In both stories, a couple lives through hardships. Both couples share elements of tension, disconnection and lack of communication. “A Temporary Matter” is told in a messy fashion because it throws the reader in the reading without any set-up or background information. Flashbacks are used by the author to fill in gaps about the narrative. Although the flashbacks serve its purpose by providing background information, it was not efficient. On the other hand, “Hills like White Elephants” captivates the reader more than “A Temporary Matter” because it is told in a 3rd person objective point of view that intrigues the reader. The story unfolds only through dialogue between the two characters which makes is easier for the reader to remain focused. Opposition might say that “Hills like White Elephants” might be a harder read because of the vast number symbolism used, however, since the length of the story is short, it is easier to digest the symbolism. “Hills like White Elephants” is a better story-teller than “A Temporary Matter” because the 3rd person point of view narration is thought-provoking to the reader, the story unfolds through dialogue which makes it easier to remain objective while analyzing the story, and finally, it is a significantly a shorter length story than “A …show more content…
The story beginnings with Shukumar and Shoba, Shukumar’s wife, reading a notice sign outside their apartment saying that their electricity would be cut off at 8:00pm for five nights. Without much information, the reader immediately notices that the couple is way past the romance stages because of their mundane interaction with each other. Only through a flashback, the reader discovers that Shukumar and Shoba were happily married until their first child died at birth. The bitterness, sorrow and grief never left the souls of Shukumar and Shoba. Even though they moved on with their lives, deep down it destroyed them and their
Hills like White Elephants is a typical short story by Ernest Hemingway bordering around the themes of sadness and bewilderment. The Yellow Wallpaper, on the other hand, written by Charlotte Perkins Gilman is classified in the genre of American feminist literature, which is also considered to come under gothic fiction due to its gothic settings. Under different genres, the use of symbolism in the settings greatly contributes to the theme, characterization and the tone of the story.
Life is a series of crossroads, major and minor, and each decision plays a key part in analysing the character of a person. In “Hills Like White Elephants” Ernest Hemingway tears back the curtains and exposes one of these moments in full ingenuousness. A man and a woman, named Jig, are at an impasse. They have to decide whether or not they are going to abort their child. The man wants no change in his life, and so he wants no child. The woman wants a change in lifestyle, but in order to keep the child she has to break the autonomous lifestyle that has surrounded her for her entire life. She, in essence, must change her identity in order to follow her aspirations. By juxtaposing the character’s perceived identity to the character’s hopes, Hemingway provides the reader with certain axioms of life. These axioms that Hemingway presents fit into the curriculum of Junior Year by relating to specific values and social conventions, by having literary merit and lastly by transcending time by influencing modern society’s media themes and motifs.
Rpt. in Literature Resource Center. Detroit: Gale, 2011. Literature Resource Center. Web. 19 Nov. 2011. Maynard’s analysis of “Hills Like White Elephants” stood out to me deeply because what he focused on throughout his entire essay was the ironic reoccurring theme of couples. The theme of pairs or couples is ironic because no matter what Jig and her partner choose to do in regards to the abortion, the aftermath will not allow their relationship to be fixed. Maynard states that most of this story represents symbols and keys of a couple representing unity. However, the couple is no longer united and will no longer be united due to the decision that they have to make. There are examples of “two beers”, “two strings of beads”, “two heavy bags”, and “two felt pads” pointed out by the scholar to prove his point. I honestly did not notice the pairs as being major contributions to the story. At first, these pairs did not even stand out to me. It was not until I read this critical essay that I realized the strong reason for having couples stood out clearly in the story. At first, I disagreed with Maynard. I felt, he was looking into the pairs too much. However, as I continued reading his essay, I realized there were so many examples to prove his point that there is a reoccurring theme (leitmotif) of couples representing
In Ernest Hemingway’s “Hills Like White Elephants” expresses the controversial conversation between a couple about an abortion of their unborn child. There are significant differences between the short story and short film. The film altered the original story by making the problems in the relationship explicit to the audience rather than the in the story.
“My aim is to put down on paper what I see and what I feel in the best and simplest way” (E. Hemingway, Brainy Quote). It is evident that this is why Ernest Hemingway writes the literary pieces he writes. Hemingway proves this by writing his short story, Hills Like White Elephants. Hemingway also quoted, “I never had to choose a subject - my subject rather chose me” (E. Hemingway, QuotesPedia). This also relates to Hemingway composing Hills Like White Elephants along with many of his other works.
Throughout our lives we are faced with many decisions and situations that can ultimately alter the destiny of our life. In “Hills Like White Elephants,” a young traveling couple is faced with just that a life altering decision. From the irony of the title to the symbolism of different events and objects, the story is perceived differently among the readers. Once the audience realizes that Jig is pregnant and the couple is talking about a possible abortion, this answers a lot of hindering questions left in the readers’ mind, and, in my opinion, the view of the whole story takes a turn for the worse. Another important idea to grasp is the symbolism of the setting of the story; the couple is speaking at a train station in Spain while surrounded with suitcases with labels on them. All these details of the story help the reader decipher how and what the difficulty between the girl and the American man truly is. As we dig down deeper, and read other sources speaking about the same topic, we see that many other people agree with me on the symbolism and many do not agree with me on the symbolism.
In “Hills Like White Elephants” the female protagonist is portrayed in a fairly indirect light. The reader has to assume and make conclusions about the woman from the text. In “A Pair of Tickets” the narrator of the story is described directly as well as indirectly. In “A Pair of Tickets” the reader also gives vivid descriptions about her family members and the people she comes into contact with. The narrator, Amy, describes herself and her stepsisters as having traits like her mother with “her same eyes, same mouth, open in surprise to see, at last, her long cherished wish” (Tan 195).
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.
“Hills like White Elephants” by Ernest Hemingway is about a couple, the American and Jig, who contemplate whether or not to have an abortion. The premise of the story seems simple enough, but the outcome is highly debated. Critics argue that the baby was kept by the couple ( Renner ) and others claim the baby was aborted.( Fletcher ) Others have even simplified the story, claiming that the issue was not resolved because the couple was drunk by the end of the story. ( Sipiora ) Although the conclusion is in questions many have agreed with the idea that the couples relationship would be changed and would end prematurely. ( Wyche ) Dialogue is the main technique in conveying this argument but we can only understand the complexity of Hemingway’s work by looking at the story as a whole. By looking at the many symbols, intrinsically and
“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.
This story is a great representation of how relationships have changed over the years. Weather its the female dominance or the relationships are given up. Shoba and Shukumar are great examples of this phenomenon. This couple can be related to a typical American relationship. Jhumpa Lahiri does a good job of detailing this failure of a relationship and explains how this couple breaks apart.
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.
In the short story “Hills Like White Elephants” by Ernest Hemingway, the author employs the use of the iceberg theory to convey a hidden message within the lines of the story for the reader. Through the use of strictly dialogue, Hemingway allows the reader to only see the part of the iceberg that is above water. The rest of the story is inferred by the reader. For example, Hemingway uses simple sentences rather than complex sentences to get straight to the point. All of Hemingway’s use of detail and explanations of scenery or background is made simple.
Ernest Hemmingway uses time, place, and symbolism in "Hills like White Elephants" to intensify the central dilemma in a story about a man and a woman deciding on whether to go through with an abortion. Although a literal reading of the title may not seem to have any relation to the story, the title is rich in implications. Critics suggest that "Hills" refers to the shape of a woman's stomach when pregnant, and Webster's 21st Century Dictionary defines white elephant as: "[An] awkward, useless possession." The term is also defined in Webster's as an item that is worthless to some but priceless to others. According to Victor Lindsey, the child in the story is a white elephant in the view of the man, who is trying to convince the girl to get rid of it. Hemingway hints about how the man and the woman each feel about the unborn child, but he never tells us why they have such different views on the prospect of an abortion. The man in the story, referred to as "the American," claims that the abortion is necessary because it would save their relationship, whereas the woman, Jig, has doubts as to whether or not she should have an abortion at all.
In Hemingway's short story "Hills Like White Elephants," the story starts with a scene that opens on a railway station in Spain where the Barcelona-to-Madrid express is. The American and Jig, his girl, sit at a table drinking beer. The landscape surrounding the station plays a role into a part of the conversation the American and Jig will have later on in the short story. The landscape is described as the valley of the Ebro River, with long white hills on each side. Jigs remarks about the hills looking like white elephants which is a defined as something that is of a great burden or a possession unwanted by the owner but difficult to dispose of, and is especially of something that is expensive to obtain. This remark starts the conversation that is very serious but is being portrayed by the American as not a big deal. The meaning of the conversation is never just bluntly stated, but through clues and a bit of interpretation it is easy to tell that they are having a conversation about Abortion. The man plays off the conversation as not a big deal and a very easy thing to get done, but Jig knows that, that is not the case, and that there is more to the surgery than what the man knows. Through the conversation, the relationship between Jig and the American can be seen as ...