Ernest Hemingway is a well-known American writer. He is favored by many for his ability to allow readers to connect the dots for themselves when reading his stories. A hundred different people could read one of his pieces of writing and come up with a hundred different ideas on what he is writing about. In the short story, “Hills Like White Elephants” Ernest Hemingway creates a narrative piece. It is a dialog between an American man and a woman named Jig. The two of them are sitting at a train station in Spain; waiting for a train to go to Madrid. The conversation that they are having between each other is quite vague, but it is understood that whatever they are talking about is heavy on both of their mind.
Many analysts believe that the …show more content…
They did not order the drinks to pass the time, but instead to ease their mind off the current conversation; it did not work, though.
Hemingway plants an easter egg in the title of his story using the words “white elephant.” Way back when in Thailand , if royalty wanted to keep another person busy, royalty would give that person a white elephant. The reason being that white elephants were considered to be difficult to deal with; consuming the time of the person handling the elephant. The American man and Jig, the woman are thinking of the baby as a white elephant; something that would consume up all of their time.
Hemingways sparse style of writing leaves the reader questioning, “What was the two’s final decision?” At the end of the story, the two did finally decide whether to keep the baby or not to keep the baby, but their decision was not made known to the reader. Looking through the text, again and again, one thing that looked like it might contain the answer was the statement, “He picked up the two heavy bags and carried them around the station to the other tracks.” “Other tracks” is the key words here. When the American man and woman were originally waiting, they were waiting at the tracks that would bring them to Barcelona; where Jig would get the abortion. Instead of staying at those tracks they move to the other tracks that could only mean they're going back to where they came from; the city of
Many analysts believe that the …show more content…
They did not order the drinks to pass the time, but instead to ease their mind off the current conversation; it did not work, though.
Hemingway plants an easter egg in the title of his story using the words “white elephant.” Way back when in Thailand , if royalty wanted to keep another person busy, royalty would give that person a white elephant. The reason being that white elephants were considered to be difficult to deal with; consuming the time of the person handling the elephant. The American man and Jig, the woman are thinking of the baby as a white elephant; something that would consume up all of their time.
Hemingways sparse style of writing leaves the reader questioning, “What was the two’s final decision?” At the end of the story, the two did finally decide whether to keep the baby or not to keep the baby, but their decision was not made known to the reader. Looking through the text, again and again, one thing that looked like it might contain the answer was the statement, “He picked up the two heavy bags and carried them around the station to the other tracks.” “Other tracks” is the key words here. When the American man and woman were originally waiting, they were waiting at the tracks that would bring them to Barcelona; where Jig would get the abortion. Instead of staying at those tracks they move to the other tracks that could only mean they're going back to where they came from; the city of