Hills Like White Elephant By Ernest Hemingway

Modernist literature was a predominantly English genre of fiction writing, popular from roughly the 1910s into the 1960s. Modernist literature came into its own due to increasing industrialization and globalization.(Notes) Modernism is notoriously difficult to define clearly because the term encompasses a variety of specific artistic and philosophical movements including symbolism.(UNLV) Ernest Hemingway has a modernist style of storytelling. “Hills Like White Elephants” by Hemingway has many elements that illustrates modernism. The first element of its characteristics is the questioning of the the meaning and importance of abortion. Next characteristic would be the amount of dialogue and the plot and how the dialogue is used in the story.
In “Hills Like White Elephants” he does just that. Start with the bamboo curtain. This symbolizes separation and boundaries. “This symbol is overshadowed by the hills and elephants, but the bamboo curtain is still powerful. It sets us up to think about boundaries, thresholds, and separations – all the issues the couple is facing.”(Shmoop Editorial Team) The Next symbols used throughout the story would be the train station and luggage. “These are symbols of bodies in motion, of travel and maybe even transience. Since the man and Jig's suitcases have stickers that give a record of their travels, the luggage can be seen as a map of the journey that brought them to this point. The train station is a midpoint between that time and the future time that they will move toward on the train. Train stations, airports, bus stations, and ports, when found in stories, give us the sense of transition, of being between worlds, between experiences.” (Shmoop Editorial Team) Throughout the story Hemingway used many different types of settings. These settings each had symbolic meaning. The opposing landscapes that only Jig seems to notice represent her decision making
The girl says the line “I feel fine, there’s nothing wrong with me. I feel fine.” but she's lying in hope that'll get the man off her back. Once that happens it never know what choice Jig makes. This isn't a ending that is excepted and thats whats makes it a story of modernism. There are many speculations that Jig should of had an abortion. “Many critics suggest the conclusion of “Hills like White Elephants” ending with Jig deciding to have an abortion. However, after reading Stanley Renner’s analysis embraced the idea of Jig keeping the child. In doing so, she not only defies her oppressive boyfriend, she defies the constraints of her society. Ernest Hemingway was a young man when he wrote this story, and empathized with women’s plight in a time when women were confined to traditional roles. In the new millennium women see highly publicized revolutionary feminist leaders like Hilary Rodham Clinton taking action but many forget to see women like Jig, who took one small step for feminism by saying “no”. Ernest Hemmingway leaves the ending open and gives readers to options to think on what the ending would be. By doing this and many other techniques he makes “Hills Like White Elephants” a modernist story. In conclusion Hemingway had many elements that illustrated modernism in this story. He successfully expressed the first element of its characteristics which was the questioning of the the meaning and importance