Hills Like White Elephants

The text “Letting the air into a relationship: Metaphorical Abortion in ‘Hills Like White Elephants” by Wyche David aims at analyzing and synthesizing the short story by Hemingway “Hills like White”. The analysis would provide new knowledge to readers of the short story or provide the readers with a new point of view of analyzing it. The subject of the text is to present his ideas on the short story and well as critique other critics who had previously critiqued it. The story illustrates broken relationships of Hemingway and the pain it caused him, which led him to write the short story. The whole text is therefore an analysis and synthesis of the short story written by Hemingway.

The girl, the American and the woman all symbolize the decision that must be made. The girl symbolizes youth, innocence and naivety. She is totally ignorant of the consequences of an abortion because she is young, beautiful and in the prime of her life, and experiencing new things all the time. Hemingway uses her to show a young, pregnant girl trying to decide if she wants to remain carefree like the American or if she wants to be like the woman and be wise and mature. The girl battles back and forth with an inner conflict, two different sides pulling at her final decision; If she has her baby she will ruin her youthfulness and destroy her romantic relationship with the American, but it very well could transform her into a woman who is wise, mature and focused on someone other than herself. The girl is getting tired of the same routine of drinks and a social life and she decides to do something very different. She decides to keep her baby, to become a woman and leave her carefree and childish ways behind. However, the only thing that is standing between the girl and the life she wants for herself and her child is the American.

In Hemingway’s “Hills like white elephants” there are very subtle details that are noticed only when you dissect the reading and look past the text that is written on the page. We are introduced to both the “American” and the “Girl” early on in the story. As the story progresses on you begin to notice how different each person is and how that lack of knowledge can be almost child- like in nature. The age of either person is never mentioned, although when reading the story you get a strong sense that the “American” is significantly older than his female counterpart. Her inexperience is first noticed when she begins to ask about alcoholic beverages and how they compare to the taste of licorice (Hemingway 591).

"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.

Certainly the fact that abortions are not legal at this time in Spain is also playing on the girl’s mind (Short Stories for Students 159). The reader is also left with great doubt, as there is no resolution or decision given by Hemingway at the end of the story.

Ernest Hemingway, the author of “Hills like White Elephants” will leave his readers guessing due to his vague information put into his short story, ¨Hills like White Elephants¨. The understanding of figurative language, sensory details, and the use inferencing skills are needed to interpret what the author is trying to get across. If the short story is analyzed carefully the reader will understand that the couple in the story are deciding whether or not to have an abortion. Although “abortion” is never blatantly said it is shown through prolific figurative language. Symbolism, simile, and conflict are all prominent examples of figurative language throughout Hemingway's “Hills like White Elephant”.

In Ernest Hemingway's “Hills Like White Elephants”, the use of imagery and symbolism in the landscape of surrounding Ebro Valley, as well as the use of language and tone, shape our understanding of the conflict between the two main characters. The man referred to only by “The American”, is trying to convince Jig to get an abortion. Though the word (abortion) is never stated directly in the entirety of the story, it is conveyed by the use of symbolism and imagery in the surrounding landscape. Furthermore, we can conclude that the topic at hand will come to a final and abrupt solution that Jig will, in fact, get the abortion due to her tone and language at the end of the story.

Major characters in stories often encounter moral conflicts. The way in which the characters respond to these dilemmas frequently emphasizes the author’s intended message. In “Good People”, written by David Foster Wallace, a young Christian couple is faced with an unplanned pregnancy, forcing them to make a decision regarding the termination of the child; causing them to battle with several moral and religious predicaments. Wallace mimics the anxiousness of a 19-year-old male through an unorganized style of writing and uses various details to illuminate the underlying message of the story. Similarly, in Ernest Hemingway’s “Hills Like White Elephants”, a man, referred to as the American and a women named Jig deal with an unexpected pregnancy, disrupting the normality of their relationship. Through symbolism, Hemingway is able to connote the limitation of language and demonstrate the complications the couple faces. In the short stories “Good People” and “Hills Like White Elephants”, both authors use literary techniques to reveal the struggles of communication, as well as the complexity of making choices.

To conclude, the epic use of words relating to different, more complex ideas, the author of this story, Ernest Hemingway has amazingly delivered a message for readers that is appraisable about classifying the characterization of the two characters, Jig, being a typical ‘bitch goddess’ who is a sympathizing character and the American being a typical man, who cares about what he wants in life and evades the fact of getting into fatherhood with his expected baby.

At the end of their conversation, both are drinking alone, the girl at the table and the man at the bar which can imply that their relationship my end by them going their separate ways.

Ernest Hemingway was an American author and journalist. One of his most famous and controversial pieces “Hills Like White Elephants” is frequently discussed among authors and readers. In this short story there is a girl and a American man sitting at a train station. The girls name is Jig, we come to find out that she is pregnant and that the two are disusing whether to keep the baby or not. They question each other to see if the options would ruin their relationship. Hemingway portrays things to serve as double meanings. Two of the main subtopics and questions formed from this paper is whether or not Jig has the baby. And whether of not the tense relationship between the two lasts. Among the many authors who have their own opinion on what these things mean is, timothy Obrien, who wrote, “Allusion, Word Play, and the Central Conflict in Hemingway’s ‘Hills Like White Elephants”. In his paper he focuses on certain phrases to conclude his belief that Jig does get and abortion and that the relationship between Jig and the American does not last. A professor at Illinois state university by the name of Stanley Renner, author of “Moving to the Girls Side of “Hills Like White Elephants””, does not think the relationship lasts. Although the relationship does not last he believes that the baby does. David Wyche, author of “Letting the Air Into a Relationship: Metaphorical Abortion in “Hills Like White Elephants””, he is not

Written in 1927, Ernest Hemingway’s “Hills Like White Elephants” “redefined the possibilities of the short story” (Charters 1700). It has been said that Hemingway was influential in reworking the genre of short

The art, literature, and poetry of the early 20th century called for a disruption of social values. Modernism became the vague term to describe the shift. The characteristics of the term Modernism, all seek to free the restricted human spirit. It had no trust in the moral conventions and codes of the past. One of the examples of modernism, that breaks the conventions and traditions of literature prior to Modernism, is Ernest Hemingway’s short story “Hills Like White Elephants”. The short story uses plot, symbolism, setting, dialogue, and a new style of writing to allow human spirit to experiment with meaning and interpretation.

To mirror the couple’s confusion of life verses death through abortion, Hemingway arranges words and phrases to establish the story indirectly. While most who visit Europe enjoy it, literature and movies