Hills Like White Elephants Literary Analysis

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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 this story lies in how we arrive at any decision and also how human beings, men and women try to find an understanding between one another. I tried to find out for myself who is right in this relationship and how would I approach on the place of main…show more content…
The land where the action begins is dry and barren just like relationship in the couple which we get to know a little bit later:”On this side there was no shade and no trees and the station was between two lines of rails in the sun.”. A man, known as the American and the girl who is named Jig are having drinks at a Train Station in Spain but the real complexity in their relationship is that they are doing everything possible not to truly communicate. They actually seem disconnected and as the conversation progresses it becomes very noticeable that neither listens not understands the other. “Hills Like White Elephants” is designed as a dialogue and uses a lot of symbolism to get a point across of what was going on between the American man and Jig. In fact, the girl’s inability to speak with the bartender in Spanish shows her complete and obvious dependence on the American man. The reader can also begin to see that the issue at hand is one of the issues that this couple might have. Their drinking and postponement of dealing with their issues indicates that the abortion is simply one of the challenges in their relationship:” It’s really an awfully simple operation,Jig…”. The man’s view and the woman’s in this situation is clearly seen as not just opposing but rather intrinsically different in…show more content…
She is comparing hills with her pregnancy:”They are lovely hills. They really don’t look like white elephants” Her words made me think about the titles of the story. What is connecting this story with its name? I realized that just as the hills have their beauty to Jig, she views pregnancy in the same shape, making observation to the hills skin:” I just meant the coloring of their skin through the trees”. Later in the story she says that the hills really do not look like white elephants which means that she is having second thoughts and would like for the man to rethink on that decision. The man views pregnancy absolutely the opposite. When Jig is talking about the white elephants and agrees that the man has never seen one, his response is: “I might have, just because you say I haven’t doesn’t prove anything". This shows symbolism between nature and the character’s opinion, feelings, desires. The American man in the story really seems to want to control the relationship and be the main decision maker in the family. I probably can understand his point that they were too young for having a baby and had a carefree lifestyle:” there were labels on them from all the hotels where they had spent nights”. At the same time I see what Jig had to go through but she couldn’t say it, she is hiding her real feeling behind the sarcastic
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