Hills Like White Elephants: A Literary Analysis

Over the years short stories have become popular for readers to be able to read and connect with the story that isn’t drawn out. “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been” (Oates, 1966) and “Hills Like White Elephants, (Hemingway, 1927)”. Both of these short stories tell about decisions that have to be made through different conflicts and really just making decisions for what is best for oneself.

In “Hills Like White Elephants,” the author brings out two important characters. A man, who has no name; he is only known as an American man. And a girl, called only Jig. To me, the author did not name the man on purpose. The author wanted to show explicitly that the man represented many types of American men, therefore his identity was not obfuscated.
A lot of the readers can relate to this because everyone goes through that stage of not feeling wanted. For Jig she was referring to her baby that was not wanted. Personally, Jig wanted the baby. Notice when she said “They’re lovely hills, (Hemingway, 1927)”, meaning that Jig was trying to get off the subject. The America man was trying to persuade her to abort it. Noticing that, when he said, “It’s really an awfully simple operation, Jig, (Hemingway, 1927).” Then, he continued, “It’s not really an operation at all, (Hemingway, 1927)” Anyone could clearly see that he was talking about aborting the baby because he kept repeating sentences like “I know you wouldn’t mind it, Jig. It’s nothing. It’s not as painful, as you think, (Hemingway, 1927)”. In the end, Jig doesn’t want to abort the baby, but does anyway because it seemed like she just wanted the situation to end and also the manipulation by her man who keeps saying that if you get rid of the baby everything will go back as it
Oates uses a supernatural figure of evil to illustrate this theme. Arnold Friend, is the devil. His victim is Connie, an average teenage girl, who is vain. Arnold Friend comes to personify the devil who Connie doesn’t mean to, but she invites him in.
Connie had a "habit of craning her neck to glance into mirrors or checking other people's faces to make sure her own was all right, (Oates, 1966, p152)”. This quote shows that she is all about how she appears on the outside, which of course makes her seem vain. Arnold saw this in Connie, which made her an easy target. While trying to convince Connie to go with him, Arnold says, "Not worried about your hair blowing around in the car, are you, (Oates, 1966, p158)”. The author uses a foreshadowing to show how insecure Connie is and how easy of a target she is going to