Analysis

Hills Like White Elephants

1. Title: Hills Like White Elephants: Ernest Hemmingway

2. Background of The Work

The short story “Hills Like White Elephants,” by Ernest Hemingway, is about a young
couple and the polemic (controversial) issue of abortion. Though the word “abortion” is
nowhere in the story, it is doubtlessly understood through Hemingway’s powerful use of two
literary elements: setting and symbolism. First published in transition in August of 1927, “Hills
Like White Elephants” became an important piece in Hemingway’s second collection of short
stories, Men Without Women. “Hills Like White Elephants,” a widely-anthologized and much-
discussed story, offers a glimpse at the spare prose and understated dialogue that represents
Hemingway’s mastery of style.

3. Author’s Background

Ernest Hemingway is an American author considered one of the most influential writers
of the 20th century. Ernest Miller Hemingway was the second child born to Grace Hall
Hemingway and Clarence ("Ed") Edmonds Hemingway in Oak Park, Illinois on July 21, 1899.
Best known for his novels and short stories, he was also an accomplished journalist and war
correspondent. Hemingway's trademark prose style — simple and spare — influenced a
generation of writers. He was awarded both the Pulitzer Prize and the Nobel Prize in literature
and several of his books were made into movies. After a long struggle with depression,
Hemingway took his own life in 1961.

4. Character Tree and Characterization

The Girl The Man

The Man and the girl

The Man or the American

The male protagonist of the story. He is the man who got the girl pregnant. He never reveals his
name, nor does the girl ever directly address him by name. He is determined to convince the
girl to have an abortion.
Jig(Jig)

Jig is a young woman who finds herself pregnant with her lover. She is unhappy with both
choices in front of her: keep the baby and lose the American, or abort the baby and keep the
American.

5. Setting: Physical and Chronological

The story is set in Spain, in the valley of the Ebro were long and white. On this side there was
no shade and no trees and the station was between two lines of rails in the sun. Close against
the side of the station there was the warm shadow of the building and a curtain, made of
strings of bamboo beads, hung across the open door into the bar.

6. Plot:

1. The American and the girl with him sat at a table in the shade, outside the building.

2. The woman brought two glasses of beer and two felt pads. She put the felt pads and
the beer glasses on the table and looked at the man and the girl.

3. The girl looked across at the hills.

4. The girl looked at the bead curtain, put her hand out and took of two of the strings of
beads.

5. The girl stood up and walked to the end of the station.

6. They sat down at the table and the girl looked across at the hills on the dry side of
the valley and the man looked at her and at the table.

7. He did not say anything but looked at the bags against the wall of the station. There
were labels on them from all the hotels where they had spent nights.

8. The woman came out through the curtains with two glasses of beer and put them
down on the damp felt pads.

9. He picked up the two heavy bags and carried them around the station to the other
tricks. He looked up the tracks but could not see the train.

10. He asks if the girl is better, and she replies that she feels fine.

7. Styles of the author

a. Point of View

 Third Person- the author was narrating the story.

b. Symbolism

The openness and loneliness around the railroad station.

 - It imply that there is no way to back out of the problem at hand and that the man
and the girl must address it now.

White Hills

- the birth of her baby – something unique like the uncommon white
elephant.

White - symbolizes the innocence and purity of her unborn child.

The fields of grain and trees-

represent fertility and fruitfulness, which symbolize her
current pregnant state and the life in her womb.
Ebro River- represents life
Dry side of the valley- symbolizing her body after the abortion
The bags with all the hotel labels- symbolize his vivacious spirit.
White Elephants- Sacred, female fertility and cast-off items

8. Cultural Implication

 Abortion in our society

9. Theme(s) Explanation

Whatever the choice will be made there is always consequences. Abortion is not the solution of
the problem and the consequences of having the baby will not be the reason to the breakup of
the relationship.

10. Implications of the Title.

The short story “Hills Like White Elephants,” by Ernest Hemingway, is about a young couple
and the polemic (controversial) issue of abortion. A white elephant is generally thought of as
unusual and cumbersome, in short, a problem. Various theories exist. The white elephant
could be the pregnancy, the baby itself, the abortion.