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A Review Of Ernest Hemingway's Short Story 'Hills Like White Elephants'

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A Review Of Ernest Hemingway's Short Story 'Hills Like White Elephants'
In Ernest Hemingway’s short story “Hills Like White Elephants,” Hemingway surprisingly engages the reader with ambiguous dialogue and character detail necessitating use of extensive symbolism within the setting to encourage the readers active participation. The glaring lack of key details concerning the characters, an American man and a girl named Jig, and their disjointed conversation provide little real substance to comprehend the conflict at hand. In trying to determine what operation is being discussed this statement provides little clue, “I know you wouldn’t mind it, Jig. It’s really not anything. It’s just to let the air in” (Hemingway 592). If anything this ambiguous statement promotes further confusion. So it is necessary for the reader
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