Literary Techniques In Hemmingway's Hills Like White Elephants

Ernest Miller Hemingway is known for his unique style and theories of writing, especially the iceberg theory. In the Death of the Afternoon, Hemingway says that “The dignity of movement of an ice-berg is due to only one-eighth of it being above water. A writer who omits things because he does not know them only makes hollow places in his writing.” (92) Simple words, vivid images, rich emotions and deep thoughts are the four basic elements of the iceberg theory. Talk about how these stories illustrate four elements of theory. In both short stories, Hemingway describes scenery and characters with simple words directly to give readers a vivid image. Under this sketch, readers can know characters’ emotion and get the theme through their imagination and analysis.

What is the purpose of the trip the two travelers are taking? (The narrator never tells us, but the careful reader can deduce this with relative certainty.)

Ernest Hemmingway uses time, place, and symbolism in "Hills like White Elephants" to intensify the central dilemma in a story about a man and a woman deciding on whether to go through with an abortion. Although a literal reading of the title may not seem to have any relation to the story, the title is rich in implications. Critics suggest that "Hills" refers to the shape of a woman's stomach when pregnant, and Webster's 21st Century Dictionary defines white elephant as: "[An] awkward, useless possession." The term is also defined in Webster's as an item that is worthless to some but priceless to others. According to Victor Lindsey, the child in the story is a white elephant in the view of the man, who is trying to convince the girl to

Hills Like White Elephants, published in 1927, embodies Hemingway’s style, and explores the issues of responsibility, communication, and unexpected life decisions, and does so in just four short pages. Hemingway drops us off in the middle of a conversation between a boyfriend and girlfriend, in which the couple discusses whether or not to abort their unborn child. The man, known as the American, pressures the girl, known only as Jig, into going through with the abortion, while Jig subtly suggests that she would rather keep the child and settle down. Neither of the characters states anything outright, and our limited perspective leaves it solely up to us to decipher the meaning of the story. Ernest Hemingway uses the symbolic setting and the themes of communication and unpredictability to drive home his belief that life is far from being happy, and rarely conforms to what we expect.

Just like everyone else I like for situations to go my way.  Sometimes I even surprise myself with what I will say or do just to get the outcome I want. Like I once gave my mom the silent treatment after arguing with her even though I was wrong. I said certain things around her to make her feel guilty until she was overcome with so much guilt that she ended up apologizing and taking me shopping. I like for things to go my way, but the man did in Ernest Hemingway's "Hills Like White Elephants" is an extremist. I was appalled by the man's deceptive behavior with Jig.

In “Hills Like White Elephants” by Ernest Hemingway, which takes place in 1927, a character who goes by the American makes abortions seem like a harmless procedure: “It’s really an awfully simple operation, Jig… It’s not really an operation at all” (140). This, however, is not the case and Jig knows that there is more to it than it just a simple surgery. Whether it was a manipulation driven tactic or pure ignorance, the American couldn’t have been further from the truth. During the twenties, an overwhelming number of women either died or suffered severe medical complications during an abortion due to its taboo nature. With abortion being illegal in that time, Hemingway tastefully leaves it to the readers to figure out what type of

My first reading of Hemmingway’s “Hills Like White Elephants” left me a little confused because of the fragmented way in which it is written. After I reread it I had a better understanding of the message Hemmingway was trying to leave readers with. The issue that is being addressed in this narrative is the topic of abortion. This is never directly stated in the narrative but the reader can infer that is the operation the characters are talking about. In addition to that I also noticed that the characters are just talking to each other rather than communicating.

Hills Like White Elephants Luke Wakumoto In Ernest Hemingway’s short story “Hills Like White Elephants,” a couple discusses whether or not the woman should have an abortion. In the story, the couple’s final decision was left ambiguous. Though there are many theories about the outcome, it can be inferred that the couple did not have the abortion because the man left his baggage near the delta, the couple ordered “Anis del Toro” in a bar, and Ernest Hemingway’s stories often parallel his life experiences. The man throughout the short story is shown moving his bags.

Though Hills like White Elephants is a very short story, it offers a lot to be taken away from it. I feel like every person that reads it can get a different message from the story. That is one of the things that makes Hills like White Elephants such a great story. I can relate to this story very easily because I have been in situations that are somewhat similar to the one the American and Jig is in.

In the story “Hills Like White Elephants” Earnest Hemingway constantly talks about throughout the entirety of the story white elephants and this operation. It is through symbolism that you begin to understand the story better. Just about every movement in this short story has an underlying meaning. Which better help you understand the story better such as the characters’ actions and decisions. For example, the white elephants that are mentioned throughout the story symbolizes the unborn child. The story describes the child as long and white. The long stands for the long process of having child and how the child would consume eighteen long years of the couples lives. The whiteness of the hills refers to the purity and innocence of the unborn

Though there are different ways to communicate with others, not all of them are helpful in certain situations. For instance, if two people do not agree on a topic their methods of communication could be poor. In the short story “Hills like White Elephants” by Ernest Hemingway, The American and his girlfriend Jig are arguing over an issue. The issue may or may not be the abortion of their unborn child.

Out of 1 million teenage girls that become pregnant each year, 35% are faced with making a life decision that will internally change them forever. The guilt that comes from going through something like terminating a pregnancy helps us to better understand why it is such a difficult decision to make and how it will change a person forever. In Gwendolyn Brooks poem “The Mother” she portrays in great detail what life is like after going through the unimaginable experience of terminating a pregnancy. In it she points out that it is something she will never forget and how the littlest of things remind her of it on a day to day basis. In Ernst Hemmingway’s writing “Hills Like White Elephants” he draws attention to the process of what a couple goes through when trying to come to the challenging decision of continuing the pregnancy or terminating. He demonstrates how it is a decision that does not come easy, therefore resulting in a lot of uncertainty. When analyzing the reality of what a person goes through after experiencing a traumatic life decision in Gwendolyn Brooks “The Mother” it helps the reader better understand the indecisiveness and innocence that the girl faces in Ernst Hemmingway’s “Hills Like White Elephants” when she is trying to come to the same difficult life decision. Throughout Brook’s poem “The Mother” she uses detailed examples on how going through such a traumatic decision has affected her and how it is something she will live with for the rest of her life. To illustrate, her opening line in the poem starts “Abortions will not let you forget. And you remember the children you got that you did not get” (Brooks 388). Here she is indicating how going through a struggle as heartbreaking as this will stay with you forever, never letting you forget. This is only one of many ways that Brooks demonstrates how extremely hard it is to keep living though life without being reminded of the past. It is something that a person cannot just ‘get over and move on’. Time does nothing to help the healing, making this experience something that a person is not able to ever completely overcome.

“Hills Like White Elephants”, written by Ernest Hemingway, is part of the collection Men Without Women. This particular short story takes place at a bar while its protagonists are waiting for a train. The two main characters consist of an American man and a woman named Jig. The two order a cold beer, as the man introduces the key focus of their ensuing discussion, a simple operation, which in this case alludes to an abortion. The dialogue, and the symbolism within it, seem to deliberately hide the actual focus, theme and plot of the story, allowing - actually forcing - the reader to deduce the actual topic and the story’s eventual conclusion, leaving the reader to read into the story the eventual outcome of the relationship between the man

his greatest creations Hills like White Elephants emerged in 1920. A short story consisting of

In an analysis of the story “Hills like white elephants” by Ernest Hemmingway, one is forced to take a deep look at the hidden meanings embedded in the story. Considering the point of view, the significance of the location and its relevance to the story, the structure of the text, the symbolic meaning of the two landscapes and the title of the story, the entrails of the story are exposed.