Essay on Setting in Hills Like White Elephants, by Ernest...

In the short story by Ernest Hemingway, Hills Like White Elephants, a couple is delayed at a train station en route to Madrid and is observed in conflict over the girls impending abortion. In his writing, Hemingway does not offer any commentary through a specific characters point of view, nor, in the storytelling, does he offer his explicit opinions on how to feel or think about the issues that emerge. The narrative seems to be purely objective, somewhat like a newspaper or journal article, and in true Hemingway form the story ends abruptly, without the couples conflict clearly being resolved. The ambiguity of the ending has been a subject of much debate; however, the impact of what is not said in words can be gleaned through the†¦show more content†¦Being at a railway junction (a parallel to the junction in their lives) they are in veritably the middle of nowhere in northeastern Spain. This physical isolation The time constraints imposed by their mode of travel only magnif ies the exigency of their decision. They are only at this junction for forty minutes, and once the train arrives they have only two minutes to board. The detail that it is the express from Barcelona(142) is a contrivance employed by Hemingway to add a sense of urgency to their situation. The two tracks, each one representing an individual and their wishes, run parallel to each other, never crossing, and hence leave no room for compromise. It is either one track or the other. The pair is sitting outside at a table facing the dry hills. The girl looks out at the bleak, arid landscape and comments to her paramour that [the hills] look like white elephants(143). He brushes off this remark as a flight of fancy; after all, the hills bear no physical resemblance to white elephants. The girl is looking at these hills as being emblematic of their current lifestyle, and is trying to find some good in it, perhaps to convince herself to heed her partners wishes and go through with the abortion. She is trying to find magic in something very grim, but this self-pacifying tactic fails. His callous response to her attempt at finding beauty only furthers the emotional and ideologicalShow MoreRelatedEssay on Setting in Hills Like White Elephants, by Ernest Hemingway712 Words   |  3 Pagesbirds chirping, all of these are examples of setting. Setting can create the mood and tone of characters in a story. In the story Hills Like White Elephants, the story starts out with our two characters, Jig and the American, also referred to as the man, on a train overlooking mountains. â€Å"The girl was looking off at the line of hills. They were white in the sun and the country was brown and dry† (Hemingway). In the case of this short story, the hills provided Jig something to take her mind off ofRead MoreEvaluation Argument Hills Like White Elephants1388 Words   |  6 Pagesï » ¿ Ernest Hemingway: Hills Like White Elephants A white elephant is an idiom for a valuable but burdensome possession, but also it means a rare and sacred creature. In Ernest Hemingway’s short story Hills Like White Elephants, Hemingway uses an unborn child as a white elephant. This short story depicts a couple of an American man and young women at a train station somewhere in Spain. Hemingway tells the story from watching the couple from across the bar and listening to their troublesome conversationRead MoreHedonism in Hills Like White Elephants, by Ernest Hemingway Essay1588 Words   |  7 Pagescreation of a culture solely dedicated to consume. 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These are the three different scenarios that have been seriously considered in Ernest Hemingway’s short story, â€Å"Hills like White Elephants†. Ernest Hemingway is a great writerRead More`` Hills Like White Elephants `` By Ernest Hemingway1750 Words   |  7 PagesErnest Hemingway’s stories are known for their ever interpreting meanings behind them, and â€Å"Hills Like White Elephants† does not trail from the rest due to the never mentioned word ‘abortion’. â€Å"Hills Like White Elephants,† written by Ernest Hemingway, takes place around World War 1 in Spain, at a train station (Hills Like White Elephants. 4). An American man and a girl have been discussing the girl’s unspecific operation. It is apparent that the girl is perturbed about this operation, while theRead MoreErnest Hemingway s Hills Like White Elephants952 Words   |  4 PagesErnest Hemingway, a well-known American writer, was born in Cicero, Illinois, in 1899. He won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1954. â€Å"Hills like White Elephants† was written in 1927, the short story is about a young couple, located at a train station somewhere in Spain, who throughout the story are having a verbal argument about an unnamed operation. The reader can quickly figure out that the operation the two main characters, the American and Jig, are discussing is an abortion. Ernest Hemingway’sRead MoreAnalysis of Hills Like White Elephants, by Ernest Hemingway Essay978 Words   |  4 Pagesâ€Å"Hills Like White Elephants† by Earnest Hemingway is a short story from 1927 that describes a couple drinking at a train station in Spain, and the story is relayed by an outside narrator. The third person narrator in this story gives the reader the events pieced together, told afterward, and translated to English. It is clear throughout the story that the girl (who is never named) does not speak Spanish, while her boyfriend does. When he first orders two beers, he does so in Spanish through statingRead More`` Hills Like White Elephant `` By Ernest Hemingway865 Words   |  4 Pagesbefore it begins, or as easily getting rid of problem before it even became one. In the short story â€Å"Hills like White Elephant†, the compensation of abortion can easily be seen between Jig and her American lover’s decision whether to keep the innocent’s life or not. Ernest Hemingway uses the fiction element plot, symbolism, and setting to illustrate the theme of abortion in â€Å"Hills like White Elephants.† Abortion has been viewed as a crucial struggle between couples. Many view this situation as endingRead MoreErnest Hemingway s Hills Like White Elephants Essay1135 Words   |  5 PagesRiobueno ENC1102 12/11/16 Ernest Hemingway’s â€Å"Hills Like White Elephants† Ernest Hemingway’s â€Å"Hills Like White Elephants† is a story about two characters on their journey in the valley of Spain. They are deciding whether or not to make an abortion, which is indirectly implied on the narrative. Hemingway has a specific way of creating the story that it becomes apparent that every description he used is a symbol of the plot. Through this way of storytelling, Hemingway created an adamant and veryRead MoreAbortion In Ernest Hemingways Hills Like White Elephants1237 Words   |  5 Pages The short story â€Å"Hills Like White Elephants,† by Ernest Hemingway, talk about a young couple and their relationship issue about abortion. Even though, the story happened in a short period of time, but it tells more than just a story. The woman named Jig, where the man only called as â€Å" a man† or â€Å" The American.† Although the relationship between them is complicated, but it is clearly that they are not married. However, they continued their relationship which came to result that Jig became pregnant