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Sure Thing And Hills Like White Elephants

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“The real art of conversation is not only to say the right thing in the right place but to leave the wrong thing unsaid at any tempting moment.” -Dorothy Nevill
Conversation is a part of our everyday human lives. Yet, it is something that some people really struggle with. This theme is portrayed in both David Ives’ one-act short play Sure Thing and the short story Hills Like White Elephants by Ernest Hemingway. Sure Thing comes from Ives’ collection, All in the Timing, which includes many ten-minute plays dealing with irony, timing and language (Green). In Sure Thing, both parties handle communication in different ways. The play is packed with irony, humor, intense characterization, and satire from the very beginning. Hills Like White Elephants …show more content…

Since the short story is written primarily in dialogue, it makes it very similar to reading a play. The conversation is very generalized and not specific at all, it leaves a lot up to the reader to use critical thinking skills to determine what the story is actually about. The story starts with the American man and Jig having a beer and making awkward, forced conversation; Jig looks over the hills and sees the clouds and says “They look like white elephants.” This is an example of the author using symbolism; a white elephant in communication usually refers to something big or problematic, i.e. “addressing the elephant in the room.” Jig is trying to avoid the conversation about the abortion, but she ultimately knows that it is an unavoidable topic. The motif in this short story is unquestionably the beer; they turn to the alcohol because they are trying to avoid their real life situation at hand. They drink large beers to fill up time so that they have less time to talk about the unborn baby and once the American brings up the topic Jig orders more beer. While reading the conversation it becomes apparent that the American’s tone is emotionless; after all, he refers to the abortion of their unplanned baby as “It’s an awfully simple operation. It’s not really an operation at all.” Jig tries

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