Prepared by,Loh Wei Yin

Ahmad IhsanDivya Kesavan

Khairulliza Shafiei

1. Setting

(a) Hot summer• Hints that there is trouble between the

couple and leads into their heated discussion.

“…there was no shade and no trees…” (p. 1)• There is no shade for either of them to hide

in. They have to face a decision that could ultimately ruin their relationship.

(b) Train station•Highlights the relationship between the American man and the girl is at a crossroads•Not a final destination, but a stopping point between Barcelona and Madrid. •Travellers have to decide where to go and, in this case, the couple have to determine whether to go with each other and continue their relationship

(c) Contrast between the “white hills” (p. 1) and “barren valley” (p. 4)

• Emphasises the opposition between life and death, fertility and sterility, and reflects the choices the girl face between having the baby or having the abortion

2. Symbolisms

(a) White elephants

“They look like white elephants” (p.1)• “White elephants” = something no one wants• Jig thinks that her unborn baby is something

no one wants (includes Jig herself)

“They don’t really look like white elephants” (p. 2)

• Hints that she wants to keep the baby instead of having an abortion

(b) Shadow of a cloud / field of grain and river

“The shadow of a cloud moved across the field of grain and she saw the river through the trees.” (p. 3)•Shadow of a cloud = abortion of the fetus•“Field of grain” and “river” = fertility / her current pregnancy

(c) Dry side of the valley

“…the girl looked across at the hills on the dry side of the valley…” (p. 4)•“dry side of the valley” = Jig’s body after abortion•Jig thinks that she might become infertile after the abortion.

(d) Bags with labels

“There were labels on them from all the hotels where they had spent nights.” (p. 4)•Bags with labels = current lifestyle of the American man which is attractively lively and carefree.•He wants the abortion, so that he can keep his youthful desires of seeing the world.•If Jig goes ahead with the pregnancy, he would have to settle down and raise a family.

Dingo Felluga’s “Introduction to Modernism and Postmodernism” lists:irony and parody, a breakdown between high and low cultural forms, a questioning of grand narratives, simulacrum versus temporality, confusion, and secondary orality as characteristics of postmodernism.

"What should we drink?" the girl asked.(pg 35) “Anis del Toro. It’s a drink.” “Could we try it?” (pg 35) Jig does not even think twice about drinking. In

addition, Jig does consume a lot of alcohol at the train station.

Furthermore, pop culture has always thumbed its nose at the moral restrictions placed on Post-modern texts.

In 1919, laws were passed for the Prohibition New of consumption and even possession of alcohol making them illegal.

Through postmodern theory, the confusion between what we expect and what is actually in the text is where the purpose of contemporary American literature can often be found.

Ex: Though the word “abortion” is nowhere in Hill Like White Elephants, it is doubtlessly understood through Hemingway’s powerful use of two literary elements: setting and symbolism.

Abortion was common in most of colonial America, but it was kept secret because of strict laws against unmarried sexual activity.

Laws specifically against abortion became widespread in America in the second half of the 1800s, and by 1900 abortion was illegal everywhere in the USA, except in order to save the life of the mother.

Journal of the American Medical Association reported that in the late 1920s some 15,000 women a year died from abortions.

However, the fact didn’t stop the American to persuade Jig to do the operation.

“It’s really an awfully simple operation Jig,” the man said.(pg 36)

“…But I know it’s perfectly simple.”(pg 37)

“I wont worry about that because it’s perfectly simple.”(pg 37)

We might can say that the American is the postmodernist itself because:

The post-modern view rejects the idea of a universal morality. (He did not think that abortion is wrong)

The post-modern movement tends to mistrust science and medicine. (He ignores the side-effect of the abortion to Jig.)

Self-actualization—or the realizing one's full potential—is the ultimate goal of many post-moderns. (He feared that having a baby would get in the their way of achieving their goals.)

From a feminist point of view, Ernest Hemingway's "Hills Like White Elephants" uses a excess of symbolism to convey the idea that a young girl named Jig is a typical woman dealing with a woman's choice.

In his short story, "Hills Like White Elephants", Hemingway describes a stereotypical feminine role when Jig gives into the American man's desire to have an abortion.

The American man will make the decision because he is the one who understands the world while Jig plays the feminine role of being inexperienced and relying on the man.

Jig never tells the American man that she does not want an abortion.

She does not have the courage to deny the man of what he wants because she is afraid of being silenced. Jig is immature and lacks the ability to express herself to the older man without being silenced.

There are also many signs in the story that Jig will have the abortion giving into the American man's wishes.

The quote "the shadow of a cloud moved across the field of grain" can be interpreted as a metaphor for an abortion.

Jig's baby is fertile and alive, like the field, and the shadow of abortion will come down upon the fertile baby and kill it.

She has nowhere else to go and nothing else to do besides follow the man. Thus again, putting herself in a stereotypical feminine role of being dependent upon a man.

She will let him decide the outcome of their situation. This is because she is in a powerless feminine role.

The protagonist in Hemingway's short story "Hills Like White Elephants" will concede to having an abortion. Jig is not a feminist because she concedes to the wishes of her male partner thereby making "Hills Like White Elephants” non-feminist literature.