In the critiquing essay Ernest Hemingway’s “Hills Like White Elephants”: icebergs, raisin bread, and the shortstory, Jefferson Flanders offers a critical view of how Hemingway does the exact opposite of what he attempted to do in this writing of Hills Like White Elephants. Flanders narrows his attention on the clever writing of Hemingway but also points out his attempt to shock the critics when he wrote about abortion in the 1920s. According to Flanders, Hemingway didn't care what critics thought about his writings but wrote about the shocking topic of abortion to capture the attention of the critics and have them talk about him. Flaunders supports his opinion with biographical, literary and historical information, much of it coming directly from Hemingway himself but at the same time, he is also showing his own biases of the subject matter. Flanders also made his main point very clear throughout his arguments by showing that Hemingway constantly left out detailed information, expected his readers to know what he knew and utilized obvious symbolism.Vast amounts of light was shed on Hemingway's short story by the way Flanders demonstrates his viewpoint and relationship to the omission style of writing and mentioned shocking points.
While each of these short stories have very different themes, each of them contain a relationship that consists of a man and a woman. The man in Hills like White Elephants is believed to have impregnated the woman from the story, named Jig. Even though their relationship is not clear, Hemingway describes their relationship as romantic and physical, but not committed. On the other hand, in The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, the reader is aware of the relationship of the man and the woman because it is Walter and his wife. Thurber depicts the characters’ relationship to be mundane and seemingly repetitive.
They give these as a gift to someone else, like the unborn child in this story. The couple is conflicted whether to have or not to have the baby. Jig saying "you wouldn't have" to her American boyfriend is her way of telling him that she is sure he has not seen a baby and wanted to have one of your own. (Hemingway, 1927, para. 5) The "hills" are symbolic of the way woman's stomach looks while she is pregnant.
Here the scenery could be seen as Jig’s creative and intelligent way of trying to overcome the communication difficulties faced by the couple towards the inevitable conversation of the abortion, because it represents a choice more than what they are actually seeing. Jig and the American start off in the first paragraph on the side of the railroad station where the land is barren and there is no sign of life. This symbolizes the way the American feels about the pregnancy, because he does not want to settle down and live a lifeless life when the baby is born. He feels as though they will be happy again when the operation takes place, as the pregnancy is ruining their relationship and any chance of them being able to live a careless life again. On the other side of the tracks the narrator describes the land to be full of lush, green vegetation with a river flowing through it.
The girl in the short story is undeniably nervous about having an abortion. The man in the story is trying to be persuasive but is growing impatient. He keeps telling her that “it isn’t a big deal and he knows people who have had it done and they are fine” (Clugston, 2010). Tone is very important in “Hills Like White Elephants.” The point of view in literature is how the story is told. Point of view is told in different ways to increase or decrease the dramatic effect (Clugston, 2010).
He is known for what he leaves out of his writing, not what he tells. He is vague in his writing and leaves much to interpretation. This leaves readers to sift through the text and decipher the symbolism in his stories. In his short story, “Hills Like White Elephants,” Hemingway uses an abundance of symbolism to convey the concept that an American man and his girlfriend, Jig, are struggling in their decision for her to undergo an operation which, although never specified, is understood to be an abortion. The story opens with the American man and Jig sitting at a table outside of a train station in Spain.
Ernest Hemingway, 'hills like white elephants' the author used denouement to show he writes in third person dramatic, because he didn’t want to seem to create bias to the two characters. In the short story, we read about two characters, a girl and an American man. They have short conversations between them, and these conversations can hint of many clues about them and their relationship. In the story, we discover what the characters are like, through what they say, and also through the things they don't say. First, in the story, we understand that the American man has money, and he is an adult because he seems to know what he is doing.
Hills Like White Elephants In Ernest Hemingway's "Hills Like White Elephants”, the story illustrates a young woman named Jig and an American man challenged with the decision of abortion. Throughout the sequence of the story it is apparent that the man is persuading Jig to undergo the procedure. The apprehensive discussion the two are having suggests that they are avoiding the underlying issue at hand. In addition, the setting of the story establishes the stigma involved with the procedure, as Jig left her town and traveled to Spain. Hemingway’s use of symbolism in the dialogue and setting helps reveal the difficult matter through suggestion without the actual term abortion being mentioned.
And then, she introduces us to the other scholarly interpretation that Hashmi most likely to agree: “the girl will indeed have the abortion. Expecting this way to stay with the man, but after the operation has been performed, he will abandon her” (Hashmi 72). Hashmi tries to define the meaning behind the use of the title "Hills Like White Elephants." For Hashmi the hills "appear to symbolize the glimmering hope, remote yet real like the hills themselves, that her sexual relationship with the man might change the solid relationship of family and permanence" (Hashmi 75). Other scholars in their search for an
A.Ximenes 1 Andrea Ximenes Professor Polnac ENGL 1302 Synonym 44936 Section 017 14 February 2012 Analyzing “Hills Like White Elephants” Ernest Hemmingway’s “Hills Like White Elephants” is the story of a couple having a conversation at a Spanish train station. As they sit, waiting for their train, they have a few drinks and discuss an unnamed operation the young man, “the American”, wills for the young woman to have. From the text, one could conclude that this operation is an abortion. The American presses the issue, non-confrontationally, but in a way that might lead a young girl in love to follow. He promises the girl of how happy they will both be once is has been done, and just how “simple” it would be.