Analysis of Ernest Hemingway's Short Story: 'White Elephants'

This essay provides an in-depth analysis of Ernest Hemingway's short story, 'Hills Like White Elephants.' It delves into the central themes of the story, particularly focusing on the emotionally charged conversation between a man and a woman regarding abortion. The essay examines the symbolism, most notably the 'white elephant,' and its connection to the unborn child and the couple's relationship. The implementation of the iceberg theory by Hemingway is discussed, highlighting the unspoken tensions and underlying meanings conveyed through dialogue and subtle hints. The essay also explores the contrasting imageries and the communication breakdown between the characters, emphasizing the story's portrayal of human relationships and the complexities of decision-making. The conclusion reiterates the importance of the themes and symbols presented, acknowledging their relevance in modern society and the story's lasting impact.

Running head: ENGLISH
English
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1ENGLISH
The aim of the following paper is to discuss on the short story Hills Like White Elephants
by Ernest Hemingway. This short story has aimed at the emotional conversation on the
perspective of abortion (Hemingway: 275). This story has been build up on a man and woman
who have been drinking beer and the costly anise liqueur while they in train at Spain and waiting
for the station (Jiahong: 27). The tensions in the story have developed from the various dialogues
as the man was trying to convince the woman to get the abortion done but the woman showed
her ambivalence to this proposal.
Many symbols have been presented in this short story. The implementation of the iceberg
theory by Ernest Hemingway is one of the main parts of this issue. In this story, the symbol of
the white elephant has been used to show an issue that nobody wants in this world. The white
elephant in this story is the unborn child of that girl in the story (Hemingway: 275). In the
beginning of the short story, the girl commented that all the surrounding hills were looking like
the white elephants but the actual meaning of this phrase could be found in the later incidents.
The actual meaning turns out to be the possibility of the abortion that could happen by the
insisting of the man in the story. In the later times while discussing about the abortion with the
man, the girl goes out to comment that the hills did not actually look to be like the white
elephants (Avitzour: 55). This suggests the fact she was hinting about keeping the baby alive and
not going through the abortion.
The American in his story has missed that subtle hint given by the girl. She went on to
say that the hills looked like the white elephants when she saw that for the first time. Later, she
believed that the hills were actually quite beautiful indeed. The hills have been used as a
metaphor for the baby and the elephants also (Hemingway: 275). The white elephant becomes

2ENGLISH
the certain point of euphemism that nobody actually wanted to discuss. This actually meant to be
very painfully obvious since no one wanted to discuss about this fact.
The American man in the train has insisted the woman continuously to go through the
operation of abortion since it was probably the most feasible option at that time. The man also
described that operation to be ‘awfully simple’ also (Lee, Winterberg, and Lawrence: 39).
Therefore, it was also ‘perfectly simple’. This is the hint through which the audience could get
the idea that this operation was not something to get cured from certain illnesses (Meckley: 60).
The man has also promised the girl that he will stay with her for the whole future and
give her all kinds of lovely moments. For him, the unwanted child was the only thing in the short
story that had actually bothered them (Lee, Winterberg, and Lawrence: 39). The girl commented
that the hills actually looked like the white elephants but the man said that he had never seen
such a white elephant. The author has suggested that the hills might be recorded as the signs of
women fertility along with the swollen abdomen. This proves the fact the man with the girl is
never such type of person who would want to have a baby intentionally (Zhang: 26).
According to the author, there might be two meanings of the white elephants. One is
definitely the fertility of the woman and the other one is the caste-off items. There are some
contrasting imageries used in this short story also. One side might be the hot and dry side of the
valley that could be looked from the train (Sharma: 14). On the other side, there were the fields
of grain that were very much fertile indeed. This suggests the difference between the fertility of
that girl in the story and the probable condition that might come out after she could go through
the act of abortion indeed.

3ENGLISH
Through the short story, it has been found that neither of the characters in the story has
communicated with each other. It is clear from their style of verbal communication that the rift
between them is very serious and they are not comfortable with each other in talking (Rizkiyani
and Lutfiyana: 27). Both of them talk with each other very casually but none of them wanted to
listen to each other at all. The American man went on to say any kind of thing to convince his
girlfriend to go through the abortion operation (Sharma: 14) He even assures the girl that all the
things would get back to the normal self after the abortion operation but it seems like the girl
does not believe so. The indecisiveness of the girl is very clear in this scenario.
The implementation of the iceberg theory seems to be very much crucial since the entire
story is based on certain dialogues between the characters (Rizkiyani and Lutfiyana: 27). This is
many critics have bring forth their complaints that he has composed the short story with some
dialogues and proper focus on the development of plots is lacking. Therefore, it seems to be the
fact that the author Hemingway seems to use these dialogues to help the reader to find out all the
issues within the short story (Meckley: 60).
In the concluding part of the essay, it must be said that this short story Hills Like White
Elephants by Ernest Hemingway has brought forth several themes and symbols that are very
much practical in the modern day society. Various issues have been brought out in this paper.
The themes and symbols have been discussed because it is the most important perspective to
know the hidden meaning of the white elephants. The symbolism behind the white elephants has
been identified in this paper. The use of other themes and the rift between the man and the girl
has also been highlighted as a major issue of the human relationship.

4ENGLISH
References
Avitzour, Daniel. "Why Does Jig Smile? Readings of" Hills Like White
Elephants"." Connotations: A Journal for Critical Debate 27 (2018): 48-77.
Hemingway, Ernest. "Hills Like White Elephants.” 1927." The Short Stories of Ernest
Hemingway (2016): 273-278.
Jiahong, Ren. "The Analysis of Characters’ Speech Acts in Hills Like White
Elephants." Advances in Social Sciences Research Journal 4.14 (2017).
Lee, Ann-Gee, Sarah Griffith Winterberg, and Lindsy Lawrence. "“Hills Like White Elephants,”
Red Elephants, and Blue Donkeys: Attitudes toward Women’s Reproductive Rights in
the 20th and 21st Cen-turies." Philological Review (2018): 39.
Meckley, Eric. "What's in a Name? Racial Transparency and the Jazz-Age in Hemingway's"
Hills Like White Elephants"." The Hemingway Review 38.1 (2018): 57-70.
Rizkiyani, Fifit, and Faza Lutfiyana. "Darkness of Love as Portrayed in Ernest Hemingway’s
Hills Like White Elephant." Journal of English Language Studies 2.2 (2017).
Sharma, Sunil. "Are hills like white elephants?." Transnational Literature 9.1 (2016): 1.
Zhang, Jianying. "An Analysis of Hemingway’s Hills Like White Elephants from the Perspective
of Feminist Stylistics." (2019).