A ‘white elephant’ is defined as something costly to maintain; a possession of questionable value; or a discarded object (Encarta Dictionary: English (North America)). The use of this phrasing is a veiled reference that the story involves a matter that is controversial, an unwanted pregnancy. In addition to the title, the numerous references to hills and white elephants that Hemingway makes throughout the narrative provide more clues for the reader. “The hills across the valley of the Ebro were long and white (p. 106).” “They were white in the sun and the country was brown and dry (p. 106).” “I said the mountains looked like white elephants.” (p. 107). “They don’t really look like white elephants.” (p. 107).
The story begins with a young American man and a woman sitting in a bar as they wait for their train. The woman seemed distracted as she glanced at the hills across the Ebro River. The hills are meant to be representative of the pregnancy of the woman. Hemingway describes the hills as looking like the stomach of a pregnant woman. He also uses the white elephants to represent an unwanted gift such as the unborn child that the woman is carrying.
Hemingway’s use of symbolism in the dialogue and setting helps reveal the difficult matter through suggestion without the actual term abortion being mentioned. For instance, the term white elephant is used as a metaphor to represent the unborn baby and describe the adjustment on their lives a baby would bring. The girl looked at the mountains and states, “They look like white elephants” (Hemingway 97). The man disagrees with her statement and tension builds. The girl retracts her statement, and states, of course, the mountains do not really look like white elephants only "their skin through the trees” (Hemingway 98).
'They look like white elephants,' she said.” (Hemingway, 1927) Hills like White Elephants, by Ernest Hemingway, is a short story published in 1927. The story starts off with a couple, defined as the American and the girl with him, walking into a bar attached to a train station. They are waiting for the express train from Barcelona to Madrid. Hemingway never specifically says in the story what the couple is discussing but there is a lot of symbolism within the story that suggest abortion is the topic. Hills Like White Elephants has some of my the most powerful symbolism in literary history.
Summer Reading 1) The book begins describing the main character as he talks to a French lieutenant. He is about to get on a train called the Taurus express. His name is Hercule Poirot the famous detective, but he is not working a case, not yet anyways. On the train it is very quiet with only two other people, Mary Debenham and colonel Arbuthnot. Then when Poirot gets off the train and arrives at the hotel, and very quickly receives a letter summoning him back to London.
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
Casandra Thelen English 122 9/25/2011 Literary Analysis Hills Like White Elephants by Ernest Hemingway The setting in a story can provide hints at the decisions characters make, which foresees what the future holds for them. In the story Hills Like White Elephants by Ernest Hemingway, the setting is so influential in ways that could lead you to believe the woman had an abortion or did not have it. It is about a man and a woman named Jig who are sitting at a table waiting for the train to come. During their wait, they discuss the possibility of having an abortion, which the man says will make their lives happier together. The background setting throughout their discussion symbolizes their life changing decision.
Hills like White Elephants is a story written by Ernest Hemingway where one can draw many parallels between the American and the writer himself. Hemingway uses the tools of allusion and symbolism frequently throughout the story in order to help him illustrate the main issue of communication breakdown. This evidently played a key role in Hemingway's own life and it becomes apparent that through this, there are similarities between the behavior of the American and himself. Conflicts are created through dialogue as these characters face what most readers believe to be the problem of an unexpected pregnancy. Hemingway's uses of detailed descriptions and the idea of a communication breakdown, achieves his desired effect of making the couple seem to be at 'war' with one another.
Ernest Hemingway uses the title “Hills like White Elephants” to symbolize Jig’s pregnancy. A “white elephant” 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 (White Elephant 1). Symbolically, the hills can also be interpreted as swollen breasts and the abdomen of a pregnant woman. “On this side there was no shade and no trees and the station was between two lines of rails in the sun” (Hemingway 1). Although the term “abortion” is never found in the story, the American man and Jig are confronted by this complicated decision.
Feminist Perspective - “Hills Like Whit Elephants” Toni Gelo South University In Ernest Hemingway’s The Hills Like White Elephants, Hemingway touches on the racy subject of abortion through his method of writing called the Iceberg Theory. Hemingway writes a surface story, omitting superfluous and irrelevant matter (The Iceberg Theory, 2012). The story takes place in a train station in Ebro River Valley in Spain. As it begins we are introduced to the barren landscape that surrounds the train station across the valley from the white hills of Ebro which we find is symbolic to the pregnancy and the decision that stands between the two characters. Hemingway brings to the surface the struggle of power between man and woman and the stereotypes