Hills Like White Elephants: A Literary Analysis

William Faulkner and Ernest Hemingway are two of the most aggressively competitive authors in history, and trade literary blows through their correspondence. The most famous of these exchanges began when Faulkner was attempting to praise Hemingway’s bravery saying, “[Hemingway] has never been known to use a word that might send a reader to the dictionary.” As per usual, Hemingway took this as a personal attack against his writing and responded with the retort, “Poor Faulkner. Does he really think big emotions come from big words?” This conflict is among the most widely known literary disputes between two authors and for good reason. The two writing geniuses are some of the most praised writers in history, even though their writing is sometimes
thought to be the complete opposite, along with their personalities. While the sentence structure and vocabulary choice of Faulkner and Hemingway vary wildly, their similar use of figurative language proves to connect them on a much deeper level than either of them might enjoy. In the short story "Hills Like White Elephants" by Ernest Hemingway, a young couple have a seemingly mundane but strained conversation about their scenery and some mysterious topic.
The scene is initially described through the details of the surrounding train station and geography but then narrows its focus on a couple. The man, called the American, and the woman, named Jig, are having a conversation over drinks that increasingly grows more serious as time passes. Eventually it is revealed that the American wants Jig to get a simple operation, otherwise known as an abortion. The two argue back and forth until the climax is reached and Jig screams, refusing to talk anymore. As the story ends it is unclear whether Jig will get the abortion but the two are distanced physically and
emotionally. Hemingway’s sentence structure and vocabulary is often quite simple and direct, in an almost journalistic matter. Dialogue makes up most of "Hills Like White Elephants" and this allows for all of the plot to be gathered by the reader through simple sentence structures and minor objective observations rather than lengthy scenes created by a narrator. The dialogue also seems to be structured in a circular fashion, with the same conversation repeating over and over again with a few slight changes in between. While this may seem like unnecessary repetition, it makes the point that the conversation is simple talking, and not truly discussing the topic of Jig’s pregnancy. Vague and simple vocabulary is also used by Hemingway’s characters, “‘It's really an awfully simple operation, Jig,’ the man said. ‘It's not really an operation at all.’” (Hemingway 564). This diction is chosen with extreme purpose, as it shows how the couple is purposely avoiding discussing the abortion fully. With fewer words the full story is exposed and the gravity of the situation is told. Hemingway relies heavily on figurative language throughout this and other short stories.
Every object mentioned has two meanings, one superficial and above the surface and another meaning less obvious and hiding below the surface. This is a part of the Iceberg Theory, which is shown through his minimalistic way of writing and the underlying topics that often shine through if carefully examined. Even the title of the story is figurative language, hills like white elephants representing Jig’s possibly unwanted pregnancy. These hills became the main subject of the story, “The girl was looking off at the line of hills. They were white in the sun and the country was brown and dry. ‘They look like white elephants,’ she said” (Hemingway 563). A white elephant is a costly and useless item in which a person cannot dispose of, which means that Jig was questioning her desire to keep her baby. However, later it seems like she changed her mind saying, “‘They're lovely hills,’ she said. ‘They don't really look like white elephants. I just meant the colouring of their skin through the trees’” (Hemingway 564). This shows a very important part of Hemingway’s use of language, since such an important decision is represented by scenery. Another use of scenery and figurative language is the train station the couple is in during the story. This scene represents the transition and different paths the two can take through life, “The girl stood up and walked to the end of the station. Across, on
the other side, were fields of grain and trees along the banks of the Ebro. Far away, beyond the river, were mountains” (Hemingway 565). Just as the train represents the means of life transitions, either having an abortion or keeping the child, the two sides of the river represent life’s destination. The choice of either fertility and keeping the baby is represented by the fields of grain and trees while the choice of having an abortion and staying together is represented by barren and rocky mountains. In the short story “A Rose for Emily,” a community discusses the life and death of a mysterious and odd woman, Emily Grierson. Emily was the daughter of a southern aristocrat who refused all that offered to marry his daughter. After her father died, Emily refused to allow anyone to collect the body for three days. While she remained in the house often, a carpetbagger named Homer caught her attention and the two began a scandalous relationship until Homer seemingly left the southern town. Meanwhile, Emily bought arsenic and gifts for Homer, not stating her reason for either purchase. Years later, the climax is reached when Homer’s severely decomposed body is found in Emily’s room after her funeral. The resolution and end of the story is reached when a strand of Emily’s hair is discovered in her bed, next to the corpse of Homer. Faulkner’s sentence structure is very flowery and intricate, and features a variety of higher level vocabulary. Throughout the descriptions of scenery and the woman herself, ornate language is used. No scene is left without some long-winding sentence describing every aspect of the scene, to fully immerse the reader into the fictional world. Examples of this extremely detailed and winding language are frequent whenever the narrator is describing Emily’s home, “It smelled of dust and disuse--a close, dank smell... It was furnished in heavy, leather-covered furniture... and when they sat down, a faint dust rose sluggishly about their thighs, spinning with slow motes in the single sun-ray” (Faulkner 79). While this use of language may seem overly detailed, it shows how the home has slowly aged and transformed, and brings the reader into the strange moment of being in a recluse's home.
Many of the factors in the short story are representative of another thought or greater idea. This figurative language is present in not only the story, but the title. The rose in “A Rose for Emily” represents the forgiveness of Emily’s actions, regardless of their severity. Throughout Emily’s life she received pricks from thorns and never had any comfort from those around her. The rose was a way to comfort the old tradition, and to respect her after she was gone. Roses are also seen as a part of Emily’s room as described after her death, “...upon the valance curtains of faded rose color, upon the rose-shaded lights, upon the dressing table, upon the delicate array of crystal and the man's toilet things backed with tarnished silver, silver so tarnished that the monogram was obscured” (Faulkner 84). This is a play on seeing the world through rose-colored glasses, meaning she was looking at the past in an unrealistically pleasant manner. This is very representative of Emily’s actions, as she never got over the death of her father and ending up killing Homer so he wouldn’t leave her and she could control his actions. The outside of the house is also representative of Emily, since both have withstood the test of time and have stubbornly stayed the same throughout generations. Another example of figurative language used in this story to represent Emily and her transformation is a part of Emily herself, her hair. As Emily ages and becomes more withdrawn, her hair grows more and more gray. After her death, the narrator describes the discovery in Emily’s room, “One of us lifted something from it, and leaning forward, that faint and invisible dust dry and acrid in the nostrils, we saw a long strand of iron-gray hair” (Faulkner 84). Not only does this show a woman that was trapped in her old ways by her own prison, it reveals the secret that Emily was a necrophiliac and slept next to Homer after he was dead. The two short stories are very different when considering the sentence structure and vocabulary used by their respective authors. Hemingway uses a very direct and objective sentence structure, relying mainly on direct character dialogue and simple explanations of actions. Faulkner uses nearly the opposite sentence structure, weaving delicate and intricate sentences with highly descriptive language that relies mainly on viewpoints and interpretations rather than direct dialogue. Just as detailed in their famous spat, Hemingway prides himself in his simple use of vocabulary and believes that large words aren’t needed to create an immersive story. While Faulkner was attempting to praise Hemingway on his vocabulary choice, it is apparent that Faulkner relies heavily on ornate words and structures and would not be able to use limited diction without giving up his signature style. While it may seem like the two authors and their writings are completely and aggressively different, the similarities are apparent when the hidden meanings and figurative language is considered. Both deal with complex social issues using figurative language and symbols and avoid referencing them by name to purposely make the reader realize the topic themselves. Both Hemingway and Faulkner also represent their protagonists and the issues they face using their locations and scenery around them, Jig and her pregnancy being represented by the white hills around her and Emily by her stubborn, old house and rose colored room. At first glance, “Hills Like White Elephants” and “A Rose For Emily” seem to be at the opposite ends of a distant style spectrum. While their sentence structure and vocabulary clash and vary wildly, they both serve an important purpose of representing the style of the author. However, the underlying messages and similarities of the authors and their styles are apparent to those that look to the figures and figurative language themselves. Complex ideas and social issues are discussed in a sympathetic way, without ever directly referencing the issue. By comparing their styles, it is clear that William Faulkner and Ernest Hemingway have much more in common than they might wish to admit. The two may have had their battles, but they respected each other and complimented their opposition’s work in between jabs of mockery. They both referred to themselves and each other as possibly the best of all time, and to many this still holds true today.