Hemingway's Heroine: A Critical Analysis On The Hills Like White Elephants

Hemingway’s Heroine: A Critical Analysis on “The Hills like White Elephants” Ernest Hemingway, one of the most renowned writers of the twentieth century, is widely recognized as a “man’s man.” Like in his life, his writings presented a masculine world teeming with wars, hunting, and bull fights. In almost all of Hemingway’s writings, readers are introduced to macho, hard-hitting men whom star as the narrative’s hero; however, in “The Hills of White Elephants” readers meet one of Hemingway’s strongest female characters, Jig. To begin, Hemingway has been criticized for portraying his female characters as weak. Many feminist literary critics have said he depicts women in his stories as a destructive and manipulating influence to their male counterparts, attenuating their masculinity. Jig, however, challenges this conventional theory. The “mere girl,” and not the American, behaves more closely to the archetypal Hemingway hero. She, unlike the
Because of his constant persistence, Jig finally resigns to her situation. She realizes the American will never change his mind and, becoming weary of his persuasion and rationalization, she begs, “Would you please please please please please please please stop talking?" When the American still tries to continues, Jig says, “I’ll scream,” which finally gets through to the man to stop. “The Hills like White Elephants” is atypical is Hemingway’s usual characters because, instead of the woman being the destructive force to the man, Jig is the victim to the American—a woman forced into having an abortion against her will. Even though they story has an open-ending, the reader can infer from Jig acquiescence to the American that she goes through with the operation. In the last paragraph of the short story, the American asks, “Do you feel better?” Jig responds, “I feel fine… There’s nothing wrong with me. I feel fine.” This final line shows her acceptance of the