Compare And Contrast Hills Like White Elephant By Ernest Hemingway

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.

“Hills Like White Elephants” is a short story of a pair of couples having an argument with an operation of whether the girl should do the abortion during their travel. The story shows the audience two different views and attitudes between two different genders--men and women. By using ethos, pathos,and logos, Hemingway gives people a social message that men were short of responsibility and encouragement to get into a family, and they were supposed change this situation by understanding and care more about women. Nowadays, as the time changed, the social message people get from the story change as well-- women are taught to be more independent.

“Hills Like White Elephants” displays the differences in how a man and a woman may view pregnancy and abortion. Jig, a woman, sees pregnancy as a beautiful aspect in life. Hemingway uses symbolism in the couple’s conversation to imply the woman’s pregnancy. The woman refers to the nearby hills on the train platform as elephants; “They look like white elephants”. She compares the hills to her own situation, pregnancy; “They’re lovely hills. They don’t really look like white elephants. I just meant the coloring of their skin through the trees.”

Throughout history, power dynamics between men and women has persisted in literature, and it makes for good entertainment.

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.

The final theme derived from this story is how men and women relate to each other. Most of Hemingway’s stories are masculine in nature, but “Hills Like White Elephants” shows the woman’s point of view as the more rational of the two (Short Stories for Students 158). The man is shown as being selfish and irresponsible by starting this relationship and then lacking the support Jig needs (Hamid 78). The American sees life as being very straightforward and rational, while Jig is considered to be romantic and living in an emotional world (Beacham 8). Clearly, these themes are still applicable in modern societies concerning this issue of abortion.

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.

“What does it mean?”, a question most would ask themselves after reading the short stories “A Rose for Emily” by William Faulkner and “Hills Like White Elephants” by Ernest Hemingway. In both the stories, the authors left the importance of the events lie beneath the story, through the voice of the narrator. These two stories often cause the reader to question the story 's sole purpose, and leaves them with many questions since the important themes are strategically placed beneath the surface of the story, in the subtext. Both Faulkner and Hemingway leave a great amount of information unsaid, yet provide enough evidence for the reader to conclude what the story must actually be about. These two stories have a similar theme; something along

Like most stories, the women are mostly known for their vulnerability and being less powerful than men; this is one of the major comparisons between these two different works. In “Hills like White Elephants”, the foreign woman Jig, and her boyfriend the American, are contemplating on going through with an operation, seeking to be an abortion. Hemingway demonstrates to the reader hands on how much Jig depends a lot on the American. Since she couldn’t even order herself something to drink without him, let alone make such a difficult decision. The American, otherwise known as the more stronger character, knows exactly what he wants and sticks by his choice when filling the girl’s mind with promises of being happy and being able to go back to the way things used to be. Because of Hemingway’s “iceberg theory” distracts most of the

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.

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”

Male domination is the primary and most obvious theme in “Hills Like White Elephants.” During the first reading of the short story the reader’s focus is on deciding what the couple is arguing about: abortion. In “Hills Like White Elephants”, found in the book Introduction to Literature, the man says to Jig, “I know you wouldn’t mind it, Jig. It’s really not anything. It’s just to let the air in” (62). It is through this comment that the reader infers that it is an abortion the couple is discussing. The dialogue found in the short story revolves around the American man trying to convince Jig that the operation is easy and many people have gotten it done. He argues that those who have had the operation done are now happy. Male domination can be seen through this when the man

Through Hemingway’s careful use of symbolism, setting, and sparse diction in “Hills Like White Elephants,” Hemingway shows the chasm between two characters at a stalemate in an argument about having an abortion. The man wants to keep his life in one place, while the woman wants to move forward. That she is eventually swayed by the man’s argument does not necessarily indicate an end to the conflict; rather, it shows that the woman’s desires for her own life were trampled

"Literature is a luxury: Fiction is a necessity" (Chesterton). Literature is a single phenomenon that will always remain in the lives of people throughout the years. According to Andre Maurois, "In literature, as in love, we are astounded by what is chosen by others." Fiction Literature is one of the most fascinating types of Literature. There are many types of Fiction Literature read across the world and with much selection, the greatest are short stories. Out of those, one very memorable short story is called "Hills Like White Elephants". The author, Ernest Hemingway, has created many intriguing stories with his recognizable syntax. The specific style he is known for may be childish and use only a few small lines, but nevertheless his

In his short story "Hills like White Elephants," Ernest Hemingway uses symbolism and landscape subtly but effectively to emphasize the tension between the main characters. The reader is asked to extrapolate much of the information in an indirect fashion. The reader must look into the symbolism and imagery used alongside the words the characters share and don’t share. The natural landscape covers almost the entire story, offering vivid images that contain a large amount of interpretive insight into the story. The setting puts the couple at a crossroads, a stopping place in their journey through not just Spain, but through their lives as well. Though the exact location of the train station is not given, it is often thought to be in Zaragoza, Spain. The train station is a midpoint between their past time together and the future time that they will move toward when they leave on a train. Train stations, airports, bus stations, and ports give us a sense of transition, of being between worlds, and between experiences. Placing the stage for the drama in such a locale really grabs the reader’s attention and drives further symbolism in the story. Joseph Urgo points this out in his writing quite well by stating ”the ‘junction’ where the train will stop in the story is not just the meeting of the Barcelona and Madrid lines, but the clash of male and female sources of power and authority.” (Urgo 36)