Hills Like White Elephants, by Ernest Hemingway

Communication is the key to building a strong foundation of trust between a man and woman. In Ernest Hemingway’s “Hills Like White Elephants” we learn about the communication breakdown, between a woman named Jig and her companion who is an American man. They must make a decision that will affect both of their lives, and potentially end their relationship.

The setting of the story represents Jig and her relationship with her American companion. “The hills across the valley of the Ebro were long and white. On this side there was no shade and no trees and the station was between two lines of rails in the sun” (Hemingway 224). “The hills were white in the sun and the country was brown and dry” (Hemingway 224). This story uses a lot of symbolism and imagery to get a point across of what was going on between the man and Jig. The land is dry and barren just like their relationship is at the moment. The problem is separating Jig and the man, other than bringing them together. There are many choices to this problem, but only one decision must be made. Jig compares the mountains and hills to white elephants. “All right. I was trying. I said that the mountains looked like white elephants. “That was bright? (Hemingway

225). They’re lovely hills, ‘she said. “They don't really look like white elephants. I just meant the coloring of their skin through the trees” (Hemingway 225). Have you ever heard of the “White elephant in the room“? The white elephant is the conflict that is in the middle of Jig and the man. The white elephant represents the embryo in Jig’s womb, for she is pregnant. The more Jig and the man talk about the pregnancy you can feel the tension, through their brittle conversations. The man wants Jig to have an abor...

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...dset. He is teaching a lesson about the importance of the moment and how life should be valued.

Works Cited

Hemingway's HILLS LIKE WHITE ELEPHANTS

Paul,Rankin. The Explicator. Washington: Summer 2005. Vol. 63, Iss. 4, p. 234-237 (4pp.)

Holladay, Hal.“ Masterplots II: Short Story Series, Revised Edition © 2004 by Salem

Press, Inc. MagillOnLiteraturePLUS. EBSCO. Web. 26 Nov.2010.

Cassill, R. V., and Richard Bausch. The Norton Anthology of Short Fiction. New York: W.W. Norton, 2006. Hills Like White Elephants. W.W. Norton, June-July 2000. Web. 26 Nov. 2010. http://litmed.med.nyu.edu/Annotation?action=view&annid=1697.

Charters, Ann, and Samuel Barclay. Charters. "Hills Like White Elephants." Literature and Its Writers: a Compact Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, and Drama. Fifth ed. Boston, MA: Bedford/St. Martins, 2010. 224-226. Print.