An Analysis Of The Short Story: Hills Like White Elephants (Essay Sample)

Analysis of the Short Story Hills like White Elephants
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Introduction
Ernest Hemingway’s “Hills Like White Elephants” narrates an account of a male and a female taking beer and anise liqueur while waiting for a train at a station in Spain (Ernest, 2016). The guy is trying to persuade the female to terminate a pregnancy, but the female is hesitant concerning it. The account takes its stiffness from their concise, hooked conversation. The story was initially published in 1927, and it typifies the author’s Iceberg Philosophy of writing and is largely anthologized in the 21st Century. In this essay, we shall analyze Hemingway’s Theory of writing and discuss the major themes, motifs, and symbols.
Hemingway’s Iceberg Philosophy
Also called the “philosophy of omission,” Hemingway’s Iceberg Philosophy resists that words on the page ought to be just a small section of the entire story (Ernest, 2016). These words are the proverbial “tip of the iceberg” and an author ought to utilize as minimal words as possible to symbolize the bigger, unwritten account which resides underneath. The author elaborated that this account “philosophy of omission” should not be applied as an excuse for an author not to acknowledge the details lying behind his or her narration. He emphasized this in his other short, story Death in the Afternoon that an author who neglects things merely because he doesn’t acknowledge them simply makes muffled places in his or her work. With just less than 1,500 words, “Hills Like White Elephant” illustrates this philosophy via its conciseness and the perceptible absence of the term “abortion,” although that is evidently the major theme of the story. Thee also exist many signs that this is not the initial moment the actors have deliberated on this matter, like when the female puts the man off and tells him that she doesn’t want him to do anything that he is not willing to, nor that is not good for her.
Abortion
It is not that easy to realize that this story is all about abortion. From the first to the last page, it is evident that the guy would love if the woman underwent an operation that he labels “awfully simple” and “not an operation,” (Ernest, 2016). He pledges to be with her throughout and stresses that happiness will follow them since that is the sole thing which troubles them. He avoids mentioning the health status of the woman. Hence, we can suppose the surgery is not something to heal a disease. Additionally, he frequently expresses she does not have to do it if she does not want to, implying that he is relating an elective process. Eventually, he says that it is “just to let the air in.” This signifies abortion rather than any other medical procedure.
When the female inquires if he wants to, she is merely allowing the guy to have his way on the issue- that the man has something at hand- another sign that she is expectant. The man’s reaction that he is impeccably ready to endure with it if it implies anything to her does not denote to the operation process. It implies to avoid the process. In the circumstance of expectancy, avoiding termination is a thing to endure with as it results in the conception of a baby. Lastly, the gut states that he does not want anyone else but her. This is evidence that there will be an additional person if the woman will not undergo the operation.
The Subject of Talking versus Communicating
Though this story is a conversation between an American guy and his lover, neither of them accurately communicates with the other, stressing the gap between them (Catherine, 2017). Both talk, but none heeds to or comprehends the other’s sentiments. Unsatisfied and soothing, the guy speaks anything to influence his girlfriend to carry out the action, which, though never cited by name, is acknowledged to be a pregnancy termination. He says to her that he truly loves her, for instance, and that anything in their midst will go back to its initial way. The woman, temporarily, waffles hesitantly, at some point admitting that she will do the termination simply to shut him. When the guy still insists, she eventually beseeches him to drop the talk, grasping the ineffectiveness of their discussion. In fact, her nickname, “jig,” slightly designates that the two simply entertain each other and matter at hand minus saying something useful (Catherine, 2017). Her failure to speak in Spanish with the bartender, likewise, not only shows her addiction to the guy but also the hardness she encounters articulating herself to other people.
The Motif of Drinking
Both characters take alcohol throughout their discussion to sidestep each other and the issues surrounding their relationship (Catherine, 2017). They begin drinking large beers the time they reach the station as if anticipating filling their leisure time just conversing. Then, immediately they start discussing the hills that resemble elephants, the girl requests for more alcohol to put off the unavoidable talk of the unborn. Though they take the drinks chiefly to dodge discerning about the expectancy, readers realize that more issues emerge in the...