Narrative Voice In Hills Like White Elephants, By Ernest Hemingway

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In Ernest Hemingway short story, Hills Like White Elephants, Hemingway uses a narrative voice as an eavesdropper and uses indirect characterization like dialogue to portray a serious conversation of abortion. Instead of providing a backstory including motives and emotion of the characters, Hemingway puts the reader in the role of eavesdropper to the couple’s conversation.

The setting is in the 1920’s at a train station. The main character, Jig, only has two options for her situation, marriage or adoption because being a single mother is unorthodox. Jig’s partner, the American, tries to convince Jig to get an unwanted abortion. Revealing the selfishness of the American, and revealing Jig’s reflectiveness. Her statements referring to the hills

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