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Analysis of Hills Like White Elephants

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The story takes place in a small train station in Spain and describes the conflict between a man and a woman. The woman is called jig, the man is from the United States. Jig is pregnant, and the man is worried about this, hope the woman to do abortion. In this essay, Hemingway uses concise writing style, symbolism, and brief conversation to show the emotions of the characters and to push the story forward.

The description of the story is very concise, but it does not affect the development of the story, making the article more thought-provoking. From the beginning, the novel uses a very objective narrative perspective. Without the subjective comments and explanations of the narrator, the narrator is not omniscient. He knows as much as I do.

Only when I saw the phrase ‘that American’, the story broke through the restrictive perspective, showing that the narrator knew his nationality in advance. Besides, I knew nothing about his origin. Because the narrator didn’t tell us anything else. The narrator did not state directly but merely suggested the reader that “It was very hot and the express from Barcelona would come in forty minutes. It stopped at this junction for two minutes and went on to Madrid.” which tells readers that Americans and girls may be waiting, or whether they are waiting.

From the dialogue between the hero and the protagonist in the story, I can see that the woman’s answer was not righteous and absent-minded. In two places, I feel that their differences have become sharper, and it is related to their understanding of life. This is exposed by their different views on surgery. In the article, the man said, “we can have the whole world.” The woman said “No, we can’t. This world is no longer ours. Once they take it away, you lose it forever.”

At the end of the conversation, the conflict between them reached a level of tension, and the woman said, ‘ I will scream.” The conversation was interrupted for a while, the train was about to arrive, and the woman calmed down. The man asked, “Do you feel better?” The woman said, “I feel great.” But what does it mean? Do women agree with men? Without an end, the story came to an abrupt end.

Looking back at their conversation, it can be seen that the conflict is ready and the process is tortuous. The two seem to have no objection to whether to have an abortion. The man said he would not force a woman to do it, the woman said that I could do it, and I didn’t care about myself. But on the surface, I felt something hindered, and the characters suffered setbacks. It also means that their relationship has changed. This conversation at the station is a prelude to this change. With the story being told in this way, I gradually felt the power of Hemingway.

He chose this moment of tension between men and women to reveal underlying psychological trends. While his expression maintained the ambiguity of the event at this stage, he did not reinforce and exaggerate what was not obvious. What he showed us were signs, the signs contained possibilities, and possibilities were not any definite results. The simplicity of Hemingway’s style can be seen here. This conciseness is manifested in the writer’s writing. The concise sentence contains complex content. It is both a current situation and other things.

The description of the environment appears many times in the article, his symbolic approach makes the character’s emotion better and more specific. The first metaphor in the article is that women think that the mountains are like white elephants. it is difficult to get the white elephants and mountains together. First, how can the mountains be white? Except for snow. But in the case of snow, mountains are white need not be mentioned. We can see women’s thinking is poetic from here, she said, “They look like white elephants”, which is on the surface describing the mountain, but it actually implies that the woman has a mind, but it will not tell the man directly.

This metaphor has repeatedly appeared later, and it has a suggestive role, which not only reminds the characters’ tendency of thinking and expression but also becomes a focus of conflict. This can be seen in the subsequent reaction of the man. His response was not as poetic as a woman. The woman’s metaphor does not make him associate in any way. therefore. The woman expressed dissatisfaction, ‘you will never see it,’ but the man also argued with her. Here it is implied that the conflict between the two is beginning to get tense.

The white elephant metaphor was involved again, but the girl was denied the second time, saying that the mountains did not really look like a group of white elephants, her feelings changed, which was caused by her emotional change. The second time metaphor is that “They don’t really look like white elephants. I just meant the coloring of their skin through the trees”. This metaphor may not be particularly critical, but it at least shows that the girl has been trying to find a happy way, trying to get rid of the dull state of mind, and wants to attract the attention of men.

The man replied, “Should we have another drink?”, “It’s really an awfully simple operation, Jig”. We can see that the man obviously couldn’t focus on the mountains, he was only concerned about one thing. And then, the core events emerged. From their next conversation we can guess what operation they were talking about, the girl fell silent, and the man continues to persuade, here we can guess that it may be a long consideration that has troubled the woman, so she is still hesitating, and Men only care about the surgery.

The white elephant’s metaphor appeared for the third time, proving that the girl was extremely sensitive. The woman said “I know. But if I do it, then it will be nice again if I say things are like white elephants, and you’ll like it?”. We can see before using the metaphor twice, she did not get the consent of the man, and she felt sensitive whether the man did not like her. The man ’s explanation is also reasonable, and his mind cannot be focused on this non-marginal metaphor, which is an acceptable reason. Until the woman said “Would you please please please please please please please stop talking?”, I feel that the woman’s emotions gradually reached the apex.

Seven ‘pleases’ were used in the original text to ask the man to stop talking, and the inner tension of the novel gradually reached its climax. In the end, The article ends with the woman’s sentence ‘I feel great’ and the story ends abruptly. The entire novel uses a very restrictive objective narrative perspective, with almost no intervention and intervention by the narrator. The narrator knows almost as much as the reader. The novel omitted a lot of things, including the identity of the characters, the background of the story, and the ins and outs of the plot. Therefore, trying to make conclusive judgments is almost futile.

In summary, the story has no unnecessary subjective influences. The whole novel is basically composed of a short conversation between a man and a girl. The short message Promotes rapid plot development. And Hemingway’s good use of symbolic methods promoted the direction of the plot, and three mentions of white elephants also linked the full text. From this point of view, the novel was carefully structured, logically rigorous, and the intensive, dramatic ending of the novel made the full-text sublime, making readers imagine.

Cite this paper

Analysis of Hills Like White Elephants. (2021, Jun 20). Retrieved from https://samploon.com/analysis-of-hills-like-white-elephants/

FAQ

FAQ

What is the meaning of the Hills Like White Elephants?
The story is about a couple's relationship and how they are struggling to communicate with each other about an important decision. The title refers to a conversation the couple has about how their relationship is like a white elephant.
What is the symbolic meaning of white elephant?
The white elephant is a symbol of wealth, power, and royalty.
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