Hills like White Elephants Essay

Hills like white elephants - Essay

Hemmingway's seemingly uninteresting story caries a dark and hidden secret within. The iceberg theory truly shows its abilities and assets. In a dialog containing only short and mumbling sentences, ethics, moral and taboos are discussed. In "Hills like white elephants" one line is worth a thousand words.

"Hills like white elephants" is a short story written by Ernest Hemmingway. It takes place on a train station in Spain. The numbers of characters are few, only two persons of interest are presented. This is typical for short stories and makes it easier for the reader to focus. The story is written in third person and is merely observing. The reader is only given a short description of the setting before the plot begins. From there on, the rest of the story contains a long dialog, which at first sounds like any other normal conversation, but when looked more closely at, contains many hidden secrets.

The two Americans are, by judging of their dialog, in a relationship. They referee to themselves as "us" and "we", and talk about loving each other throughout the text "I love you now. You know I love you". We don't get any information about how long they have been together. Their conversation seems very superficial and shallow. In some way they are both afraid to the talk to each other. This quickly seems odd in the reader's eyes and creates a need for further investigation. There is a certain happening which the dialog circles around, but the unknown issue is never reached. The two Americans don't say explicit what the issue is about and it is therefore up to free interpretation. It could possibly be an abortion they are talking about because there is spoken of an operation at one point in the text, "It's really an awfully simple operation, Jig," the man said. "It's not really an operation at all." Abortion is a very sensitive topic in America and it would explain the eerie atmosphere between them. The girl also seems to have a different opinion about the pregnancy then her boyfriend. He keeps pressuring her and tries to keep her calm about it. Even thou we can't hear her thoughts an opinion, Hemmingway writes about her physical reaction, "It's not really an operation at all." The girl looked at the ground the table legs rested on. "I know you wouldn't mind it, Jig. It's really not anything. It's just to let the air in." The girl did not say anything." Her reaction towards the conversation clearly shows that she is uncomfortable about the operation. She can't look him the eyes and therefore looks at the ground instead, this is a typical sign of a person being uncomfortable. This abortion theory may also explain why the story takes place in Spain and why they are waiting at a train station. Since abortion is a great taboo in America, it's possible to think that the couple has gone to Spain to get the operation done. The guy also speaks Spanish and therefore maybe have roots in Spain, as many multicultural Americans have, "Dos cervezas," the man said into the curtain." There is a big chance that he knows a Spanish doctor that can perform the surgery,