings of the inner mind. Those traits concur with Modernism. This story is about abortion, and while it isn’t stated blatantly, the white elephant being described is a child: a child that the American man, who remains nameless
In “Hills Like White Elephants” Ernest Hemingway uses the theme of Communication to potray an issue that has plagued society for decades. Understanding of human condition is represented by the beautiful setting in the short story. The main characters are the American man and a female named Jig who share a strong bond of love; however, the more powerful yet sacred bond is between Jig and her unborn child. A long time ago, our society was filled with moral and ethical values but times have changed
used it in stories such as The Sun Also Rises, in his short story “Hills Like White Elephants”. Hemingway’s story of abortion uses many things throughout the story, such as alcohol to symbolize the relationship between the main characters, the lifestyle they lead, and the girl’s ultimate decision about her child. As Doris Lanier says in her article “The Bitterness Taste of Absinthe”, the couple’s relationship develops in which “like absinthe, bitterness has become a substitute for
Both symbolism and tone play huge roles in the whole story of “Hills Like White Elephants.” Without understanding the symbolism throughout the story then you wouldn't even understand what this story is about. To be honest I didn't figure out that this couple was discussing an abortion until reading into the story and looking up what the symbolism meant. Symbolism is not the only thing that is important, tone plays a huge role. The tone shows the tension between the couple, in the beginning they were
Hemingway in his “Hills Like White Elephants” through the limited narrator describes that a decision is a thought or an idea put into action by circumstances. What makes us arrive at certain decisions and deal with their consequences is the question that keeps popping up in the story. Whether a decision or choice is right or wrong is not the question and is rather an irrelevant topic because what is right for one person is completely wrong and unacceptable for another. Instead the importance in
Drinking and Giving In Can people love each other if they have an issue of abortion between them? Ernest Hemingway’s short story entitled Hills Like White Elephants is about a girl named Jig and an American man who are having a romantic relationship and are suddenly confronted with the question of having an abortion. While the couple is drinking, Jig asks many questions about her man’s proposition that they should do this. Inferences are conclusions reached by fact or evidence, and the conclusions