She has lowered herself expectations in life to satisfy someone else’s. Another excerpt from this story that I would like to view is “Well, the man said, “If you don’t want to you don’t have to. I wouldn’t have you do it if you didn’t want to. But I know it’s perfectly simple.” She has listened to him try and rationalizes the “easy” procedure of an abortion. Like, how would he know?
“Hills Like White Elephants” is from a collection of short stories “Men Without Women” by Ernest Hemmingway. It was first published in 1927. The story is about a couple waiting for a train at the train station. The male character is referred as “the American” and his female companion as “the girl” and later “Jig”. The girl is pregnant and the man is trying to insist in a very artful way that she must go for an abortion.
Most stories pull the reader in with their fancy words and descriptive scenes, but Hemingway doesn’t use descriptive words. When you first read “Hills Like White Elephants” it’s seem like an ordinary conversation, but after reading it again you realize that the story is hidden in the dialog. In “Hills Like White Elephants” Hemingway brings the reader in by using dialog to reveal the inferences in the story, the emotions that Jig and the American feel, he also leaves the reader to make their own judgments about the characters. “‘They look like white elephants,’ she said,” Hemingway implies that there’s an elephant in the room, or at least there’s an elephant sitting between the American man and the girl called Jig (9, Hemingway). This elephant
Aquinas, then again, may really have tackled the issue in an unexpected way. Without agonizing over feeling regretful for not telling the pilot when she got some answers concerning the heart mumble, she would withhold the data so that the pilot can resign as he had arranged. In her brain it would be moral in light of the
This masterpiece implicitly implies the girl is pregnant and the American guy wants her to abort the baby. In the whole dialogue, there are fewer explicit details that convey that fact. Only way can the reader figure out that is to analyze the metaphor of elephant or the accent of the American guy. In this part, various students give different evidence which proves that fact. In Yinjian Lin original post, she states that “That’s all we do, isn’t it – look at things and try new drinks?” (Hemingway 33) said by Jig implies they are facing a new situation, but not very clear what new thing.
Hills Like White Elephants – What is the underlying meaning? Originally published as a part of a collection of short stories entitled “Men Without Women” in 1927, “Hills Like White Elephants” by Ernest Hemingway offers a brief glimpse into the life of a couple during a tumultuous time in their relationship. Although never explicitly stated, it is obvious through the use of symbolism and context in the title, setting and dialogue, that the focus of the story is unwanted pregnancy, the controversial subject of abortion and the conflict it causes between the characters. The title of the story, “Hills Like White Elephants”, is the first sign that what you are about to read has a hidden meaning. Most readers will define hills as an area of land, usually rounded in shape, higher than the surrounding land but not as high as a mountain (Encarta Dictionary: English (North America)).
Define observation and inference. After careful reading of Ernest Hemingway’s “Hills Like White Elephants”, it is very clear what it’s purpose is. The story takes place in the Ebro River valley of Spain, where an American man and his female companion Jig are waiting for a train and having drinks discussing “doing it”. Obviously, by “doing it”, they’re referring to whether or not they should have an abortion. At the end of the story, we can only assume that they decide to go through with the abortion, when Jig tells the American male “I don’t care about me.” The man goes and haves a drink by himself and return to his companion.
There are not any trees in sight only two distant hills and the woman refers to them as white elephants. They sip on their drinks and through conversation you can conclude that the woman and the man are at odds over her pregnancy. She wants to have the baby, but the man does not. He tries to sway her decision by telling her that the abortion process is simple. “Awfully simple and not really anything.” He wants to keep the lifestyle that they have on track.
Paper One Literal meaning of “Hills like White Elephants” by Ernest Hemingway The story starts off with a detailed description of a train station surrounded by white hills, grassy fields, and trees in Spain. An unnamed man and his girlfriend are sitting at a table in a bar outside the station. They are waiting for a train to Madrid. The weather was very hot, and the man decides to order two beers from the female bartender. The girlfriend says that the hills in the distance look like white elephants, which the man says that he has not seen one.
As the couple waits between two destinations, Barcelona and Madrid, they are trapped "between two lines of rail in the sun"( ) as if they were in limbo. The station, placed between the two lines of rails, suggests the two directions the couple may go - toward Madrid and the abortion or away from Madrid and to a family scenario. The landscape describes the situation both barren and fruitful. The barren side of the train station describes Jig’s life is she submits to what her partner wants: an abortion. The other side of the train station is green, luscious and fruitful like her womb if she reaches full term and gives birth to her child.