Hills Like White Elephants
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“Hills Like White Elephants” by Ernest Hemingway
Question: C
Ernest Hemingway's short story "Hills Like White Elephants" focuses on the theme of
love – specifically love in a romantic relationship – and how it can be complicated and
challenging to navigate. An American guy and his girlfriend are the story's protagonists in the
whole context. They are drinking beer and discussing a planned operation at the railway
station before boarding a train to Madrid. The story is written in Hemingway's signature
minimalist style. It uses various literary aspects to illustrate the relationship between the two
characters, Jig and the American, and how a tough decision Jig is testing their love must
make. The girl the American guy nicknames "jig" sometimes looks out at the far hills, which
she describes as looking like "white elephants" (Hemingway 476). The couple in the story
debate an issue that is not explicitly stated but can be inferred from the conversation. The
couple is discussing the possibility of the woman having an abortion. Also, the story focuses
on how they interact and their love for one another. Due to the limited conversation between
the American man and the girl, the narrative depends largely on themes and symbols to
convey its meaning. The story's central theme is the love relationships through
characterization and symbolism and the need to communicate and listen to one another to
solve problems via symbols and motifs.
The couple’s relationship can be identified as romantic, with underlying tones of
parental love. From the outset of the story, it is clear that the two characters have a deep
emotional connection. The woman is concerned with the man’s feelings, asking him if he will
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“be good” and telling him that she “loves him very much” (Hemingway 479). These
exchanges show they have a strong bond and are deeply in love. Furthermore, the woman’s
caring attitude towards the man suggests a parental element to their relationship, as she shows
concern for his well-being and wants him to be happy. The story serves as an illustration of the distinction between just talking and
communicating. The American man and his girlfriend are straining to communicate, but they
are having trouble understanding one another. Everybody is talking at once, but nobody is
listening to anybody else. Throughout the story, the guy and the girl argue back and forth
over the "simple procedure," but they never deviate from their original standpoints. This
makes the young woman agitated and she begins to tune out the rest of the talk. Due to their
inability to communicate effectively, she has doubts about her boyfriend's professed feelings
for her. Their connection will change significantly regardless of her choice, she realizes. She
withdraws from the conversation and requests termination after realizing that her partner
would not appreciate her point of view. She finally snaps at her partner, "Would you please
stop talking?" because she cannot take any more of his chatter (Hemingway 478). Each of
these events highlights the value of open lines of communication.
The white elephant is one of the symbols in the narrative. They represent the baby; the
woman is pregnant and considering keeping the child. On the other side, her partner believes
she should undergo the procedure, which indicates an abortion. As the pair is seated at the
station, the daughter observes the distant hills and compares them to white elephants. This
pertains to their discussion concerning the infant. The American guy is uninterested in the
comment that the hills resemble white elephants. She exclaims, "They do not look white
elephant," after a little jumbled discourse (Hemingway 476). She is passionate about keeping
the baby, just as she is intrigued by the hills representing the baby. Unfortunately, the
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gentleman does not like to explore its positive aspects. This strengthens the hills' symbolic
representation of a distant infant.
The railroad and the station are the other emblems in the narrative. The station was
situated between two railroad tracks. This represents the two options the couple encountered.
They might either carry the pregnancy to term or terminate it (Hemingway 476). Both actions
had identical repercussions; taking either line required transferring luggage. The train station
is separated, as were their efforts to resolve the matter at hand. It was their decision regarding
what to do. Whenever the train is expected to arrive in five minutes, it is the lover who brings
the luggage across the tracks. This represents the load that he will eventually have to
shoulder. The train will transport them on a trip comparable to their life.
The symbolism of the hills in the story also serves to illustrate the idea of love in
relationships. The hills are described as “white elephants,” suggesting that the couple’s
relationship is a burden they are struggling to carry (Hemingway 475-476). The woman’s
desire to cross the tracks to the other side of the hills implies that she wants to move on from
this burden and find a new path in life. The man’s unwillingness to do so shows that he is not
ready to let go of the love they share and is determined to work through their issues.
In conclusion, In Ernest Hemingway’s “Hills Like White Elephants,” the theme of
love in relationships is explored through characterization and symbolism. The couple’s
relationship can be identified as a romantic one with underlying tones of parental love,
further emphasized through the symbolism of the railway tracks and the hills. The story
suggests that relationships are never static but can change and evolve, and the power of love
can be a source of strength in difficult times. Hemingway uses figurative language to convey
the narrative. The narrative focuses primarily on communicating and listening. The American
guy and the girl are involved in a lengthy conversation where neither party is attentive to t
another. The author employs symbols to establish an extreme internal impression in the
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reader, who interprets the guy and his girlfriend's discussion. Symbols such as the hillsides,
the environment, the curtain, the railroad, and the station give interesting insights into the
terrible situations of the two characters. By considering this symbolism, the reader might
comprehend the difficulty of the two's abortion choices. The whole context depicts how the
man and woman avoided resolving their issues by ignoring them. Hemingway told the
narrative from the third-person perspective. This strategy successfully forces the reader to
consider the potential cognitive process and hardship of the characters' predicament.
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Works Cited
Hemingway, Ernst. “Hills like white elephants.” The Story and Its Writer: An Introduction to Short Fiction
. Ed. Charters, Ann. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2003. Print.