Research essay on hills like white elephants PDF

Running Head: RESEARCH ESSAY ON HILLS LIKE WHITE ELEPHANTS
RESEARCH ESSAY ON HILLS LIKE WHITE ELEPHANTS
Students ID:
Name of the University
Authors Note

1RESEARCH ESSAY ON HILLS LIKE WHITE ELEPHANTS
Introduction
The story Hills like White Elephants opens up with an elucidated analysis set up
against the backdrop of a train that is surrounded by hills, fields and greeneries located in a
valley in Spain. Based on the background the story focuses on a communication in between
an American and his girlfriend who he met at a Spanish train station while waiting for the
train to Madrid. While having the conversation the girls describes about the nearby
surrounding views specifically the hills with the white elephants. Therefore, the entire story
presents symbolic meaning hidden in the connotations used by the author. In addition to this,
the study outlines the symbolic conversation in between the two sexes along with the
problems that impacts on perception about the surroundings.
Analysis
 The characters
The characters in the story includes a conversation in between a man who is simply
denoted as an American and his girlfriend who he met at the Spanish train station. Both the
character initiates a conversation in between each other over two bottles of beer
(Hemingway). Based on these characters the story stresses on the conversation in between
the American man and the young woman.
 Methods of conversing
Conversation is above all it is based on the communicative cooperation amongst the
participants. However, things may be seen as a bit chaotic at the beginning of the story, rather
it is an intricate process that follows particular patterns developed by the speakers themselves
on the one part and on the contrary, the linguistic rules of a given speech community. Most of
the time the man has been seen in a way where” he did not say anything but looked at the
bags lying against the wall of the station.” This represented that the conversation in between

2RESEARCH ESSAY ON HILLS LIKE WHITE ELEPHANTS
the man and woman was less and the man was going through some tensions (Hemingway).
Natural and functional style of conversation may be different from each other in many ways.
In their conversation, the brief and straightforward dialogue has been vividly illustrated with
different figures of the world. The method of conversation used in the story are all direct
speech that has been used to build up the plots that ended the distance from the story towards
the real life of the reader. Therefore, while reading this short story, readers will be able to
relate themselves with the couples in a way that they overheard their dialogues and was able
to doubt their inner thoughts without acknowledging their history and relationship. Therefore,
the methods of conversation used in this story illustrated the plots other than just telling the
story as a write in r. In the “ Hills like White Elephants” both the man and the young girl
converse with each other in short sentences and rarely uttered more than just little words one
at a time. In this, Hemingway as well ignored using dialogues such “he said”, “She said” and
avoided internal or self-monologues. These types of conversation and dialogue left the
readers with a development of their own perceived thoughts and feelings that are completely
related to the interpretations of the reader.
 The problem and their influences about the view around them
Therefore, the story is a break thorough that motivates people to represent on men grim
and inequality of gender. However, the author’s reflection towards abortion and women as
the witness highlighted deeper issue within the generation. There is an instance when the
American man exclaims “I have never seen one” which shows that the American man
completely discards the idea of child shows that the man is a persistent one where he declines
to ponder on keeping the baby. The plot indicates the power of men over women that is
obvious in that era. The characteristics in the stories that man has more power of control and
authority than the women which has been highlighted by restrictions in time and poor amount
of communication in between the couple (Renner). The girl on the other remains silent for a

3RESEARCH ESSAY ON HILLS LIKE WHITE ELEPHANTS
long period, after which the girl disagrees with him in a dispassionate way. This influenced
their viewpoint around them as they mind set up was completely different from each other.
 Symbolic objects
The first symbolic objects in the story is the white elephants that symbolism that reflected
the non-communicable gap in between the man and the girl. This also represented the
difference in their understanding the connotation of white Elephant. The central metaphor of
the reading is that when jig says,” the hills they look like white elephants”. This saying of jog
projects problems in to setting where the hills symbolizes jig’s baby bump “white element
that is seen as burden as well as valuable gift. The white elephants rather represented their
individual outlook on their respective life. Again, she says, “They are lovely, which show that
she is opining up her mind to have the baby in the future (Hemingway). This instance reflects
her inner turmoil, which is not able to reach decision. There was a time when the woman
says, “I wanted to try this new drink. That’s all we do, isn’t it look at things and try new
drinks”. At this point of time while saying this, both the man and the woman were thinking
about having the abortion or not. Hills like White Elephants this was specific hint that the
American fails to understand. Realism in the story
Realism is highlighted in the story through the man and a woman who drinks beer while
waiting long for a train to the station. The story presents two young couples who are at crisis
in their relationship as things are complicated in their individual life. Close observation on
their body language shows their differences in thoughts and the way of responding each
other. In this story, the observer is the narrator of the story and the readers have to depend on
the narrator for the needful clues. The story somehow highlights the life story of Hemingway
himself who was married for almost four times, from which the reader could assume that he
had to face problem while seeking for the appropriate women.

4RESEARCH ESSAY ON HILLS LIKE WHITE ELEPHANTS
 Communication between the sexes
The communication in between the sexes highlights the difference in thoughts in between
a woman and a man. The line “the girl stood up and walked to the other end of the station.
Across on the other side, were the field of grain and tress alongside the bank of Ebro” this
shows the corrosive relationship in between the man and the woman which comes once she
has come away. Again, the line “the girl looked at the ground of the table legs” which shows
that there is silence in between them, which helped her to gather though and gain control over
the situation (Hemingway). This also shows that there is no successful communication in
their relationship. However, the woman starts depending on the American emotionally shows
that she lacked autonomy and power of will while affirming her relationship. Both of them
struggle to seek to common opinion while communicating with each other.
Conclusion
From the study it can be said that may be the story Hills like White Elephants is
primarily just a conversation in between the man and the women but neither of the characters
properly interacts with each other. Resting on a frustrated situation the American man would
say anything that could convince the girl to focus on the operation while it is not properly
mentioned as abortion. The man says that he loves the girl and manage to convince that every
will be same in between them. However, meanwhile the girl opposes the opinions and notions
of the man by claiming the she is required to have abortion. Therefore, based on the
inequality of gender power the story aroused the attention of reader in a symbolic way.

5RESEARCH ESSAY ON HILLS LIKE WHITE ELEPHANTS
Reference list and Bibliography
Dobson, Teresa M., et al. "The Interface Implications of Understanding
Readers." Interdisciplinary Science Reviews40.1 (2015): 3-16.
Hemingway, Ernest. "Hills Like White Elephants." Mindtap Literature. 2nd ed. N.p.:
Cengage, (2016).
Hemingway, Ernest. "Hills like white elephants." Men without women (1927): 39-44.
Hussein, Nagham Ja'far. "The Role of Context in the Interpretation of Ernest Hemingway's"
Hills Like White Elephants" in terms of Verschueren's Mental World." Journal of
University of Babylon 24.2 (2016): 713-728.
Majeed, Hussein A. Zahra, and Majeed Sahar Ahmed Mohammed. "Two as a Double
Rhythmic Movement in Hemingway's Hills Like White Elephants." ADAB AL-
BASRAH70 (2014): 17-30.
McConn, Matthew. "An Evaluation of Extensive and Intensive Teaching of Literature: One
Teacher's Experiment in the 11th Grade." Research in the Teaching of English 51.2
(2016): 162.
Prasanwon, Pisut, and Navaporn Sanprasert Snodin. "A Literary Stylistic Analysis of Ernest
Hemingway’s Short Stories: What Might be Hiding Beneath Linguistics in the “Big
Two-Hearted River” Sequence?." Humanities Journal 23.2 (2016): 272-290.
Renner, Stanley. "Moving to the Girl's Side of'Hills Like White Elephants.'." The Hemingway
Review 15.1 (1995): 27-41.