Analysis Of Ernest Hemingway's Hills Like White Elephants

Superior Essays
Literature and the arts are similar, they require us to tap into a deeper level of understanding in what we read and see while we read. The words are often an author’s experience, thoughts, feeling, ideas or convictions. As readers, we can sometimes connect with the author, having an emotional reaction to their works. In Ernest Hemingway’s Hills Like White Elephants, the young couple is making a life decision about going through an abortion or keeping the baby. I too was faced this decision in my life at a young age. There is a common thread in these three literature pieces I have picked (Wit, Hills Like White Elephants, and “Traveling Through the Dark”) the character(s) are confronted by a “life or death” choice. Each character comes to crossroad, …show more content…
“Nearly half of pregnancies among American women are unintended, and about four in ten of these are terminated by abortion” (Hinman). Hemingway’s short story showcases a young couple dealing with this decision, Hemingway writes about the hill-side in Spain with two sides along the railroad tracks representing the young couple’s choice on the abortion. One side is described as dry and isn’t able to grow much, the other is fertile with greens views. This imagery Hemingway gives us helps the reader understand the complex decision that the young couple is trying to make together; we get a chance to see both points of views for the characters throughout the reading. For instead, “The girl was looking off at the line of hills. They were white in the sun…they look like white elephants, [she said]” (Ln 9-10). Her pointing this out to her American boyfriend is her way of envisioning herself in a healthy life with her and the baby growing inside of her. As people, we have “The right of privacy: We have the right to do, believe, and say whatever we choose in our personal lives so long as we do not violate the rights of others” …show more content…
A tree can mean family roots, a bird can represent freedom, and light can mean hope or life. Ernest Hemingway showed his crossroads with his characters decision as a train track. One side meaning life the other death. The young couple starts the story by sitting on the dry (death) side drinking their beers, but by the end of this story the American man has put their luggage on the fertile side, that awaits the arrival of the train to Madrid. “He picked up the two heavy bags and carried them around the station to the other tracks…He went out through the bead curtain. She was sitting at the table and smiled at him” (pg. 133). This shows me as the reader the couple has agreed upon giving the pregnancy a chance. There can also be crossroads in life that might give us a fork in the road/path to our own fatality. How we get there should be a personal preference; without question. What are the moral rights of cancer or terminally ill patients? Should heath care professionals be able to step in and take over a patient 's wish or request on their own death? In Wit written by Margaret Edson, directed by Mike Nichols and Emma Thomson, Emma Thompson plays a 17th Century poetry professor named Vivian Bearing; she is diagnosed with stage four metastatic ovarian cancer. This movie raises the question of a patient making a morally right decision for themselves, in their medications and treatments they are given by their

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