Hills Like White Elephant By Ernest Hemingway
Ernest Hemingway has written a short story that has all thinking. The short story, Hills like White Elephants can have many different viewpoints and they all seem to make sense! There are three main scenarios that fit the story, the girl will have the abortion and stay with the man, she’ll have the abortion and leave the man or she will not have the abortion and the man will stay with her (Hashmi 72).
Hills like White Elephants is about an American man and a girl waiting at a train station that will take them to Madrid. They are drinking beer and tasting Anis del Toro, a type of drink while they are having a discussion. The conversation between the two is quite tense, while the man is trying to encourage her to have an operation. The operation …show more content…
is actually an abortion but the author doesn’t say that in the story, but the girl doesn’t seem like she wants to have the abortion.
The man constantly repeats his self over and over saying he really doesn’t want her to do it unless she wants too. However, it’s quite obvious that he wants her to go through with the abortion. She makes a statement about the hills behind the train station, looks like white elephants. Hoping that the statement would amuse the man, it didn’t! His comeback was that he never seen an elephant. He just continued to talk more about the situation. He even says the operation is simple, and it’s not really an operation at all.
Wells 2
The girl says nothing for a while but then asked what will happen if she has the operation.
He said that things will be fine afterward, just like they were before and it was fix their problems.
He said that he knew of a lot of people that had the operation and the girl sadly aggress saying she did too and they were all happy afterwards He is telling her how much he cares about her and she claims she doesn’t care about herself, so she’ll have the operation so everything will be fine.
After they argue for some time the girl gets tired and asked if they could stop talking. The train is getting ready to arrive and the man takes the two bags and carries them to the tracks. He came back inside the bar and he asked her if she felt better and she replied saying she was fine. She’s actually lying though, she was truly hurt.
This story leads me to think that she will have the abortion, but she will not stay with the
American man.
Nilofer Hashmi agrees with me by saying she decided to have the abortion but not in order to resume her life with the American (72). The conversation between the two seem to indicate that there is little love between them (Hashmi 73). The girl now wants more than a relationship based on sex and alcohol, would have no reason to stay with the man. However, there are some details in the short story that fail to fit this scenario. Why is she smiling at a man who she supposedly can’t tolerate when he tells her he should move the bags? Why does she lead the man on to think that she wants him to come back so they can finish their drinks together?!
And she smiles again when he returns from putting the bag by the railroad tracks. Her smiling actually doesn’t seem like she wants to leave the man (Hashmi 73). I think she’s is just doing that so he doesn’t think anything is wrong with her and so they won’t have to start up another conversation again! She doesn’t want to have to raise the child alone, she wants to have the child together. But that isn’t what he wants. Therefore, she will still have the abortion but she and the man will not be together by her
decision.
Wells 3
Anise is an herb of the carrot family that has carminative seeds, seeds that aid in expelling gas from the alimentary canal to relieve colic (Passey 32). Colic is defined as paroxysm of acute abdominal pain localized in a hollow organ. Here the seemingly unrelated definitions begin to take meaning: could Hemingway be referring to the hollowness of the womb that would be caused by the abortion? Perhaps the girl wants to try it, the anise drink, to relieve the pain and hollowness she thinks would accompany the abortion (Passey 32). The conflicting points of view of the girl and man are compared to the anise. Its seeds aid in expelling gas from the alimentary canal, a passage that functions in the elimination of residual waste. The man urges the girl to go through with the abortion, to eliminate the residual waste, the baby, from her body
(Passey 32). Residual waste denotes a residuum or an internal aftereffect of experience or activity that influences the later behavior, especially a disability remaining from a disease or operation. To the man the baby is the aftereffect of the sex act, and now is negatively influencing their behavior. He explains to the girl, “It’s the only thing that made us unhappy”. The anise drink shows his desire to eliminate this residuum from the girl and from their lives (Passey 32).
The residuum that the anise helps to eliminate, from the girls point of view, is different than the man’s (Passey 32). She feels the instinctive, natural bond feeling between the mother and unborn child and though the man tries to convince her that the abortion is “all perfectly natural,” she feels that her feelings of motherhood are more basic and natural. She sees the residual waste, as the definition explains, as a disability remaining from the operation, the abortion (Passey 32). This operation would leave an emotional internal aftereffect b denying fulfillment of those feelings that are developing in her as she carries the baby, the man sees “the whole world” in life without the baby (Passey 32). While the anise drink gives the man a feeling of freedom by its power to eliminate the residuum, the baby, it also soothes the feelings of
Wells 4 emptiness in the girl, which the abortion will bring. They try to convey these feelings to each other as they drink the Anise del Toro together, their failure to communicate is seen in their different perceptions of what the drink will actually do (Passey 32).
Gender plays a big role in this story as well. According to Pamela Smiley men and women have difficulty communicating because they speak two different languages. (Smiley 2).
Many of the descriptive differences between male and female language become evaluative judgements since men are the dominant cultural group and women are “Other”. (Smiley 3). The man insists on facts and proof while the girl talks of fantasies, emotions and impressions.
Feminine language tends to be relationship-orientated while masculine is goal-orientated (Smiley
3). The man’s authority in the short story is bases on certain cultural and linguistic prerogatives
(Urgo 35). He controls the language by translating when she doesn’t understand the Spanish lady. He controls the money by paying for the drinks. The man attempts to have control over the girl. On the other hand the girl possess none of the man’s cultural responses, she is basically just the girl with him (Urgo 35).
So there you have it! It’s a bit confusing but once you read between the lines everything starts to make sense. Obviously the man is the dominant one in the relationship and is trying to persuade the girl to have the abortion. What the girl’s decision is going to be is confusing. She gives several signs that she is going to get the abortion and then they are parts in the short story that lead us to believe otherwise. What’s your viewpoint?!
Hills like White Elephants is about an American man and a girl waiting at a train station that will take them to Madrid. They are drinking beer and tasting Anis del Toro, a type of drink while they are having a discussion. The conversation between the two is quite tense, while the man is trying to encourage her to have an operation. The operation …show more content…
is actually an abortion but the author doesn’t say that in the story, but the girl doesn’t seem like she wants to have the abortion.
The man constantly repeats his self over and over saying he really doesn’t want her to do it unless she wants too. However, it’s quite obvious that he wants her to go through with the abortion. She makes a statement about the hills behind the train station, looks like white elephants. Hoping that the statement would amuse the man, it didn’t! His comeback was that he never seen an elephant. He just continued to talk more about the situation. He even says the operation is simple, and it’s not really an operation at all.
Wells 2
The girl says nothing for a while but then asked what will happen if she has the operation.
He said that things will be fine afterward, just like they were before and it was fix their problems.
He said that he knew of a lot of people that had the operation and the girl sadly aggress saying she did too and they were all happy afterwards He is telling her how much he cares about her and she claims she doesn’t care about herself, so she’ll have the operation so everything will be fine.
After they argue for some time the girl gets tired and asked if they could stop talking. The train is getting ready to arrive and the man takes the two bags and carries them to the tracks. He came back inside the bar and he asked her if she felt better and she replied saying she was fine. She’s actually lying though, she was truly hurt.
This story leads me to think that she will have the abortion, but she will not stay with the
American man.
Nilofer Hashmi agrees with me by saying she decided to have the abortion but not in order to resume her life with the American (72). The conversation between the two seem to indicate that there is little love between them (Hashmi 73). The girl now wants more than a relationship based on sex and alcohol, would have no reason to stay with the man. However, there are some details in the short story that fail to fit this scenario. Why is she smiling at a man who she supposedly can’t tolerate when he tells her he should move the bags? Why does she lead the man on to think that she wants him to come back so they can finish their drinks together?!
And she smiles again when he returns from putting the bag by the railroad tracks. Her smiling actually doesn’t seem like she wants to leave the man (Hashmi 73). I think she’s is just doing that so he doesn’t think anything is wrong with her and so they won’t have to start up another conversation again! She doesn’t want to have to raise the child alone, she wants to have the child together. But that isn’t what he wants. Therefore, she will still have the abortion but she and the man will not be together by her
decision.
Wells 3
Anise is an herb of the carrot family that has carminative seeds, seeds that aid in expelling gas from the alimentary canal to relieve colic (Passey 32). Colic is defined as paroxysm of acute abdominal pain localized in a hollow organ. Here the seemingly unrelated definitions begin to take meaning: could Hemingway be referring to the hollowness of the womb that would be caused by the abortion? Perhaps the girl wants to try it, the anise drink, to relieve the pain and hollowness she thinks would accompany the abortion (Passey 32). The conflicting points of view of the girl and man are compared to the anise. Its seeds aid in expelling gas from the alimentary canal, a passage that functions in the elimination of residual waste. The man urges the girl to go through with the abortion, to eliminate the residual waste, the baby, from her body
(Passey 32). Residual waste denotes a residuum or an internal aftereffect of experience or activity that influences the later behavior, especially a disability remaining from a disease or operation. To the man the baby is the aftereffect of the sex act, and now is negatively influencing their behavior. He explains to the girl, “It’s the only thing that made us unhappy”. The anise drink shows his desire to eliminate this residuum from the girl and from their lives (Passey 32).
The residuum that the anise helps to eliminate, from the girls point of view, is different than the man’s (Passey 32). She feels the instinctive, natural bond feeling between the mother and unborn child and though the man tries to convince her that the abortion is “all perfectly natural,” she feels that her feelings of motherhood are more basic and natural. She sees the residual waste, as the definition explains, as a disability remaining from the operation, the abortion (Passey 32). This operation would leave an emotional internal aftereffect b denying fulfillment of those feelings that are developing in her as she carries the baby, the man sees “the whole world” in life without the baby (Passey 32). While the anise drink gives the man a feeling of freedom by its power to eliminate the residuum, the baby, it also soothes the feelings of
Wells 4 emptiness in the girl, which the abortion will bring. They try to convey these feelings to each other as they drink the Anise del Toro together, their failure to communicate is seen in their different perceptions of what the drink will actually do (Passey 32).
Gender plays a big role in this story as well. According to Pamela Smiley men and women have difficulty communicating because they speak two different languages. (Smiley 2).
Many of the descriptive differences between male and female language become evaluative judgements since men are the dominant cultural group and women are “Other”. (Smiley 3). The man insists on facts and proof while the girl talks of fantasies, emotions and impressions.
Feminine language tends to be relationship-orientated while masculine is goal-orientated (Smiley
3). The man’s authority in the short story is bases on certain cultural and linguistic prerogatives
(Urgo 35). He controls the language by translating when she doesn’t understand the Spanish lady. He controls the money by paying for the drinks. The man attempts to have control over the girl. On the other hand the girl possess none of the man’s cultural responses, she is basically just the girl with him (Urgo 35).
So there you have it! It’s a bit confusing but once you read between the lines everything starts to make sense. Obviously the man is the dominant one in the relationship and is trying to persuade the girl to have the abortion. What the girl’s decision is going to be is confusing. She gives several signs that she is going to get the abortion and then they are parts in the short story that lead us to believe otherwise. What’s your viewpoint?!