Hills Like White Elephants By Ernest Hemingway Literary Analysis

Ernest Hemingway was born on July 21, 1898 in Oak Park, Illinois where he was raised in an upper middle class environment. His father was a physician and his mother was training to be a singer. His father taught him to fish and hunt while his mother took him to choir practice. Hemingway loved the life outdoors and his love for nature stayed with him throughout life and became the touchstone of his work and life. Hemingway wanted to serve his country in the war by volunteering for active service in the infantry but was denied due to the fact that he had eye troubles. Before Hemingway started publishing books he worked in journalism. Hemingway was a Nobel Prize winning author who had a major influence on twentieth century fiction and most of his works are still considered classics today.
One of those classics being “Hills Like White Elephants,” which won the highest award any writer could win. “Hills Like White Elephants” is a popular story because of the writing style Hemmingway used. Hemmingway is well known for his stories being straight to the point but, this story was not direct like …show more content…
In the story he is only referred to as “the man” or “the American.” The man is the one who starts the argument by ignoring Jigs white elephant remark and bringing forward the abortion. Hemingway portrays the man as being very selfish in trying to force the abortion on Jig. When he says, “I’m perfectly willing to go through with it if it means anything to you,” he’s pretty much telling her that he will put up with the baby but has no care for the baby. The man is also manipulative because he tries to put the abortion of as something that isn’t a big deal and that people always have abortions. You can tell that he really doesn’t want Jig to keep the baby when he says, “I don’t want anyone else. And I know it’s perfectly simple.” The man is simply just playing mind games with Jig by saying