Jig and the Stream of Life in Hemingway’s “Hills Like White Elephants”

Ernest Hemingway's "Hills Like White Elephants", is a story about a doomed relationship. Hemingway uses symbolism, dialogue, and also setting to tell this story. Behind the words said by the characters, and sights explained to the readers, are hidden meanings that when analyzed, bring the story to another level.

Traditionally, a white elephant is a useless possession that is more times than not, unwanted. In today's world we see white elephant gift exchanges where people will exchange unwanted gifts to one another, usually popular among work colleagues or family gatherings. In “Hills like White Elephants” the white elephant is the baby that Jig is unexpectedly carrying. Even though the couple is in love neither the man nor the girl can decide what to do with the child the are expecting. The baby would indeed be a gift, but it would also be a burden, this can be discovered when the man states that “We’ll be fine afterward. Just like we were before” (Hemingway 476). The man obviously believes that if they decide to keep the baby then it will prevent them from doing things they want to continue doing, and that is clear because he continues to badger Jig about the situation they are in that it made Jig beg the man to stop, she pleads, “Would you please please please please please please please stop talking?” (478). By this it is clear that Jig is truly concerned about the situation that affects her life and just wants to stop talking about everything. It is clear that the american man does not want to have the baby, “the man has therefore treated Jig’s pregnancy like a burden or an illness” (Rankin 236). Throughout the short story the man has obviously been for the abortion and does not

We are all too familiar with the components of a classic, romantic bestseller. Boy and girl meet, boy sweeps girl off her feet, and they both ride off into the sunset to live happily ever after; a tale as old as time. However, this isn’t a realistic portrayal of love. Real love is messy, complicated, and even unfair at times. Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper” (1892), and Ernest Hemingway’s “Hills like White Elephants” (1927) offers a more accurate portrayal of romantic functionality that is still applicable today as it was back then. Written in the pre-feminist movement of the 1970s, these authors have provided a rich base of female suppression under weight of the male counterparts in play. While we explore the depths of this story, and utilizing this theme as our base, we are able to identify the similarities of powerlessness and vulnerability of the women, the stubbornness and selfishness of the men, symbolism, and setting, and the contrasts such as the rhetorical style and endings in both stories as well.

Hemingway provides insight by using the title “Hills Like White Elephants;” the symbol of a white elephant has a very negative connotation in the story. The term means something that is useless or causes trouble especially if it is expensive to maintain or difficult to dispose of. By Hemingway implying this, he reveals the idea of an abortion to the situation in the story. As the story begins, Hemingway describes the hills and fields surrounding the train station. The hills off in the distance symbolize the growing belly of Jig but also symbolize the strain of obstacles in Jig and her boyfriend’s relationship. The scene Hemingway describes tells the reader about the decision they are making. Jig’s boyfriend is entirely against the idea of having the baby and dissociates the idea of the fetus. “It’s really not anything,”(Hemingway) Jig’s boyfriend completely disregards the idea of the pregnancy all together, while Jig sees it as “we could have all of this… and we could have everything” (Hemingway). She sees the possibility of maybe having the child but has an internal conflict in deciding if she should go through with the operation or not. Religion in Spain at this time was Catholic, and the Catholic church’s moral was that killing of innocent life was consistently wrong (Podell 88). Catholicism views abortion as erroneous since the fetus is innocent when the mother decides to terminate the baby. Maguire explains the severity of abortion being seen as homicide along with the idea of the act being sorcery and witchcraft (34). Obviously, the couple is not ready to care for a baby, Hemingway uses the word “two” to get the point across that they both cannot handle parenting in this stage of their relationship. For example, “two glasses of beer and two felt pads,” having the train stop “at [the] junction

From the beginning of Hemingway’s “Hills Like White Elephants”, Jig has been a character of mystery, even until the very end of the short story. During the American’s and Jig’s whole conversation, it seemed as though everything was uneasy; and that’s because it was. The whole text was a conversation about the American wanting Jig to abort her baby during a time when abortion was still fairly new.

The title was given on behalf of the unborn baby that implies a valuable and precious object (a white elephant) for Jig, in the story she brings the presence of the “White Hills” which she said “look like white elephants”; a gift that can’t be taken care of. For the duration of the story The “American” convey the impression to have control over the relationship, as well as Jig’s decisions, as she seeks to please him for approval and conditional love; “And you think then we’ll be all right and be happy” (Jig). And the American try to convince her to believe that the abortion will be the best decision to make and superficially assures that the operation will be very simple “It’s really an awfully simple operation, Jig, it’s not really an operation at all”. Putting down the unconscious desires of the appreciation of the white elephants which Jig allude through the

In the midst of their conversation about whether Jig will have the abortion, she comments to the American that "[the hills] look like white elephants" (274). White elephants are symbolic of possessions that are unwanted, such as the American’s undesirable feelings toward Jig’s pregnancy. The American’s unbidden want for the unborn baby is made evident through his comments, “but I don’t want anybody but you. I don’t want anyone else” (276). It is also made clear that the American is trying to persuade Jig to terminate her pregnancy through the repetitiveness of his comments, “It’s really an awfully simple operation, Jig.

Communication is the key to building a strong foundation of trust between a man and woman. In Ernest Hemingway’s “Hills Like White Elephants” we learn about the communication breakdown, between a woman named Jig and her companion who is an American man. They must make a decision that will affect both of their lives, and potentially end their relationship.

Two partners; Jig and the American Man; traveled from Madrid, Spain to Barcelona in Ernest Hemingway’s short story, ‘Hills Like White Elephants’, taken place in the 1940s. While waiting for the train at a bar in the middle of a valley, the partners thought about their life together and their life to come. A big issue stands in the room as Jig is pregnant, and the American Man is desperately trying to convince her that an abortion is the right thing to do.

In Hills Like White Elephants , Ernest Hemingway utilizes the symbolism of the white elephants and the railroad tracks to show the indecisiveness and lack of communication in a relationship.The author compare the hills to the long and white traits of an elephant in order to represent the difficulties of the existence of the pregnancy.The hills across the valley of the Ebro were long and white.Hemingway further justifies this notion by stating ”On this side there was no shade and no trees and the station was between two lines of rails in the sun.” In addition the ”two lines of rails” that the station sits between are a symbol of having to make a difficult decision in life causing conflict on which direction their relationship will go if the abortion take place.The discussion puts The American in a weird place and make him very fraught.Furthermore,Hemingway acknowledges that this building sits in the sun as a means to show the issue of the pregnancy as being brought to light.Because the relationship is brought to the light it causes more tension between them Jig and The American. By stating that there was “no shade and no trees” Hemingway emphasizes the serious and necessary nature of the conversation between The American and the girl.This statement also highlight the discussion of the baby is a hard thing to talk about but is something that has to be discussed.By Hemingway expressing the seriousness between the two characters, it gives Jig ambiguity about if he would agree on Jigs decision.

In Ernest Hemingway’s “Hills Like White Elephants,” one of the main characters asks the other “That’s all we do isn’t it- look at things and try new drinks?” (Hemingway 476). In Hemingway’s novel, The Sun Also Rises, the characters could also claim that this was their lives. At any point in the story they are essentially doing nothing but looking at things and trying new drinks. Critics are right to say that the novel presents motion that goes nowhere and that it is a novel of stasis and despair.

The symbolism of a white elephant is widely known as something very large or apparent that no one wishes to acknowledge or speak of in American society. It is an interesting opening to a very strained conversation concerning an apparent pregnancy, and the man’s wish to terminate it. The couple’s careful avoidance of actually naming the problem, or the proposed solution, suggests the situation in which a mate,

Ernest Hemingway’s “Hills like White Elephants”, is a fairly short story, but it is one of the best stories that I have read so far. The Nobel Prize winner, Ernest Hemingway is seen as one of the greatest American novelists of the 20th century. He was born on July 21, 1899, in Illinois. Something significant about Hemingway was that he served in the military during World War I; unfortunately, he took a turn for the worst and committed suicide on July 2, 1961. In “Hills like White Elephants”, Ernest Hemingway effectively applied several elements of literature such as dialogue, imagery, and symbolism. The story shows a convincing perspective about a relationship and the desire to stabilize their relationship. The man is convincing the woman to have the operation of, Jig resists because she is ambivalent if having the abortion will make things go back to the way they were before. Communication

At the heart of the story lies a couple's conflict over delivering or aborting an unborn child. On the surface, Jig's repeated comparison of the surrounding hills to white elephants seems little more than idle chit-chat. However, when viewed on a deeper level, Jig's white elephant references prove to be an extremely complicated symbol. In nature, a white elephant is both a valuable rarity and a costly burden.

How difficult is it to make a decision that could potentially ruin one’s life? Ernest Hemingway’s explores this question in his short story, “Hills Like White Elephants.” The story is a consice conversation between an “American man” and a girl. The names of the characters as well as their relationship status remain unknown. For the entirety of the short story, the characters sit in a train station perturbed about making a decision on a potential operation of the girl. The man and the girl go back and forth debating what they should do about the operation. The story ends on a cliffhanger, leaving the reader unaware of the girl’s final resolution. In Hemingway’s short story, “Hills Like White Elephants,” his use of symbols, innuendos, and dialogue create a high level of tension for the man and the girl which ultimately conveys the difficulty of the decision that the couple must make together.