HILLS LIKE WHITE

ELEPHANTSReporters:

Pet Erachne P. GloriaGlaiza Q. Magriña

BackgroundOf theAuthor

BACKGROUND OF THE AUTHOR

Ernest Hemingway

Ernest Miller Hemingway was born on July 21, 1899, the second of six children, and spent his early years in Oak Park, a suburb of Chicago. Both his mother and father were active members of the First Congregational Church and ran a strict household.

All their children were required to abstain from any enjoyment on Sundays, for example, and were strictly punished for any disobedience. Hemingway later condemned them for their distinctly middle-class values and oppressive sense of morality.

BACKGROUND OF THE AUTHOR

Intelligent and an avid nature lover, Hemingway demonstrated a clear talent for writing from a young age. In fact, he published his first literary work at age seventeen. His father encouraged him to attend college after finishing high school, but Hemingway wanted to enter the army or become a writer.

When his father refused to allow him to enlist, Hemingway left home and began reporting for the Kansas City Star.

BACKGROUND OF THE AUTHOR

Hemingway began to hone his now-famous literary style during his years as a reporter. His editors instructed him to write short, factual sentences without too many negatives to deliver the facts in his articles. He later incorporated this writing style into his own fiction writing.

BACKGROUND OF THE AUTHOR

Hemingway soon grew restless and left the Star to serve in the Red Cross, where he worked as an ambulance driver in Europe during World War I. While recovering from a knee injury in a hospital in Milan, he fell in love with a nurse named Agnes von Kurosky. Although their relationship didn’t last, he based his novel A Farewell To Arms (1929) on their romance.

BACKGROUND OF THE AUTHOR

Despite his success, Hemingway struggled with depression and alcoholism for most of his adult life. Many critics claim that his writing deteriorated after World War II, when his mental and physical health took a turn for the worse. He died in the summer of 1961 from a self-inflicted gunshot wound at age sixty-one.

BACKGROUND OF THE AUTHOR

Characters

The American The male protagonist of the story. The

American never reveals his name, nor does the girl ever directly address him by name. He is determined to convince the girl to have the operation but tries to appear as though he doesn’t care what she does. He remains disconnected from his surroundings, not really understanding or even listening to what the girl has to say.

CHARACTERS

CHARACTERS

The GirlThe female protagonist of the story. The

American calls the girl “Jig” at one point in the story but never mentions her real name. Unlike the American, the girl is less sure of what she wants and appears reluctant to have the operation in question. She alternates between wanting to talk about the operation and wanting to avoid the topic altogether.

CHARACTERS

The BartenderThe woman serving drinks to the

American man and the girl. The bartender speaks only Spanish.

AnalysisOf

Major Characters

ANALYSIS OF MAJOR CHARACTERS

The American Throughout the story, the American behaves

according to Hemingway’s rigid conception of masculinity. Hemingway portrays the American as a rugged man’s man—knowledgeable, worldly, and always in control of himself and the situation at hand.

Even when vexed or confused, he maintains his cool and feigns indifference, such as when he tells the girl he doesn’t care whether she has the operation.

ANALYSIS OF MAJOR CHARACTERS

The American He initially avoids discussion of their problems,

but when pressured, he tackles them head on by oversimplifying the operation and relentlessly pushing her to have it. Thinking himself to be the more reasonable of the two, he patronizes the girl and fails to provide the sympathy and understanding she needs during the crisis.

ANALYSIS OF MAJOR CHARACTERS

The American Uncompromising, he seems to identify

more with the other passengers “waiting reasonably” at the station than with his own girlfriend at the end of the story, which suggests that the two will go their separate ways.

ANALYSIS OF MAJOR CHARACTERS

The Girl Compared to the American, Hemingway’s overly

masculine character, the girl is less assertive and persuasive. Throughout the story, the girl appears helpless, confused, and indecisive.

She changes her mind about the attractiveness of the surrounding hills, for example; claims to selflessly care only for the American; and seems uncertain about whether she wants to have the operation. In fact, the girl can’t even order drinks from the bartender on her own without having to rely on the man’s ability to speak Spanish.

ANALYSIS OF MAJOR CHARACTERS

The Girl Ironically, the girl seems to understand that her

relationship with the American has effectively ended, despite her professed desire to make him happy. She knows that even if she has the operation, their relationship won’t return to how it used to be.

In many ways, the girl’s realization of this fact gives her power over the American, who never really understands why they still can’t have “the whole world” like they once did.

Setting

Hemingway sets “Hills Like White Elephants” at a train station to highlight the fact that the relationship between the American man and the girl is at a crossroads. Planted in the middle of a desolate valley, the station isn’t a final destination but merely a stopping point between Barcelona and Madrid.

SETTING

Plot

“Hills Like White Elephants” opens with a long description of the story’s setting in a

train station surrounded by hills, fields, and trees in a valley in Spain. A man known

simply as the American and his girlfriend sit at a table outside the station, waiting for a

train to Madrid.

EXPOSITION

They order more drinks, and the American mentions that he wants the girl, whom he calls “Jig,” to have an operation, although he never actually specifies what kind of operation. He seems agitated and tries to downplay the operation’s seriousness. He argues that the operation would be simple, for example, but then says the procedure really isn’t even an operation at all.

CRISIS

The girl says nothing for a while, but then she asks what will happen after she’s had the operation. The man answers that things will be fine afterward, just like they were before, and that it will fix their problems. He says he has known a lot of people who have had the operation and found happiness afterward. The girl dispassionately agrees with him. The American then claims that he won’t force her to have the operation but thinks it’s the best course of action to take. She tells him that she will have the operation as long as he’ll still love her and they’ll be able to live happily together afterward.

CLIMAX

The man then emphasizes how much he cares for the girl, but she claims not to care about what happens to herself. The American weakly says that she shouldn’t have the operation if that’s really the way she feels. The girl then walks over to the end of the station, looks at the scenery, and wonders aloud whether they really could be happy if she has the operation. They argue for a while until the girl gets tired and makes the American promise to stop talking.

DENOUMENT

The Spanish bartender brings two more beers and tells them that the train is coming in five minutes. The girl smiles at the bartender but has to ask the American what she said because the girl doesn’t speak Spanish. After finishing their drinks, the American carries their bags to the platform and then walks back to the bar, noticing all the other people who are also waiting for the train. He asks the girl whether she feels better. She says she feels fine and that there is nothing wrong with her.

ENDING

Conflict

Man vs. ManMan vs. Himself

CONFLICT

PointOf

View

Third Person Limited Point of View

POINT OF VIEW

Theme

Talking vs. CommunicatingAlthough “Hills Like White Elephants” is primarily a

conversation between the American man and his girlfriend, neither of the speakers truly communicates with the other, highlighting the rift between the two. Both talk, but neither listens or understands the other’s point of view.

Frustrated and placating, the American man will say almost anything to convince his girlfriend to have the operation, which, although never mentioned by name, is understood to be an abortion.

THEME

He tells her he loves her, for example, and that everything between them will go back to the way it used to be. The girl, meanwhile, waffles indecisively, at one point conceding that she’ll have the abortion just to shut him up. When the man still persists, she finally begs him to “please, please, please, please, please, please” stop talking, realizing the futility of their conversation.

THEME

Motif

DrinkingBoth the American man and the girl drink alcohol

throughout their conversation to avoid each other and the problems with their relationship. They start drinking large beers the moment they arrive at the station as if hoping to fill their free time with anything but discussion. Then, as soon as they begin talking about the hills that look like white elephants, the girl asks to order more drinks to put off the inevitable conversation about the baby.

MOTIF

Symbol

White ElephantsA white elephant symbolizes something no one

wants—in this story, the girl’s unborn child. The girl’s comment in the beginning of the story that the surrounding hills look like white elephants initially seems to be a casual, offhand remark, but it actually serves as a segue for her and the American to discuss their baby and the possibility of having an abortion.

SYMBOL

White ElephantsThe girl later retracts this comment with the

observation that the hills don’t really look like white elephants, a subtle hint that perhaps she wants to keep the baby after all—a hint the American misses. In fact, she even says that the hills only seemed to look like white elephants at first glance, and that they’re actually quite lovely.

SYMBOL

CulturalImplicatio

n

Abortion in our society; andDrinking liquors in

encountering such problems

CULTURAL IMPLICATION

The Iceberg TheoryAnd

Hemingway’s Style

Many first-time readers read “Hills Like White Elephants” as nothing more than a casual conversation between two people waiting for a train and therefore miss the unstated dramatic tension lurking between each line. As a result, many people don’t realize that the two are actually talking about having an abortion and going their separate ways, let alone why the story was so revolutionary for its time.

THE ICEBERG THEORY AND HEMINGWAY’S STYLE

In accordance with his so-called Iceberg Theory, Hemingway stripped everything but the bare essentials from his stories and novels, leaving readers to sift through the remaining dialogue and bits of narrative on their own. Just as the visible tip of an iceberg hides a far greater mass of ice underneath the ocean surface, so does Hemingway’s dialogue belie the unstated tension between his characters. In fact, Hemingway firmly believed that perfect stories conveyed far more through subtext than through the actual words written on the page. The more a writer strips away, the more powerful the “iceberg,” or story, becomes.

THE ICEBERG THEORY AND HEMINGWAY’S STYLE

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