Hills Like White Elephants Literary Analysis

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Daniel Silberstein Professor Jane Schmidt English 220 Sec 33 11 Oct 2014 Between Rails in the Sun In the short story “Hills Like White Elephants”, by Ernest Hemingway, the reader is presented with a terse and elegant story that captures the imagination but remains ambiguous in its final interpretation of whether or not Jig and the American have an abortion and remain together after they depart the station. Through a narrative that emulates the parched landscape in which it takes place, the reader is compelled to decipher the characters’ ultimate decisions. The ending of the story can be interpreted in different ways. Many conclude that Jig will have the abortion while others claim that she will not. Similarly, many interpretations vacillate…show more content…
This claim only serves to end the discussion and her desire to distance herself from him. Hemingway’s narrative bolsters this decision when she walks to the end of the platform and observes an impending storm in the distance. This scene presents a disparity between the arid and barren setting of the station with an organic and vibrant scene of nature. It contradicts everything about the very place which the American has brought her and wishes to take her. After she reclaims her chair at the table with the American she is again confronted with the dry and sterile view of the valley, a scene which would frame him from her perspective. It is here that she repetitively begins to attempt to end the conversation. Hemingway scripted this scene to illustrate Jig’s unconscious awareness that to remain with the American is to embrace a desolate…show more content…
This mysterious smile is the most confounding, and important, of all the text as it never neatly conforms to many traditional interpretations of the story. Hemingway’s narrative choices for this reference are crucially relevant. Jig’s smile represents her resolution to keep the child and leave the American. “The girl smiled brightly at the woman, to thank her” (Hemingway 176). Hemingway chooses this point exactly to inject an emotion that betrays the story’s ever constricting tone up until this point. This is where their story begins to end, but this is where her and her child’s journey finally begins. The framing of the story is important to recognize at this point. The couple waits at a connecting station, hopping from train to train on a mysterious expedition, from chapter to chapter in their own lives. This story is a careful depiction of a turning point in a greater narrative. But why does Jig smile, why is she happy? Her companion is ill tempered and manipulative, and a decision to terminate a pregnancy, even in the most practical of circumstances, is unlikely to provoke feelings of merriment. Many assert that this smile is a graceful form of surrender to the American’s wishes, that she will have the abortion and at least attempt to remain at his side. But Jig, though on her way towards autonomy, is still young and not quite in control of her emotions. It is unlikely that she would be able to camouflage
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