White Elephants

In the short story White Elephants, written by Ernest Hemingway, he attempts to reveal that if someone wants something done they should perform altruistic actions in the hopes that it ends in personal gain. With little to no information provided about the characters in Hemingway’s story, he forces the reader to acknowledge that minimalistic ideals can result in complex/powerful ones as well. The opening paragraph of most stories often reveal characters and settings in which the reader will get to know personally and begin to adapt with them as well. In this story however, we are immersed in a train station in an unspecified location in Spain between Barcelona and Madrid. A train station can be representative of a midpoint between now and the future time that will arrive once the train does. The train can also give the reader a sense of transition between experiences, which was not provided earlier but can be inferred is the cause of the current situation. The …show more content…
The man often referred to as “the American” throughout the story serves as the character of interest due to his vague questioning of the woman, sometimes referred to as “Jig”, and overall tone which reflects sincerity and his sternness in his actions/voice. The conversation between the man and the woman heightens in tension, based upon them avoiding eye contact and their movements, while their conversation is masked in easygoing tone. Their conversation focuses on their surroundings in eyesight consisting of the mountains/hills that look like “white elephants”. White elephants are often unwanted objects, by referring to immovable landmarks, i.e.