Hills Like White Elephants

Hills Like White Elephants Ernest Hemingway’s Hills Like White Elephants presents a fictional example of the modern day prevalence of miscommunication among others, namely men and women. Depicted through the couple and the present issue at hand, Hemingway strives to allude to the unfortunate truth that despite constant speaking among beings, genuine communication continues to fall short and is nearly nonexistent. Existing is the lack of productivity when the true feelings of both parties are not expressed. Continuing this theory, rather than communicating, the couple simply endures one another’s opinions, failing to share their true opinions, and in doing so defeating the main purpose in communicating. The dramatic dialogue between the man and woman is able to accurately capture the common differences that occur often among the attempts of men and women communicating, displays their failure to do so, and foreshadows the inevitable end of their relationship that this miscommunicating led to. While the actual topic that the conversation in itself alludes to is questionable, the fact of miscommunication and its aid in severing relationships remains. When faced with a difficult decision, the Jig and the American, simplified as man and woman, each possesses a differing opinion on what action to take. Although words are exchanged they fail to actually communicate. The powerful dialogue exchanged between the two appears to hold little to know meaning and they seem to possibly even be speaking about different things in entirety. The difficulty of men and women communicating is not a newly presented issue, rather one that has been in existence for years. Clues apparent in the language of both speakers bring forth noticeable differences in the dialogue of the different characters. Stereotypical judgments define the voice of each. “Jig’s superficiality and manipulative-ness, for example are judgmental labels linked to her language and contingent on an evaluation of her

Cited: Hemingway, Ernest. Hills Like White Elephants. New York: Scribner 's, 1927. O 'Brien, Timothy D. "Allusion, Word-Play, and the Central Conflict in Hemingway 's 'Hills Like White Elephants '." www.csus.edu. 28 November 2011 . Smiley, Pamela. "Gender-Linked Miscommunication in "Hils Like White Elephants"." 1988. 28 November 2011 .