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Analysis of Ernest Hemingway’s Hills Like White Elephants

By NASRULLAH MAMBROL on May 25, 2021

The frequently anthologized Hills Like White Elephants  first printed in transition magazine in 1927 is often read and taught as a perfect illustration of Ernest Hemingway’s minimalist, self-proclaimed “iceberg” style of writing: In much of Hemingway’s fiction what is said in the story often is less important than what has not been said. Like the iceberg—only one-eighth of which is visible above the surface—Hemingway’s fiction is much richer than its spare language suggests. Hemingway has great faith in his readers and leaves them to discern what is truly happening from the scant facts he presents on the surface of his story. On a superficial level, Hills is merely about a man, a woman, and an “awfully simple operation” (275). What the narrator never actually tells the reader, however, is that “awfully simple operation” is an abortion, a taboo subject in 1925. Underneath the surface of this story are THEMEs and motifs that are characteristic of many of Hemingway’s other works as well. As do many of those works, “Hills” tells the story of an American abroad and depicts the strained relationships between men and women that clearly intrigued the author. As with many of the relationships Hemingway portrays, this man and woman apparently have nothing in common but sex and the heavy consumption of alcoholic beverages.

Ernest Hemingway/Goodreads

Hills  is also a story of avoidance. Instead of having a significant, rational conversation about the issue at hand, the “girl,” Jig, says only that the hills of Spain look like white elephants. “Wasn’t that clever?” she asks the unnamed man (274). This rather inconsiderate male companion agrees, but he actually wants to talk about the procedure. Jig would rather not discuss it. When he pressures her, she replies, “Then I’ll do it. Because I don’t care about me.” Jig is the typical Hemingway female, selfless and sacrificial. She is prepared to have the abortion, but the reader is left with the distinct impression that any previous magic between the couple is gone. “It isn’t ours anymore,” Jig tells the American (276). The unfortunate accident of pregnancy has ruined the relationship; it will never be the same. Hemingway explores many of the same themes in his important war novel A Farewell to Arms and in The Sun Also Rises.

Analysis of Ernest Hemingway’s Novels

BIBLIOGRAPHY Hemingway, Ernest. “Hills Like White Elephants.” 1927. Reprinted in The Complete Short Stories of Ernest Hemingway: The Finca Vigía Edition. New York: Scribner, 1987. Johnston, Kenneth. “ ‘Hills Like White Elephants’: Lean, Vintage Hemingway.” Studies in American Fiction (1982). Renner, Stanley. “Moving to the Girl’s Side of Hills.” The Hemingway Review (1995).

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Home — Essay Samples — Literature — Hills Like White Elephants — Hills Like White Elephants: Exploring The Hidden Meaning

Hills Like White Elephants: Exploring The Hidden Meaning

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A Summary and Analysis of Ernest Hemingway’s ‘Hills Like White Elephants’

By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)

‘Hills Like White Elephants’ (1927) is one of Ernest Hemingway’s best-known and most critically acclaimed short stories. In just five pages, Hemingway uses his trademark style – plain dialogue and description offered in short, clipped sentences – to expose an unspoken subject that a man and a young woman are discussing.

You can read ‘Hills Like White Elephants’ here before proceeding to our summary and analysis of the story.

Plot summary

A man (an American expatriate) and a young girl (or ‘girl’) are drinking in the bar of a railway station in Spain, while waiting for their train. As it’s hot, they order some beers to drink, and then try an aniseed drink. The girl looks at the line of hills in the valley of the Ebro and remarks that they look like white elephants.

Her male companion, with whom we deduce she is in some sort of relationship, says he has never seen a white elephant and then gets defensive and annoyed when she remarks that he wouldn’t have, presumably because they’re so rare.

Their small talk then takes in the curtains of the bar, but gradually their conversation turns to an ‘operation’ (of sorts) which the man is trying to persuade the girl to undertake.

This procedure, which is referred to as ‘it’ throughout the story, is almost certainly an abortion, the girl having fallen pregnant by the man. However, it becomes clear that he wishes her to get rid of the baby, although she remains undecided. Eventually, growing tired of the man’s attempts to sway her, she demands that he stop talking.

They hear that their train is arriving, but when the man goes outside there is no sign of it. When he goes back inside and asks the girl how she is feeling, she replies curtly that she’s ‘fine’.

The title of Hemingway’s story, ‘Hills Like White Elephants’, is fitting for a number of reasons. First and perhaps most obviously, the title of the story denotes not the main and most pressing topic of the two main characters’ conversation – the unspoken ‘it’, the girl’s ‘operation’, which the man is trying to encourage her to have – but one aspect of their small talk as they skirt around that topic.

The girl’s comment about the Spanish hills looking like white elephants is mere filler, an example of ‘treading water’ as she and her male companion drink enough alcohol to make broaching the dread topic of their conversation – without actually directly mentioning it – palatable or even possible.

‘White elephants’ itself has two potential meanings here. There is a rare albino elephant known as the white elephant, whose presence at the royal court, in countries like Burma and Thailand, was considered a sign that the monarch reigned justly, and that the kingdom would be blessed with peace and prosperity.

But the second meaning is implied in Hemingway’s story. A ‘white elephant’ is a Western cultural term describing a possession which its owner cannot dispose of. The maintenance cost of such a possession is out of proportion to its usefulness or desirability.

Given the (implied) topic of the man and girl’s conversation – the girl’s reluctant decision to abort the baby she has conceived by the man – this meaning of ‘white elephant’ comes into view with a tragic force. The (unwanted) baby the girl has conceived with the man is like the proverbial white elephant, something that would cost a great deal for her to keep and maintain.

But by the same token, she finds it hard to ‘get rid of’ her white elephant, presumably because of the finality of such an act, though it is also implied that she worries over the safety of the procedure. (We should remember that medical procedures in 1927 were often not as relatively clean or as advanced as they now are.)

So the very title of Hemingway’s short story, ‘Hills Like White Elephants’, subtly and obliquely references the very thing which the two of them cannot bring themselves to mention or name openly: the title, then, both reveals and conceals the real subject of the story.

‘Hills Like White Elephants’ contains many of the most representative elements of Hemingway’s fiction: the spare style, the plain and direct dialogue, and the Spanish landscape which he often wrote about. And yet all three of these things can be said to work against, or be in tension with, the story’s subject-matter.

The spare style exposes the uncomfortable nature of the couple’s relationship (despite his repeated exhortations that she shouldn’t go through with ‘it’ unless she wants to, he is clearly trying to persuade her to have the abortion for his sake); the directness of the dialogue masks the failure of the two characters to have a frank conversation about ‘it’; and the Spanish landscape is not mere backdrop but a detail that is brought into the story only because the girl is finding it hard to address the momentous subject she knows she must eventually face.

And that leads us to wonder whether there might not be another meaning playing around that title, ‘Hills Like White Elephants’: the so-called ‘elephant in the room’, the idiom (prominent in the United States by the early twentieth century) denoting a conspicuous and important issue which nobody wants to discuss.

One also wonders whether, somewhere in his prodigious mind, Hemingway was recalling Mark Twain’s 1882 detective story, ‘ The Stolen White Elephant ’, in which the elephant turns out to have been in the original spot all along. Like the proverbial elephant in the room, Hemingway’s ‘hills like white elephants’ are there, prominent and immovable, and even getting on a train is not going to allow one to escape their true meaning.

Because so much of the characters’ dialogue works by subtext and through small talk, we are encouraged to deduce the nature of their relationship through observing how they interact, even more than by paying attention to what they talk about.

The man’s response to the girl’s dismissive comment that he wouldn’t have ever seen an actual white elephant is a case in point, since it suggests a controlling aspect to his personality, whereby an offhand and largely meaningless remark is taken up by him and responded to in a manner that is as defensive as it is petty.

Similarly, it is worth pointing out that the girl goes back on her initial statement that the hills resemble white elephants, saying shortly after this that the hills don’t actually look that much like white elephants after all, and only remind her of their colour. (This is interesting because many so-called white elephants are ‘white’ only in name: many of them are actually grey or pinkish in colour.)

This similarly reflects her vacillation over ‘it’, the termination of her pregnancy which she is evidently reluctant to undertake. As so often in a Hemingway story, how he reveals things through characters’ dialogue is as significant – and perhaps in this case even more so – than what is (not) being said.

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"Hills Like White Elephants" By Ernest Hemingway

Editorial statements.

Research informing these annotations draws on publicly-accessible resources, with links provided where possible. Annotations have also included common knowledge, defined as information that can be found in multiple reliable sources. If you notice an error in these annotations, please contact [email protected].

Original spelling and capitalization is retained.

Hyphenation is retained.

Page breaks have been retained.

Materials have been transcribed from and checked against first editions, where possible. See the Sources section.

Linked Data: Places related to this work.

The hills across the valley of the Ebro were long and white. On this side there was no shade and no trees and the station was between two lines of rails in the sun. Close against the side of the station there was the warm shadow of the building and a curtain, made of strings of bamboo beads, hung across the open door into the bar, to keep out flies. The American and the girl with him sat at a table in the shade, outside the building. It was very hot and the express from Barcelona would come in forty minutes. It stopped at this junction for two minutes and went on to Madrid.

“What should we drink?” the girl asked. She had taken off her hat and put it on the table.

“It’s pretty hot,” the man said.

“Let’s drink beer.”

“Dos cervezas,” the man said into the curtain.

“Big ones?” a woman asked from the doorway.

“Yes. Two big ones.”

The woman brought two glasses of beer and two felt pads. She put the felt pads and the beer glasses on the table and looked at the man and the girl. 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.

“I’ve never seen one,” the man drank his beer.

“No, you wouldn’t have.”

“I might have,” the man said. “Just because you say I wouldn’t have doesn’t prove anything.”

The girl looked at the bead curtain. “They’ve painted something on it,” she said. “What does it say?”

“Anis del Toro. It’s a drink.”

“Could we try it?”

The man called “Listen” through the curtain. The woman came out from the bar.

“Four reales.”

“We want two Anis del Toro.”

“With water?”

“Do you want it with water?”

“I don’t know,” the girl said. “Is it good with water?”

“It’s all right.”

“You want them with water?” asked the woman.

“Yes, with water.”

“It tastes like licorice,” the girl said and put the glass down.

“That’s the way with everything.”

“Yes,” said the girl. “Everything tastes of licorice. Especially all the things you’ve waited so long for, like absinthe.”

“Oh, cut it out.”

“You started it,” the girl said. “I was being amused. I was having a fine time.”

“Well, let’s try and have a fine time.”

“All right. I was trying. I said the mountains looked like white elephants. Wasn’t that bright?”

“That was bright.”

“I wanted to try this new drink. That’s all we do, isn’t it—look at things and try new drinks?”

“I guess so.”

The girl looked across at the hills.

“They’re lovely hills,” she said. “They don’t really 11 look like white elephants. I just meant the coloring of their skin through the trees.”

“Should we have another drink?”

“All right.”

The warm wind blew the bead curtain against the table.

“The beer’s nice and cool,” the man said.

“It’s lovely,” the girl said.

“It’s really an awfully simple operation, Jig,” the man said. “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.

“I’ll go with you and I’ll stay with you all the time. They just let the air in and then it’s all perfectly natural.”

“Then what will we do afterward?”

“We’ll be fine afterward. Just like we were before.”

“What makes you think so?”

“That’s the only thing that bothers us. It’s the only thing that’s made us unhappy.”

The girl looked at the bead curtain, put her hand out and took hold of two of the strings of beads.

“And you think then we’ll be all right and be happy.”

“I know we will. You don’t have to be afraid. I’ve known lots of people that have done it.”

“So have I,” said the girl. “And afterward they were all so happy.”

“Well,” the man said, “if you don’t want to you don’t have to. I wouldn’t have you do it if you didn’t want to. But I know it’s perfectly simple.”

“And you really want to?”

“I think it’s the best thing to do. But I don’t want you to do it if you don’t really want to.”

“And if I do it you’ll be happy and things will be like they were and you’ll love me?”

“I love you now. You know I love you.”

“I know. But if I do it, then it will be nice again if I say things are like white elephants, and you’ll like it?”

“I’ll love it. I love it now but I just can’t think about it. You know how I get when I worry.”

“If I do it you won’t ever worry?”

“I won’t worry about that because it’s perfectly simple.”

“Then I’ll do it. Because I don’t care about me.”

“What do you mean?”

“I don’t care about me.”

“Well, I care about you.”

“Oh, yes. But I don’t care about me. And I’ll do it and then everything will be fine.”

“I don’t want you to do it if you feel that way.”

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. The shadow of a cloud moved across the field of grain and she saw the river through the trees.

“And we could have all this,” she said. “And we could have everything and every day we make it more impossible.”

“What did you say?”

“I said we could have everything.”

“We can have everything.”

“No, we can’t.”

“We can have the whole world.”

“We can go everywhere.”

“No, we can’t. It isn’t ours any more.”

“It’s ours.”

“No, it isn’t. And once they take it away, you never get it back.”

“But they haven’t taken it away.”

“We’ll wait and see.”

“Come on back in the shade,” he said. “You mustn’t feel that way.”

“I don’t feel any way,” the girl said. “I just know things.”

“I don’t want you to do anything that you don’t want to do——”

“Nor that isn’t good for me,” she said. “I know. Could we have another beer?”

“All right. But you’ve got to realize——”

“I realize,” the girl said. “Can’t we maybe stop talking?”

They sat down at the table and the girl looked across at the hills on the dry side of the valley and the man looked at her and at the table.

“You’ve got to realize,” he said, “that I don’t want you to do it if you don’t want to. I’m perfectly willing to go through with it if it means anything to you.”

“Doesn’t it mean anything to you? We could get along.”

“Of course it does. But I don’t want anybody but you. I don’t want any one else. And I know it’s perfectly simple.”

“Yes, you know it’s perfectly simple.”

“It’s all right for you to say that, but I do know it.”

“Would you do something for me now?”

“I’d do anything for you.”

“Would you please please please please please please please stop talking?”

He did not say anything but looked at the bags against the wall of the station. There were labels on them from all the hotels where they had spent nights.

“But I don’t want you to,” he said, “I don’t care anything about it.”

“I’ll scream,” the girl said.

The woman came out through the curtains with two glasses of beer and put them down on the damp felt pads. “The train comes in five minutes,” she said.

“What did she say?” asked the girl.

“That the train is coming in five minutes.”

The girl smiled brightly at the woman, to thank her.

“I’d better take the bags over to the other side of the station,” the man said. She smiled at him.

“All right. Then come back and we’ll finish the beer.”

He picked up the two heavy bags and carried them around the station to the other tracks. He looked up the tracks but could not see the train. Coming back, he walked through the barroom, where people waiting for the train were drinking. He drank an Anis at the bar and looked at the people. They were all waiting reasonably for the train. He went out through the bead curtain. She was sitting at the table and smiled at him.

“Do you feel better?” he asked.

“I feel fine,” she said. “There’s nothing wrong with me. I feel fine.”

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Hills Like White Elephants by Hemingway, Essay Example

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At first look, Hills Like White Elephants by Ernest Hemingway appears to be a simplistic argument between a man and a woman. The reader is provided little information about the couple, and is therefore forced to infer information about their situation based on the details. When the text is analyzed, one can learn a great deal about the pair that is not immediately apparent. Such understanding of detail is important because this conversation is representative of how a sensitive topic might be discussed in public. Ultimately, tone, symbolism and the use of context are among the literary devices utilized to confer an understanding of the story to the reader.

One of the most important literary elements that help the reader understand the meaning of Hills Like White Elephants is the tone. When the reader is first introduced to the characters, it appears that the two are having a casual conversation and decide to drink beer while waiting for the train. After the initial word exchange, the careful reader can observe that the woman feels forlorn, as she abandons her empty conversation about beer to stare longingly at the mountains in the distance. The conversation that follows becomes an argument, and although the two seem to be arguing about nothing, it clearly concerns the matter that put the woman in such a strange mood. After more debate, now regarding an operation, the man convinced the woman to calm down. In the end, she proclaims that she feels fine and that there is nothing wrong with her. The tone of this story is therefore indicative of the plot. As a consequence of this literary element alone, the reader is now aware that the woman was worried about an operation that is traveling to receive. However, it appears that the operation is optional and that the man would prefer her to get it done so things can go back to the way that they were “before”.

Symbolism also plays an important role in the meaning of the story. The woman keeps telling the man that she believed that the hills resemble white elephants, and that he wouldn’t know much about white elephants. After all of the details of the story have been compiled, it becomes clear that the operation that the man and woman are talking about is an abortion and that the white elephant is symbolic for the woman’s pregnancy or the potential of her having a child. When she looks at the hills, she thinks about whether or not she is making the right choice by getting an abortion. At first, she engages in an argument with her partner because she believes that there’s no way he had ever seen a white elephant, which is indicative of the fact that he couldn’t possibly know the struggle that she is currently facing. By the end of the story, the woman ceases to discuss the beauty of the hills, demonstrating that she has been convinced by her partner to get the surgery. The symbolism of the white elephant is important to this story because it reflects the changing mood of the woman towards her impending situation. After recognizing what both options would entail, she finally decides to ignore the beauty of the hills because doing so will be more immediately relevant to her happiness.

The use of context is also an important literary element that helps one to gain a greater understanding of this story. In this case, the two clues that are the most helpful are those that indicate that the man and woman are located at a train station and that the woman will be receiving an operation. This information allows the reader to infer that this is the purpose for travel and question why this is necessary. This evidence, combined with the tone of the story in addition to an understanding of symbolism helps the reader understand why the woman must travel out of the country for the operation. Since she is getting an abortion, she must do so away from her friends and family since this type of operation is not considered to be socially acceptable. Furthermore, it is likely that the operation is not legal where she is living. The details of this situation demonstrate the extent to which the woman must go to in order to make her partner, and potentially herself, happy in the end.

In conclusion, knowledge of tone, symbolism, and context are necessary to gain a true understanding of this story. The author is very subtle throughout the passage so that only one who has great analytic skill can gain a true understanding of the words before them. Ultimately, these literary elements allow one to be aware that the plot concerns a man and woman traveling so that the woman can receive an abortion. She is sad about the situation, but is convinced to go ahead with it, which ends her sadness. The use of these literary elements make the story more meaningful because it reflects the secrecy of the situation that the couple would have wished to have.

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• Hills Like White Elephants

Hills Like White Elephants Lyrics

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This short story from Hemingway’s 1927 collection Men Without Women takes place in Spain’s Ebro Valley, and concerns two characters on the verge of a life-changing decision – although they are having trouble talking about it.

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Analysis of 'Hills Like White Elephants' by Ernest Hemingway

A Story That Takes on an Emotional Conversation on Abortion

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Ernest Hemingway 's "Hills Like White Elephants" tells the story of a man and woman drinking beer and anise liqueur while they wait at a train station in Spain. The man is attempting to convince the woman to get an abortion , but the woman is ambivalent about it. The story's tension comes from their terse, barbed dialogue .

First published in 1927, "Hills Like White Elephants" is widely anthologized today, likely because of its use of symbolism and demonstration of Hemingway's Iceberg Theory in writing.

Hemingway's Iceberg Theory

Also known as the "theory of omission," Hemingway's Iceberg Theory contends that the words on the page should be merely a small part of the whole story—they are the proverbial "tip of the iceberg," and a writer should use as few words as possible in order to indicate the larger, unwritten story that resides below the surface.

Hemingway made it clear that this "theory of omission" should not be used as an excuse for a writer not to know the details behind his or her story. As he wrote in " Death in the Afternoon ," "A writer who omits things because he does not know them only makes hollow places in his writing."

At fewer than 1,500 words , "Hills Like White Elephants" exemplifies this theory through its brevity and the noticeable absence of the word "abortion," even though that is clearly the main subject of the story. There are also several indications that this isn't the first time the characters have discussed the issue, such as when the woman cuts the man off and completes his sentence in the following exchange:

"I don't want you to do anything that you don't want to—" "Nor that isn't good for me," she said. "I know."

How Do We Know It's About Abortion?

If it already seems obvious to you that "Hills Like White Elephants" is a story about abortion, you can skip this section. But if the story is new to you, you might feel less certain about it.

Throughout the story, it is clear that the man would like the woman to get an operation, which he describes as "awfully simple," "perfectly simple," and "not really an operation at all." He promises to stay with her the whole time and that they'll be happy afterward because "that's the only thing that bothers us."

He never mentions the woman's health, so we can assume the operation is not something to cure an illness. He also frequently says she doesn't have to do it if she doesn't want to, which indicates that he's describing an elective procedure. Finally, he claims that it's "just to let the air in," which implies abortion rather than any other optional procedure.

When the woman asks, "And you really want to?", she's posing a question that suggests the man has some say in the matter—that he has something at stake—which is another indication that she's pregnant. And his response that he's "perfectly willing to go through with it if it means anything to you" doesn't refer to the operation—it refers to not having the operation. In the case of pregnancy, not having the abortion is something "to go through with" because it results in the birth of a child.

Finally, the man asserts that "I don't want anybody but you. I don't want anyone else," which makes it clear that there will be "somebody else" unless the woman has the operation.

White Elephants

The symbolism of the white elephants further emphasizes the subject of the story.

The origin of the phrase is commonly traced to a practice in Siam (now Thailand) in which a king would bestow the gift of a white elephant on a member of his court who displeased him. The white elephant was considered sacred, so on the surface, this gift was an honor. However, maintaining the elephant would be so expensive as to ruin the recipient. Hence, a white elephant is a burden.

When the girl comments that the hills look like white elephants and the man says he's never seen one, she answers, "No, you wouldn't have." If the hills represent female fertility, swollen abdomen, and breasts, she could be suggesting that he is not the type of person ever to intentionally have a child.

But if we consider a "white elephant" as an unwanted item, she could also be pointing out that he never accepts burdens he doesn't want. Notice the symbolism later in the story when he carries their bags, covered with labels "from all the hotels where they had spent nights," to the other side of the tracks and deposits them there while he goes back into the bar, alone, to have another drink.

The two possible meanings of white elephants—female fertility and cast-off items—come together here because, as a man, he will never become pregnant himself and can cast off the responsibility of her pregnancy.

"Hills Like White Elephants" is a rich story that yields more every time you read it. Consider the contrast between the hot, dry side of the valley and the more fertile "fields of grain." You might consider the symbolism of the train tracks or the absinthe. You might ask yourself whether the woman will go through with the abortion, whether they'll stay together, and, finally, whether either of them knows the answers to these questions yet.

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“Hills Like White Elephants”: Argument Comparison Essay

• To find inspiration for your paper and overcome writer’s block
• As a source of information (ensure proper referencing)
• As a template for you assignment

The short story “Hills Like White Elephants” relationships between a young girl and her boyfriend who try to solve the problem of romantic love and further relations. This short story is based on symbolism and vivid images which add emotional tension to the story. Two academic essays, Ernest Hemingway’s “Hills Like White Elephants” by K. Bernardo and Hemingway’s “Hills Like White Elephants” and the tradition of the American in Europe by D. Grant propose different Apaches to symbolic interpretations and themes, thus they underline a unique nature and outstanding style of Hemingway and his literary vision.

Bernardo concentrates on symbolic interpretations and visual images used to define the meaning of the short story. He underlines that what reader is not amazed at the end of “Hills Like White Elephants” to learn that thirty-five minutes have passed while Jig and her man wait for the train to Madrid, a detail that suggests long silences between sparse dialogue, and hints at the lack of connection between the two. The early versions of that story put Jig and the American man on the train for which they only wait in the finished version. In contrast to Bernardo, Grant concentrates on traditions and language usage. The author underlines that in the dialogue the reader has no indication of authorial privilege. Focusing on both Hemingway’s evolution as a writer and on the writing process itself, a number of seminal studies have emerged over the past decade that traces the transformation of jotted notes into finished art. At this point, however, we stand upon the threshold of discovery. The construction of a comprehensive view of Hemingway’s stylistic development, evolving aesthetic, and philosophy of composition not only presents new directions for study but will also establish the theoretical framework necessary for a fresh examination of the entire Hemingway canon, seeming oddities and all. Their function is to determine, again, whether the ruthless, aggressive component of man’s need to create form and/or take life is dominant by nature or conditioning, and (this time) whether or not a woman can discover in herself the capacity to experience such aggression, so as to participate in man’s endeavor rather than merely appreciate its necessity in another.

Bernardo gives attention to details while Grant proposes to readers a general overview of the text and its cultural meaning. Bernardo writes: “It is clear that Jig does not want to have an abortion – not from what she says, of course, but from the pressure, the man applies to talk her into it” (Bernardo n.d.). Bernardo underlines that the young girl is in practice torn apart by needs simultaneously to compete and nurture. And though she incorporates both drives in a nearly incredible symbiosis with Grant’s interpretations, not even their remarkable concord of interests holds them together. In a bold, final attempt to resolve creatively the impasse of differing primary concerns between the sexes, these speculative portrayals of sexual atavism push human nature beyond its limits.

In contrast to Bernardo, Grant proposes to readers a cultural analysis of the text and interprets its meaning in terms of social relations and interactions. Hemingway’s characters look to Europe for an escape from an American mode of time” (Grant 1998). The authors construe in the fragments as a whole a thrust toward closure based upon classical resignation, beyond reliance even upon Hemingway’s customary mysticism. This would be an advance. Bernardo and Grant underline that for the resolutions of his other mature works, profound as they are, sustain his muted romanticism by the reassurance of epiphany — by transcending those contradictions in the human breast that render all quests for concord in love “unfinding,” and the maker’s quest for intimations of order “unrealizable” in the end. It is to that “country” beyond the material realm that the major direct his now-detached gaze at the end.

The main similarity is that both essays interpret the state of the young girl as pregnancy, thus there is a clear explanation of this situation. “This textual suggestion that the abortion will be the demarcating event bound to form the dividing line between their past and future experience is what the man seeks to neutralize by depicting the operation as a natural process of healing and restoration” (Grant 1998). He is reconciled to the spare compensation of going through the motions of commitment in an apparently random world, simply because this is the “country” in which we have been placed and in which we must participate with the resolution if we are to demonstrate our full detachment from the dashed dreams of mortal life. Only thus can we prove the true situation to all that men and women hope to gain by embraces.

In sum, both academic essays pay attention to symbolic details and the unique theme of abortion thus they follow different approaches and interpretations of the text. The distinctions in expression are even more important, however than the conventions held in common. The words communicate a sense of inevitable and unendurable loss which is a much more powerful rendering of the damnation theme than anything in the short story. The two most conventional reactions to adversity registered by an understanding of isolation are wrath and despair. The strength of this tradition helped to perpetuate the formal, lyrical expression of sorrow. Within a dramatic context representing the providential order that governed all things and all mankind, there arose a dramaturgical method that staged evil as something comic, not only for reasons grounded in the philosophy of human relations but for the more practical homiletic purpose of engaging the least sophisticated of minds.

Works Cited

• Bernardo, K. Ernest Hemingway’s “Hills Like White Elephants”.
• Grant, D. Hemingway’s “ Hills Like White Elephants ” and the tradition of the American in Europe. Studies in Short Fiction . 1998.
• Hemingway, E. Hills Like White Elephants .
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Bibliography

IvyPanda . "“Hills Like White Elephants”: Argument Comparison." October 18, 2021. https://ivypanda.com/essays/hills-like-white-elephants-argument-comparison/.