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Master storyteller Ernest Hemingway is ranked among the best American literary writers who specialized in writing novels and short stories. Among the latter, ‘Hills like White Elephants’ stands out as one of the most intriguing tales he has ever written.
Hemingway wrote ‘Hills like White Elephants’ in the third-person perspective that restricts the tale to the words and actions of the characters. The plot of the tale revolves around the conversation between a man and a woman (Stukas). Hemingway does not reveal the ages of the man and woman. They are lovers. The man is an American who is apparently financially well-off , while the girl’s nationality is not known. The girl is pregnant as a result of their sexual relationship; the couple has traveled to Spain with the aim of having her undergo an abortion. Hemingway informs about Jig and the American without actually informing about them by ensuring an overall brevity in presentation that is exquisitely coupled appropriate adverbs and adjectives; apart from this, he powerfully uses two literary elements: setting and symbolism.
The tale covers a very brief time span, yet it succeeds in relating a story that has a much wider scope than itself (Stukas). Hemingway ensures brevity by using short sentences and paragraphs shorn of verbosity. He makes little use of adverbs and adjectives. In addition to descriptive adverbs like ‘angrily,’ he uses ‘perfectly simple’ and ‘perfectly natural’ to describe the operation and ‘afterward’ being the post-abortion period referred to by the man. He uses descriptive adjectives like ‘lovely’ hills, ‘nice and cool’ beer and ‘warm’ wind. He uses descriptive verbs like ‘amused,’ ‘worry,’ ‘happy,’ ‘upset’ and ‘afraid’ to describe the couple’s feelings at various stages of the story.
The setting establishes an undercurrent of tension that prevails throughout the story. The conversation between the man and woman takes place while they are at a railway station in Spain (Stukas). The “station was between two lines of rails” (Hemingway) indicate the couple presently embroiled in the throes of a vital decision in their lives that involves two choices that are opposite in nature . The addition of the words: “There was no shade and no trees” (Hemingway) indicate that the pending decision is a drastic one; there is no way out and the couple have to deal with it immediately.
The use of symbolism starts soon after the waitress serves two glasses of beer. When Jig looks “far off at the line of hills” and remarks that “they look like white elephants” (Hemingway), she is delightedly foreseeing the birth of her child – something extraordinary that is also steeped in divinity . In addition, white elephants are costly animals to own and very expensive to rear; as they are looked upon as holy animals, they are prevented from doing any work, and as a result, become financial burdens whereby possessing them may be a source of pride and pleasure, but also causes a disadvantage (Stukas).
The second symbolism involves absinthe and licorice. The girl remarks that the green, aphrodisiac liqueur tastes like licorice . It suggests their life pattern has become so casual and insignificant that even a bitter situation is trivialized and the sexual pleasure that was involved is forgotten. Jig stands up and walks to the end of the station, observing “fields of grain and trees along the bank of the Ebro” (Hemingway). The fields and trees stand for fertility and prolificacy that represent Jig’s present pregnancy; river Ebro, which provides life-giving water for the fields and trees, symbolizes the life that is growing in Jig’s womb.
But then the “shadow of a cloud” (Hemingway) that symbolizes the impending abortion, dispels Jig’s happiness and optimism. She converses with the man and it is very apparent that he prefers the abortion, and everything he says is aimed at convincing her to undergo it. As she ponders his point of view, Jig “looked across the hills on the dry side of the valley” (Hemingway) which is dull and devoid of vegetation, representing her body in the aftermath of the abortion operation. When the man persists in talking about the abortion, she reveals her growing frustration by blurting: “Would you please, please, please, please, please, please, please stop talking” (Hemingway).
Hemingway next uses another adroit bit of symbolism to give readers an insight of the American. The man “looked at the bags” which had “labels on them from all the hotels where they had spent nights” (Hemingway). The American comes across as one who likes to travel extensively and enjoy female companionship without commitment. He favors the abortion because he will not be forced to marry Jig and settle down thereby giving up his much cherished free lifestyle. He is so unscrupulous that he is ready to kill a human being to preserve his freedom.
The story ends with the awaited train about to arrive at the station. The train represents the journey of life. It can be progressive or regressive . The two movements symbolize the unsteady relationship of the couple. In addition, the very short stopping time of the train at the station is suggestive of the brief time available to the girl to undergo the abortion.
Hemingway tosses up another enigma at the end of the story. In doing so, he succeeds in exposing a facet of human nature that shows how we often tend to go against our better judgement and engage in undesirable actions just in order to either gratify another person or keep up the status quo (Stukas). When the man enquires how she feels, Jig replies: “There’s nothing wrong with me. I feel fine” (Hemingway). The words have 3 interpretations: Jig has made up her mind to have the abortion; she has decided not to undergo the abortion and give birth to her child; or she has decided to temporarily shut the matter from her mind and leave the abortion decision for another day. At the end of the tale, it is quite obvious that the vast majority of what is transpiring is not clear but left to the conclusion of the reader.
References
Hemingway, Ernest. “Hills like White Elephants.” Virginia Commonwealth University. (N.d). 2009. Web.
Stukas, Jake. “Literary Analysis: Hills like White Elephants, by Ernest Hemingway.” Helium, Inc. 2009. Web.
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