Hills Like White Elephants by Ernest Hemingway

4272 Words9 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Essay on "hills like white elephants

"Literature is a luxury: Fiction is a necessity" (Chesterton). Literature is a single phenomenon that will always remain in the lives of people throughout the years. According to Andre Maurois, "In literature, as in love, we are astounded by what is chosen by others." Fiction Literature is one of the most fascinating types of Literature. There are many types of Fiction Literature read across the world and with much selection, the greatest are short stories. Out of those, one very memorable short story is called "Hills Like White Elephants". The author, Ernest Hemingway, has created many intriguing stories with his recognizable syntax. The specific style he is known for may be childish and use only a few small lines, but nevertheless his writings are continuously read by many people. Like any exceptional author would, Hemingway manipulates his text to get across certain themes in the plot of his stories. A couple themes found in "Hills Like White Elephants" are doubt, choices, consequences, and decision-making. These themes are noticed by Hemingway's use of various different literary elements in the story. They help the reader better understand the true meanings behind "Hills Like White Elephants"' seemingly empty plot.

The characters in this story are very believable because they play very realistic roles. For their situation, these characters are appropriately casted. The protagonist of this story is a girl named Jig. She is portrayed as a flat character where we only see one side of her throughout the story. We only see her doubt and worry over not being able to make a decision. The decision she is trying to make is whether or not to go through with an 'operation' that is not directly stated. We later infer that she...

... middle of paper ...

...about life itself. May we all learn from this reading experience as well as gain knowledge about the world as we know it.

Works Cited

Akers, Tim. “Hills Like White Elephants.” Short Stories for Students. Ed. Vol. 6. Detroit: Gale Group, 1999. Short Stories for Students. Gale. Web. 8 Apr. 2015.

Hemingway, Ernest. "Hills Like White Elephants". LitFinder for Schools. Gale. Web. 4 Apr. 2015..

Henningfeld, Andrews Diane. Overview of Hills Like White Elephants, for Short Stories for Students, The Gale Group, 1999. Web. 12 Apr. 2015.

Johnston, Kenneth G. "'Hills Like White Elephants' Lean, Vintage Hemingway," in Studies in American Fiction, Vol. 10, No. 2, Autumn, 1982. Web. 12 Apr. 2015.

Weeks, Lewis E. Jr., “Hemingway Hills: Symbolism in “Hills Like White Elephants,” in Studies in Short Fiction, Vol. 17, No. 1, Winter, 1980. Web. 4 Apr. 2015.

Show More
Related

  • Roman Fever and Hills Like White Elephants

    2111 Words  | 5 Pages

    “Roman Fever” and “Hills Like White Elephants” are two stories that on surface seem very different from one another, but through careful analysis the two are quite similar. Their similarities are mainly evident through the significant use of the dialogues in the both stories. “Roman Fever” has a third person omniscient narrator which the author allows to know the inner private thoughts of both characters, Mrs. Slade and Mrs. Ansley. In contrast, “Hills Like White Elephants” is composed in a third person limited narrative where very little is known about the thoughts of both Jig and the American. At first Ernest Hemingway’s short story can clearly be viewed as the most ambiguous out of the two. With its simplistic style, written mostly in straightforward dialogue which leaves the readers to contemplate over the ultimate outcome of the story and forces them to ...

    Read More

  • Symbolism In Ernest Hemingway's Hills Like White Elephants

    815 Words  | 2 Pages

    Ernest Hemingway was born and grew up in Oak Park, Illinois. By the time he wrote this story he had been wounded in Italy during World War I; had traveled extensively in Europe as a newspaper correspondent and writer; had married, fathered a son, been divorced, and remarried (Hemingway 236). Planted in the midst of a forsaken canyon, the station isn’t a final destination but merely a stage between Barcelona and Madrid. Hemingway sets “Hills like White Elephants” at a train depot to play up the reality that the relationship between the man and the Jig is at a crossroads. The author is showing the couple is at a pivotal point on whether to go with each other and endure their relationship or end things and start new lives. However, the contrast between the white hills and sterile basin perhaps highlights the division between fertility and sterility, between having the baby or having the abortion, between life or death. The girl seems broken between the two landscapes, not only commenting on the beauty of the hills but also walking to the end of the platform and looking out at the desolate dessert around the station. Throughout the story the author uses objective point of view, symbolism, and irony to illustrate the theme that life and death decisions may negatively affect relationships.

    Read More

  • Symbolism In Hills Like White Elephants

    856 Words  | 2 Pages

    Hills like White Elephants by Ernest Hemingway is a short story that deals with the idea of conformity and the conflict caused by internal desire and pressure from another party. The short story is very subtle, and often uses these subtleties in combination with incredible amounts of symbolism interlaced throughout the narrative to cause the reader to look and think deeper into the motives, values and convictions of the conflict between the two protagonists respective desires. When two parties are at an impasse of desire, the conviction of their opposing beliefs becomes increasingly unshakeable. This results in dissension due to the severe lack of understanding between the parties involved and furthermore, they refuse to be held responsible for the inability to communicate their feelings to one another.

    Read More

  • Comparing Where Are you going, Where Have You Been and Hills Like White Elephants

    1329 Words  | 3 Pages

    Gale. Weeks, Lewis E., Jr. "Hemingway Hills: Symbolism in 'Hills like White'" Elephants. Studies in Short Fiction. 17.1 (Winter 1980): 75-77.

    Read More

  • The Symbolism in “The Hills Like White Elephants” by Ernest Hemingway

    564 Words  | 2 Pages

    “The Hills Like White Elephants” is a short story that is about an American man and a girl called Jig. They are sitting at a table outside a train station, waiting for a train to Madrid. While they wait they order drinks and have a heated ongoing conversation over whether or not Jig will have an operation that would be of great significance to their relationship. “The Hills Like White Elephants” by Ernest Hemingway has two important symbols in the story, the hills and the drinks both of which help to give us a better understanding of what is going on between the American and his girl.

    Read More

  • Symbolism in Ernest Hemingway's Hills Like White Elephants

    1113 Words  | 3 Pages

    Ernest Hemingway is an incredible writer, known for what he leaves out of stories not for what he tells. His main emphasis in Hills Like White Elephants seems to be symbolism. Symbolism is the art or practice of using symbols, especially by investing things with a symbolic meaning or by expressing the invisible or intangible by means of visible or sensuous representations (merriam-webster.com). He uses this technique to emphasize the importance of ideas, once again suggesting that he leaves out the important details of the story by symbolizing their meaning.

    Read More

  • Elements of Comparison between Hill’s Like White Elephants and The Birthmark

    1255 Words  | 3 Pages

    Hemingway, Ernest. "Hills like White Elephants." Responding to Literature. Ed. Judith Stanford. Boston: McGraw-Hill, 2006. 841-44. Print.

    Read More

  • Abortion in Hemingway's Hills Like White Elephants

    2463 Words  | 5 Pages

    Renner, Stanley "Moving to the Girl's Side of `Hills Like White Elephants'." The Hemingway Review, 15 (1) (Fall 1995): 27-41. As Rpt. in Wyche, David "Letting the Air into a Relationship: Metaphorical Abortion in `Hills Like White Elephants'. The Hemingway Review, 22 (1) (Fall 2002): 56-71. EBSCOhost.

    Read More

  • Life and Death

    1197 Words  | 3 Pages

    Hemingway, Ernest. “Hills Like White Elephants.” Literature Approaches to Fiction, Poetry, and Drama. Ed. DiYanni, Robert. 2nd ed. New York. Mc Grew Hill. 2008. 400-03. Print.

    Read More

  • Modernism: Hills Like White Elephants, by Ernest Hemingway

    1592 Words  | 4 Pages

    The art, literature, and poetry of the early 20th century called for a disruption of social values. Modernism became the vague term to describe the shift. The characteristics of the term Modernism, all seek to free the restricted human spirit. It had no trust in the moral conventions and codes of the past. One of the examples of modernism, that breaks the conventions and traditions of literature prior to Modernism, is Ernest Hemingway’s short story “Hills Like White Elephants”. The short story uses plot, symbolism, setting, dialogue, and a new style of writing to allow human spirit to experiment with meaning and interpretation.

    Read More

  • The Themes of Abortion and Pregnancy in Hills Like White Elephants

    977 Words  | 2 Pages

    Hills Like White Elephants, written by Ernest Hemingway, is a story that takes place in Spain while a man and woman wait for a train. The story is set up as a dialogue between the two, in which the man is trying to convince the woman to do something she is hesitant in doing. Through out the story, Hemingway uses metaphors to express the characters’ opinions and feelings.

    Read More

  • Communicating Conflict in Ernest Hemingway's Hills Like White Elephants

    1264 Words  | 3 Pages

    ---, "Hills Like White Elephants." The Short Stories of Ernest Hemingway. New York: Charles Scribner?s Sons, 1953. 273-278.

    Read More

  • Setting in Hills Like White Elephants, by Ernest Hemingway

    865 Words  | 2 Pages

    In the short story by Ernest Hemingway, "Hills Like White Elephants," a couple is delayed at a train station en route to Madrid and is observed in conflict over the girl's impending abortion. In his writing, Hemingway does not offer any commentary through a specific character's point of view, nor, in the storytelling, does he offer his explicit opinions on how to feel or think about the issues that emerge. The narrative seems to be purely objective, somewhat like a newspaper or journal article, and in true Hemingway form the story ends abruptly, without the couple's conflict clearly being resolved. The ambiguity of the ending has been a subject of much debate; however, the impact of what is not said in words can be gleaned through the symbolism of their surroundings. Upon examination of the setting, the couple's final choice becomes instantly apparent.

    Read More

  • Hedonism in Hills Like White Elephants, by Ernest Hemingway

    1602 Words  | 4 Pages

    Stukas, Jake. "Literary analysis: Hills Like White Elephants, by Ernest Hemingway." Helium.com. Web. 21 Nov. 2009. .

    Read More

  • Gender Roles: Then and Now

    1448 Words  | 3 Pages

    Hemingway, Ernest. “Hills Like White Elephants.” The Norton Introduction to Literature. 10th ed. Eds. Alison Booth and Kelly J. Mays. New York: Norton, 2010. 113-117. Print.

    Read More

More about Hills Like White Elephants by Ernest Hemingway

Open Document