After reading “Hills like White Elephants” by Ernest Hemingway, it is evident that he does not give any extraneous information. Rather, he provides the reader with just enough information by using symbols that allows the reader to derive a deeper meaning rather than interpret the established words in the story. Hemingway purposefully wrote this story so that emotion was implied but not blatantly seen. Symbols are essential in “Hills like White Elephants”; readers can develop a better understanding of what is going on between the two characters by looking at and finding the significance in the setting, the train, and the meaning behind the title.
In “Hills like White Elephants,” the scenery plays a major role in symbolizing the issue that isn’t verbally given to the reader. Hemingway sets up a scene where an American and his girl, “Jig,” are sitting at a bar in a train station, looking at the hills in the distance. Hemingway begins the story by describing the setting: “On this side there was no shade and no trees and the station was between two lines of rails in the sun” and “the country was brown and dry” (Hemingway 196). With these images of the scene, the reader can see how barren and dry the landscape is. Later, the other side of the train station is described when “the girl stood up and walked to the end of the station. Across, on the other side, were fields of grain and trees along the banks of the Ebro. Far away, beyond the river, were mountains. The shadow of a cloud moved across the field of grain and she saw the river through the trees” (198). This description illustrates a very rich atmosphere. The two descriptions of the scenery link the indecisiveness of the woman on whether she will have the abortion or not. In the de...
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...no elephants, a high honor, but ruinously expensive” (White Elephant, Harper). Even though these elephants were beautifully ornate and were given as great gifts, the upkeep is atrocious. Basically the cost and care for the white elephant would supersede the actual joy of receiving it. In sum, a white elephant is an unwanted gift; much like Jig’s pregnancy seems, especially to the American: like an unwanted thing.
Hemingway uses multiple symbols in his stories. In “Hills like White Elephants,” there are a plethora of images and objects that project an emotion or a feeling that isn’t explained in words, but rather are left for the reader to filter through and figure out for them. By looking at the setting, the train, and the title itself, we as readers can find a little more meaning beyond the dialogue and into the intentions and emotions of the American and his girl.
Hemingway provides the reader with insight into this story, before it is even read, through the title. The girl in the story mentions the hills that can be seen from the train station and describes them as looking like white elephants. Jig is at a crossroads in her life, accompanied by her partner. She is pregnant and cannot decide whether to choose life for the baby, or to get an abortion. Throughout the story, she experiences persistent uncertainty over what she wants to do with her life. Whatever decision she makes will have a drastic impact in her later years as a woman. While seated at the bar inside the train station, the girl says, “The hills look like white elephants” (Hemingway). The hills that are spotted in the distance directly parallel the decision that Jig must make. Critic Kenneth Johnston was recorded stating, “A white elephant is a rare pale-gray variety of an Asian elephant held sacred by the Burmese and Siamese. The girl’s reverence for life is captured by this meaning of the phrase.” Johnston also says, “A white ...
‘Hills Like White Elephants’ is a short story authored by Ernest Hemingway about an American and a girl named Jig. In the story, the two are sitting in a train station waiting for the train to Madrid. While they wait, they have an intense ongoing debate on whether or not to abort Jig. At the end of the story, the train is about to arrive and the man carries luggage on the tracks as they prepare to leave. The end of the story does not clearly define the outcome of its decision. She said I feel good at the end of the story - happiness is a central theme of the story, but we wonder if she went through with the operation. The paper discusses the manner in which symbolism has been employed in the story to communicate about an abortion, the couple is considering to go through.
Using analysis of season, landscape, weather, etc., in “Hills Like White Elephants”, Hemingway introduces the image of the train station, containing hills across a valley along the Ebro River in northern Spain. While waiting for the sight of their train, Jig glances across the vast landscape of their waiting junction and describes the far away hills and mutters, “They look like white elephants.” (Hemingway 591). The term “White elephants” meaning: A possession that is useless or troublesome, especially one that is expensive to maintain or difficult to get rid of. In this case of conflict, the two are discussing the controversy of whether or not Jig will abort, in other words, “get rid of” her child. As their conversation progresses, Jig begins to describe the hills as being lovely, and yet they are not really white elephants after all. The idea of her possible newborn child is rather lovely and not troublesome. Her choices rein between life and death, symbolized by the hills and the field of grain and trees along the banks of the Ebro to which she inspects. Landscape in this case ideally represents a choice the characters will eventually make, characterizing the scenery as casts of their choices. The motifs of seasons likewise play a necessary role in understanding the atmosphere amongst the characters of Hemingway and Chekhov. In Chekhov’s “The Lady with the Dog”, from start to finish the season change throughout the time in Russia have contributed a fascinating role as an atmospheric symbol as characters advance. When seasons begin to change, the character 's actions do as well. For example, when Gurov and Anna first meet, the season in Yalta during this time is fall, the season of change, representing their change of scenery into each other’s lives as strangers who begin to fall in
Hemingway, Ernest. "Hills Like White Elephants." In The Heath Anthology of American Literature, Volume II. Edited by Paul Lauter et al. Lexington, MA: D.C. Heath and Company, 1991: 1471-1485.
Hemingway, considered to be a modernist writer, makes his readers work by implementing the well-known theory of omission, which “Hills Like White Elephants” is a perfect example of. As he stated in Death in the Afternoon : ‘If a writer of prose knows enough of what he is writing about he may omit things that he knows and the reader, […].’ (259). It seems that Hemingway assumed the reader would know what is being omitted, nevertheless many features of “Hills Like White Elephants” have already been covered by various critics. At the end of the story the reader is forced to unravel the most...
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 become 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
Gale. Weeks, Lewis E., Jr. "Hemingway Hills: Symbolism in 'Hills like White'" Elephants. Studies in Short Fiction. 17.1 (Winter 1980): 75-77.
“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
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.
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.
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.
---, "Hills Like White Elephants." The Short Stories of Ernest Hemingway. New York: Charles Scribner?s Sons, 1953. 273-278.
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.
Stukas, Jake. "Literary analysis: Hills Like White Elephants, by Ernest Hemingway." Helium.com. Web. 21 Nov. 2009. .
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.