In literature, important things are often left unsaid. In this case, one must carefully read between the lines in order to extract the true breadth or meaning behind the work. This is exactly the case with Ernest Hemmingway’s “Hills Like White Elephants”. Upon initial reading one might find themselves perplexed as to what is actually taking place within the text. The reader is introduced to the two main characters; a man vaguely named the “American man” and a girl called “Jig”, who seem to have had some kind of romantic relationship while travelling and are now having a somewhat heated discussion about an unknown event. The reader is also introduced to setting; a train station, assumedly in Europe, that lies directly in between two tracks
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This is when the reader is first exposed to the symbolism of the hills. While sitting with the American Man Jig takes in her surroundings. She mentions how warm it is outside and then seems to shift her focus to the hills in the distance. At first the hills are vaguely described as “white” surrounded by “brown, dry” country which suggests that the landscape she is looking at is baron and void of life (635). This description serves as a subtle allusion to how she may inwardly feel her life may become if she makes the decision to have the abortion. Outwardly however, she initially nonchalantly expresses, “They [the hills] look like white elephants” (635). A white elephant is known in to symbolize something unwanted. In this case the white elephant would be the unborn child accidentally conceived between two people who barely know each other. However, this remark comes off as oddly casual which suggests that at this point the child and the decision of whether or not to have an abortion are rather insignificant and distant to her. Paradoxically, while she says this so curtly leading the reader to believe that this decision isn’t challenging, her words speak volumes. Likening the unborn child to a white elephant thickens the plot by suggesting that there is deeper meaning here than what meets the eye. Perhaps the comparison marks a turning point in the way she views her situation and the world overall that she is projecting onto her surrounding and is therefore manifesting as a change from seeing the hills as just hills, to seeing them as a symbol of her accidental
This is when the reader is first exposed to the symbolism of the hills. While sitting with the American Man Jig takes in her surroundings. She mentions how warm it is outside and then seems to shift her focus to the hills in the distance. At first the hills are vaguely described as “white” surrounded by “brown, dry” country which suggests that the landscape she is looking at is baron and void of life (635). This description serves as a subtle allusion to how she may inwardly feel her life may become if she makes the decision to have the abortion. Outwardly however, she initially nonchalantly expresses, “They [the hills] look like white elephants” (635). A white elephant is known in to symbolize something unwanted. In this case the white elephant would be the unborn child accidentally conceived between two people who barely know each other. However, this remark comes off as oddly casual which suggests that at this point the child and the decision of whether or not to have an abortion are rather insignificant and distant to her. Paradoxically, while she says this so curtly leading the reader to believe that this decision isn’t challenging, her words speak volumes. Likening the unborn child to a white elephant thickens the plot by suggesting that there is deeper meaning here than what meets the eye. Perhaps the comparison marks a turning point in the way she views her situation and the world overall that she is projecting onto her surrounding and is therefore manifesting as a change from seeing the hills as just hills, to seeing them as a symbol of her accidental