Hills Like White Elephants, by Ernest Hemingway Essay example

he wants a simple and detached life. To create non-emotional sentences, Hemingway repetitively uses the pronoun “He” to emphasis on how lonely Krebs feels. “But the world they were in was not the world he was in.” Krebs has been so horrible affected by the horrors of the war that he believes that he exist in his own world where no one, even his mother, can understand how he is feeling. A depressing tone is created with these simple sentences and non-emotional sentences.

"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

Hemingway uses pathos appeal to emotion in this novel. There are some repetition in the novel: “No, we can’t”, which pointed the audience to the main emotion--sad and negative, so that they could start to think about what make them feel said and how to solve this problem. Besides, the author also use antiphrasis to express the girl’s bad feelings, such as she smile when she smile when she was supposed to cry and she said “I feel fine”, “ There‘s nothing wrong with me” when she was upset for the man’s attitude.

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.

Through their lives and distinct writing styles, these authors of similar times and caliber, F. Scott Fitzgerald and Ernest Hemingway have created vastly different works of literature that are still praised as American classics. These differences, as significantly prevalent in their style, allow readers to understand their lives and experiences through the stories. The dialogue, as the primary vector of this contrast, conveys the materials and information needed to understand the authors as individuals and in turn, their literature. Therefore, through the dialogue presented in Hemingway’s and Fitzgerald’s writing, important characteristics are easily discerned that provide insight into the characters’ interactions as well as the effect it has

Ernest Hemingway, a literary icon of the early twentieth century, challenged the typical lengthy and detailed prose of authors before him by pioneering a stylistic revolution centered around heavy dialogue and minimalistic details. More specifically, “Hemingway used a journalistic style and unadorned prose to capture the everyday lives of men and women caught up in history’s most momentous events,” without wasting pages establishing the setting or background within a work like most authors of the nineteenth century (The Letters… 442). Often, the mood, setting, and emotion within Hemingway’s stories are established through symbolism and constant dialogue. Hemingway expertly implements his unconventional and unique authorial style to convey the disparity in gender communication and perspectives and its effects on relationships in his 1927 short story, Hills Like White Elephants.

Hemingway goes into very intricate, almost excessive details when describing things that are usually insignificant to the overall plot. As a result something like the descriptions of the landscape of Italy and Switzerland consist of vivid imagery in the form of lengthy sentences. While Henry’s observations and descriptions are almost akin to tautology they also use very simple and direct wording, which helps the reader easily understand Hemingway’s writing. The wording and syntax in the dialogue between Henry and his Italian comrades is also simplified as Henry is translating the Italian spoken to English for the reader.

When one tells a story, they usually have a reason. The goal of the story is usually a message or a statement that one is trying to portray using the story as a catalyst for these intentions. Ernest Hemingway told stories with similar goals, but encrypted these messages in a way that leaves a lot up to the reader, but in a very fascinating and intelligent way. This is no different when it comes to Hemingway’s work “The Hills like White Elephants”. The story is about a man and a woman sitting at a bar waiting for a train.

In an article called “Hemingway Hills: Symbolism in Hills like White Elephants” written by Lewis E Weeks Jr. of Clarkson College of Technology I realized that the short story did not just have one meaning, I noticed how it is in fact deeper than just a couple going

O’Brien expresses Hemingway’s use of a “repetition of key words…a tendency to construct puns from them and at the very least to call attention to their alternative meanings” (O’Brien, 20), which distances the readers to the actual conflict of the story. O’Brien points out how the man looks at “linear, artificial” objects (O’Brien, 21), such as the tracks, while the girl looks at her natural surroundings; O’Brien points this out as Hemingway shows the conflict between the man and woman. O’Brien describes how the man is dominant and controlling of the woman, especial-ly concerning the woman’s feelings and natural surroundings: “’Come on back in the shade,’ he said. ‘You mustn’t feel that way.’” (Hemingway, 554).

Along with the location of setting, the time also plays an important factor. Hemingway uses a lot of symbols and figurative language, so the time of the story was not clear-cut. Hemingway however, did give us clues for our imaginations to think about what time it actually was. “There was no shade and no trees and the station was between two lines of rails” (Hemingway). This indicates that it was mid-day and there was no shade to take cover in. As the story progresses the time of the day also carries on. “There was a warm shadow of the building and a curtain, made of bamboo beads hung to keep the flies out” (Hemingway). In this quote it is suggesting that it was late afternoon and the sun was moving. The couple at this point arrived at the station therefore the building was casting a shadow.

By doing this Hemingway succeededs in creating a character who cannot be respected but is instead pitied. In a discussion, with her American lover, Jig comments about the hills surrounding them, comparing them to white elephants, only for him to tell her that what she is saying is wrong. Rather than defend something that is her own opinion she changes the subject and later apologizes for saying it in the first place.

Ernest Hemingway has made it so that, while the man's tone of voice appears caring, this is a ruse, a verbal trick of ledger domain; in actuality, he doesn’t really care about the woman. His superficial concern for her feelings and his insensitivity (or complete inability to recognize) that she has not responded to his “suggestion” demonstrates his lack of care for her. Although the man says that he will stay with her through it, it has become clear that he really cares little for her opinion or emotions, and he just strictly cares about her body and physical being. This interaction demonstrates both the man’s superficiality as well as the woman’s ambivalence and emotional

One specific syntactical example of Hemingway’s minimalism in this story is in the way he used the dialogue tags “he said” or “she said", forcing the reader to arrive at the emotion from the actual dialogue. This leads to far greater complexity and depth within the characters. Instead of having a narrator describe these emotions, we see the situation take place as from the perspective of a fly on the wall, with no access to the psyche or emotional state of the characters. Without such access, we as readers involve ourselves, place our own

Hemingway also uses allegorical conditions to fully elaborate on the history of the couple’s interactions. The couple is waiting for their train so they take in their surroundings and get drinks without a second thought. The woman notices this and asks “That's all we do, isn't it—look at things and try…drinks? (124)" Her comment indicates that their relationship has no real substance besides alcohol and instead of actually interacting with one another they would rather avoid it by drinking. This would then imply that their relationship is doomed. Without proper communication, one could never convince the other of anything. However, the woman still wants it to work as she can see “the river through the trees (125).” She can fathom an optimistic