Ernest Hemingway 's Hills Like White Elephants Essay

Ernest Hemingway's short story "Hills Like White Elephants" relies on symbolism to carry the theme of either choosing to live selfishly and dealing with the results, or choosing a more difficult and selfless path and reveling in the rewards. The symbolic materials and the symbolic characters aid the reader's understanding of the subtle theme of this story. The hills symbolize two different decisions that the pregnant girl in our story is faced with. Both hills are completely opposite of each other, and each "hill" or decision has a consequence that is just as different as the appearance of the hills.

Romance, most women want the fairy tale. Man, and woman meet, man sweeps woman off her feet, they fall madly in love, they get married, and then they live happily ever after. However, the saying of happily ever after is questionable in Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper” and Ernest Hemingway’s “Hills Like White Elephants”. In both stories the women are in one sided relationships where the men tend to dictate what the women will do and how they will feel, which in turn creates conflict in the relationships. Hemingway and Gilman use a similar portrayal of the women being oppressed and who give into the demands of their men at the expense of their own happiness, however Hemingway’s male character appears to be more loving and affectionate and the female tends to be a little more outspoken while Gilman’s male character is more of a dictator and the female quieter.

"Hills like White Elephants" is not the normal story where you have a beginning, middle and end. Hemingway gave just enough information so that readers could draw their own conclusions. The entire story encompasses a conversation between two lovers and leaves the reader with more questions than answers. Ernest Hemingway was a brilliant writer. People that study Hemingway's works try to gain insight and draw natural conclusions about Hemingway and his life. Hemingway led a difficult life full of martial affairs and misfortune. Some of these experiences have set the foundation for Hemingway's greatest works. This essay will analyze the influence

Ernest Hemingway was a groundbreaking author during the 20th century and he left behind many famous pieces of work. He used his own life experiences to contribute ideas and inspiration for his stories whether they involve his military career or his family life (“Ernest Hemingway). Hemingway also uses language in such ways that can convey feelings and ideas throughout his pieces. His use of language and dialogue in some of his short stories really paint a picture for the reader on the situations presented (Link). In the short story, “Hills Like White Elephants,” Hemingway uses Jig’s ambivalence towards the whole situation with herself and the American to convey the idea that Jig holds all the power in the decision although the American, who is powerless, believes he has a say in the matter.

Love between two genders is one of the most common themes in writing. In literature, love is often praised, appreciated and cherished. Another common theme in writing is the looming specter of inequality between men and women, which has been strongly depicted throughout history and is still worryingly present in the world today. It is extremely interesting to realize that though love is treasured and valued, in most cases, it takes both genders to create love, and those genders are often separated by inequality. Both these themes coincide well together; the clash of love and gender inequality is interestingly captivating. In John Updikes A&P and Ernest Hemingway’s Hills Like White Elephants, both stories send a conclusive message to the reader that equality between both sexes in love and attraction is almost impossible; one gender will always be more powerful than the other.

In comparison with Ernest Hemingwayn’s “Hills like White Elephants” and Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper”, both female’s thoughts and feelings are oppressed under the constant weight of their male supplements. With this being the case, are women truly happy with whom they are choosing to spend the rest of their lives? In both Hemingway and Gilman’s short stories, the females are both being portrayed as characters who capitulate to the demands of their male-orientated significant others, causing the distressing departure of their relationships.

In comparison with Ernest Hemingway’s “Hills like White Elephants” and Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper”, both female’s thoughts and feelings are oppressed under the demanding obedience of the male. With this being the case, can the women in both stories honestly believe their truly happy with whom they want to spend their lives with? In these two short stories, the females are both being portrayed as characters that capitulate to the demands of their male-orientated significant others, causing the distressing departure of the connection between these relationships.

Both stories are pictures of significant moments in a relationship. In addition, it is notable that both stories share the idea of open communication and honesty in order to have a healthy relationship. Each story unfolds male and female attitudes towards different issues, as in “Hills Like White Elephants” towards the unborn child, and in “The Girls in Their Summer Dresses” towards looking on other women. Although Jig and Frances, are two different women facing a conflict, but subsequently they reject their male partner at the end. In addition, the American and Michael who play the role of inconsiderate side in the relationship have portrayed masculine control over women. On the one hand, the reader encounters different relationships, but on the other hand, both stories lack commitment. Hemingway and Shaw illustrate that both partnerships based on mutual relationships, sharing and caring for each other can establish strong and successful

What is the use of symbolism in writing? Is it merely to confuse the reader or is its true intent to make the reader think about the meaning of the story? A symbol is a person, object, or event that suggests more than its literal meaning (Meyer 220). In Ernest Hemingway's short story "Hills Like White Elephants," Hemingway uses a plethora of symbols to convey the idea that the young girl, Jig is ambivalent to having an abortion and that her older American boyfriend does not want to have the baby. Although the word abortion is never used in the story, the reader understands the concept through Hemingway's symbolism.

“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.

In literature, authors use a certain image or collection of images in order to produce a particular effect, eliciting a response from the reader’s senses. Ernest Hemingway’s “Hills Like White Elephants” utilizes the imagery of the train station in order to produce the effect of transition between the characters, both in terms of physical location and emotional mindset. Much like Hemingway, James Baldwin’s “Sonny’s Blues” takes a similar approach, using Sonny’s passion for music to expose his deepest insecurities. Though their approaches are different, both authors use imagery to create a pathway to the character’s internal thoughts.

the baby to have, but does it stop her from drinking? No, this only indicates

Swaying trees in the distance, blue skies and birds chirping, all of these are examples of setting. Setting can create the mood and tone of characters in a story. In the story Hills Like White Elephants, the story starts out with our two characters, Jig and the American, also referred to as the man, on a train overlooking mountains. “The girl was looking off at the line of hills. They were white in the sun and the country was brown and dry” (Hemingway). In the case of this short story, the hills provided Jig something to take her mind off of the grueling conversation she was having with the Man. As said by a critic, “the story itself is comprised almost entirely of dialogue. Although there is a situation, there is no plot”

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

Relationships can be difficult when two people have an opposing stance on a controversial topic such as abortion. Men, in their self-interest, perceive this option as an easy way out, in which they can have all the pleasure and none of the consequences. However, for a woman an abortion causes both physical and emotional pain which a man could never understand. Thus, making this one of the utmost difficult issues a girl may need to face in her life. In Hemingway’s “Hills Like White Elephants,” there are two Americans traveling in Spain. The setting of the scene is a bar located near the train station where the man and the girl discuss this life altering operation, as they await the arrival of the train to Madrid. Throughout the story the man is persuasive, as he attempts to convince the girl to have the operation, while at the same time, the girl expresses her reluctance and remains unconvinced that an abortion is the answer to their problems. Abortion remains as controversial today as it was when Ernest Hemingway wrote “Hills Like White Elephants”. Although Hemingway never used the word abortion in his story, he found ways to evoke emotions of sympathy for the girl and disdain for the man through his creative use of symbolism, setting, and characters in the short story.