Analysis Of Hemingway's Hills Like White Elephants

Hemingway’s ‘Hills Like White Elephants’ implicitly alludes to a difficult decision ahead of a man and a woman who have just discovered that they are about to have a baby. Hemingway uses this dominant theme of the story and juxtaposes it against a setting that provides greater depth to the dilemma that the main characters of the story are facing. The setting – the hills that appear like the skin of white elephants, highlights the tension between Jig’s desire to have a baby, and the man’s clear preference of having things just as they were. Jig’s discourse and her desire to be in control of her own life and the life of her unborn baby is critical in understanding Hemingway’s idea of free will; also critical is Hemingway’s use of the setting …show more content…
He creates characters that are conflicted in their approach to a problem and Hemingway gives this conflict further depth by deliberately using repetitive words. The repeated allusions to how a man and woman define happiness in a clearly patriarchal society, establishes a smokescreen through which the very idea of free will appears to be very confusing. The setting plays an extremely important role here. Jig appears to be appraising the white hills, which she remarks are very much like white elephants. The man on the other hand, is concerned mostly with their synthetic surroundings – the train station, the platforms, and the drinks. The woman’s allusion to a white elephant is suggestive of an imaginative discourse, since white elephants do not exist. The man, however, rejects this discourse by suggesting that his not seeing a white elephant does not prove anything. In both his selection of words for the man, and his description of how the man views the world around him, Hemingway presents the male approach to emotional problems (O’Brien 20). Also important in this emotional conflict is the characterization of the couple. Bauer (126-127) suggests that Hemingway usually creates his female characters as weak and one dimensional. However, the development of Jig’s character shows her as a strong woman, albeit emotional and one that connects to the formless and associative patterns around her. …show more content…
The term white elephant is often used as a metaphor for something that is not only burdensome, but also of almost no value. At the same time, as Weeks points out, the white elephant is also considered sacred in some cultures (77). This baby is an enigma to both Jig and the man. This is because they are not sure what would happen once the baby is born. For the man, the baby signifies responsibilities and putting roots and therefore the baby is burdensome. For the woman, the baby represents much more. It not validates her womanhood, but also highlights how static their relationship is. She understands that he wants her to buy into the illusion of her free will, even as he uses strongly worded arguments, suggesting that her pregnancy is simply an illness that she needs to recover from. This unemotional disregard to the baby and her mixed feelings towards it add to the complexity of the decision she needs to make. Adding to that is the fact that Jig and the Man are placed in Spain where Catholic values reign supreme, and the idea of abortion may not be so easily accepted. Even as the man continues to try and undermine her authority over her own body and her future, Jig tries to claim her right to make her decision through emotional manipulation. She asks him questions