Preview

Abortion In Ernest Hemingway's Hills Like White Elephants

Satisfactory Essays
Open Document
Open Document
197 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Abortion In Ernest Hemingway's Hills Like White Elephants
If Ernest Hemingway’s “Hills Like White Elephants” had been told in first person, the story would be far more direct and insightful. Throughout the short story the third person narration vaguely outlines a conversation, which one assumes is about abortion, between an American man and Jig. Although never stated, one could infer (through Hemingway’s clever writing techniques) that Jig does not want this abortion and will never be the same once the operation is finished. If told through Jig’s perspective, perhaps the reader would know for a fact what the topic was about. The reader could also be exposed to the deeper meaning behind her statement “(the hills) look like white elephants.” Additionally, the reader might understand the frustration

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Hills Like White Elephant is a story that is narrated with very little detail. The subject of the couples argument is never given yet we are able to find out through the writing. This goes on with the whole story as we must dig deeper to see the hidden clues that Hemingway has left us with. Though this narration is very limited, we are able to analyze sections to strengthen the meaning of the…

    • 823 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Ernest Hemingway’s “Hills Like White Elephants” portrays the turmoil a couple endures when faced with an unplanned pregnancy, the choice to hold onto their current life or to begin a new life. Readers are allowed to intrude on a conversation between an American man and a girl, further conflict is presented through Hemingway’s use of symbolism. The man wants to go through with an abortion while the girl is unsure about which track she should take. Throughout the story, Hemmingway’s use of abundant details about the setting, rather than providing much detail about the characters, reveal a conflict between the man’s desire for the girl to have a “perfectly natural” (Hemingway 116) procedure and the decision to forgo an “awfully simple operation”…

    • 1025 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Although most of the features of "Hills Like White Elephants" have been well discussed and understood, so that Paul Smith, in his 1989 survey of opinion on the story, can wonder if there is anything left to say about it (209), what has not been satisfactorily resolved is the question of the ending. In view of the fact that Hemingway leaves virtually everything, even what is at issue between the girl and the American, for the reader to "figure" out, meanwhile unobtrusively supplying what is needed to understand the story's structure and conflict, it seems logical to assume that he also expected the reader to be able to answer the question left by the story's ending: What are the couple going to do about the girl's pregnancy? Yet the ending…

    • 175 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Better Essays

    Although we are all humans, we have two very different genders a man and a woman. Each gender comes with a different body and ways our bodies react to things, as well the ability of those bodies. Even within the same gender there are differences in body types and what they are able to do. For example some women are incapable of having children, while other women have an easy time having children. Such as some men are naturally skinny while other men are naturally more big boned and heavier, also having trouble losing weight. There are women with these problems as well. The different body parts that a man and woman have is perhaps the biggest difference between the two genders and is often at the center of argument or debate between the genders. While those are major differences between the genders, the biggest differences is how our minds work and react to different situations in our lives. All those differences between genders also get added on by the diverse cultures and races in…

    • 1430 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Becoming a parent is something most people see in their future, however it often comes at the wrong time for some people. In Ernest Hemingway’s, “Hills Like White Elephants”, we see a couple’s conversation as it leads up to the decision they are making on whether or not to have an abortion. With the white elephants representing a metaphor for the unborn child, we are able to see the struggle of a couple trying to make a decision on whether to keep the child or not, through which it is apparent that the two of them as a couple don’t communicate properly and the girl does not normally know how to make her own decisions.…

    • 941 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Does Ernest Hemingway’s use of direct presentation of the subjects; simple, direct language, and compression make it impossible for the audience to emotionally connect to the story? Most writer’s goal is to intrigue their readers with their work. They want their reader to connect, emotionally, they want their complete attention. For this to happen you must be interesting, paint pictures in their minds, get them involved in the reading, build a relationship, and tell a story! Although Ernest Hemingway’s “Hills like White Elephants” has great use of direct language, direct presentation of subjects, amazing characterization…

    • 243 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The short story “Hills Like White Elephants” was written by Ernest Hemingway. The author seems to be a minimalist where he does not provide explanation about the very issue why the couple is unhappy and annoyed with each other. To have a more deeper understanding on the literature, I have looked up a translated version of it and according to a Japanese translation of the very story, it said that the problem was about her pregnancy and that the man wants her to have an abortion. It was then understandable that why the author might have left that information out of the story because, having an abortion is not something you would talk in public which in this story’s case, they happened to be in some kind of bar. I believe…

    • 466 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The story "Hills like White Elephants" by Ernest Hemingway is a fascinating story about one couple having faced with an unexpected pregnancy. The theme of the story is about the couple's decision between life and death. The main character Jig and The American are in disagreements on weather to keep their baby, or have an abortion. The couple's lack of communication creates the conflict in the story. For example, Jigs says, "We can have all this..." "And everyday we make it more impossible" While this problem is going on, the couple is sitting at a train station in the middle of a valley. Each side of the valley represents either life or death. As Jig moves about in the story, she faces different sides of the valley, which helps to determine the decision she will make. With the many descriptions and symbolism throughout the story, the final decision seems as if Jig is keeping the baby.…

    • 949 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    "Hills Like White Elephants" by Earnest Hemingway In his summary of "Hills Like White Elephants" by Earnest Hemingway, Paul Rankin comes to a few conclusions about the a young girl in the story. Using both Carl Jung and Karen Horney’s application of human behavior to buttress his opinion, Rankin comes to the conclusion that Jig was the superior actor and the unnamed American is the inferior actor in the play. The evidence Rankin uses to prove Jung’s theory is that the nature of the mans feelings of inadequacy and inferiority in the face of Jigs imminent transformation from the girl into motherhood (Rankin 234). And his conclusions using Horney’s school of thought is mans fundamental lack of a life-creating power with which woman is imbued, has motivated the creation of such historically masculine enterprises as state, religion, art, and science, in mans attempt to compensate for that insurmountable deficiencies .a (Rankin 235) There is further evidence that Rankin’s take on the American in White Elephants is one of an inferior player by using the banter between Jig and the unnamed American male to show she was in control, We encounter further evidence of the mans inferiority complex in his severe response to Jigs playful banter about the similarity between hills and elephants. Having already admitted that he has never seen white elephants, the man angrily berates Jig, saying, Just because you say I wouldn’t have doesn’t prove anything (Rankin 236). Paul Rankin’s over all view of "Hills Like White…

    • 1026 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    When a reader reads a short story they need to pay attention because even the smallest of details are important. This proves to be true due to analysis of the surroundings of the characters and how they react to them. In Ernest Hemingway's short story "Hills Like White Elephants," the main conflict is a man who is trying to convince his female companion to have an abortion but the girl is resistant to the whole idea. Between the description of the couple's surroundings, their dialogue, and how they react to the setting, Hemingway manages to clearly depict the complexity of the situation and the two different points of view of the couple who are the main focus in the story.…

    • 1830 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Hills Like White Elephants

    • 1247 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Ernest Hemingway's impersonal objective narrative style is best exhibited in his short story, "Hills Like White Elephants", which describes a young girl and her older American boyfriend discussing whether or not she should have an abortion. Hemingway never explicitly uses the word abortion, but instead relies on the description and details of the setting to convey an idea of this weighty decision. It is his use of imagery, symbols, and dialogue that makes his minimalist technique most effective in expressing the real moral and importance of this story.…

    • 1247 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In a rail station, as the crossroads a life choice merge, the American and a girl have the necessary conversation that no one would like to discuss. Ernest Hemingway, in the story “Hills Like White Elephants,” describes the words between two people who have a different idea of how to deal with the girl’s pregnancy. The American man is attempting to convince Jig, the girl, to have an abortion, but the girl does not seem to have the same outlook as the story begins. Will Jig have the operation and move on with her life always wondering what if, or will she keep the baby? With the man’s consistent influence, the girl will most likely join his side and have the abortion.…

    • 548 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    The topic of "Hills Like White Elephants" by Ernest Hemingway continues to be a hot button issue, even 90 years after the story's publication. Though not as scandalous as it must have been in 1927, it remains the subject of great debate. In this short story, two lovers are awaiting a train that will whisk them away to Madrid for the purpose of an abortion. Even though the decision was made before arriving at the station, they continue to debate whether she will go through with it. The man's persuasive dialogue makes it apparent that he wants Jig to have the abortion and is worried that she will change her mind, however she is more concerned with the fate of her relationship with the man and the effects an abortion may have on her.…

    • 1546 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    “That’s our suspect? That scrawny looking thing?” I asked in disbelief. Nichols was next to me sipping precinct coffee.…

    • 1449 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Sometimes it takes a life-changing moment to awaken a person in a relationship the realities of those around them, Hemingway’s “Hills like White Elephant,” showcase techniques that express the relationship among the man and the girl who were in a short-flawed altercation about the girl going under an abortion operation.…

    • 689 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays