Hills Like White Elephants Rhetorical Analysis

Ernest Hemingway’s “Hills Like White Elephants” is a short story that only uses barbed dialogue to characterize a extremely tense conversation between a American man and his girlfriend, a young women named Jig. The story opens in a untraditional manner with no background, no indication of the characters emotions, and substantially seems to have no purpose. Hemingway himself gives the impression of utter detachment from the characters. He places the reader in a position as if they are listening into another conversation. The reader is left to perceive the topic at hand by picking up key points to evaluate what is transpiring, which is the calculated discussion of abortion. Overall, the purpose of “Hills Like White Elephants” is the couples subject …show more content…
The young women Jig, is an oppressed character while the man shows extreme power being held in their relationship. He is manipulative and expresses sad attempts of patronizing her, but ultimately she seems to want to make up her own mind about the abortion even though he tends to make the decisions in their relationship. He continuously calls both the pregnancy and operation by the word “it” and displays his detachment to their situation. He states “I think it’s the best thing to do. But I don’t want you to do it if you really didn’t want to” which she replies “doesn’t it mean anything to you?” The American is selfish and clearly wants nothing to do with a baby in his near future when he says “I only want you.” Jig appears to consider the pregnancy more seriously “And once they take it away, you never get it back” by speaking with hints that the man always misses. “In place of a concrete object of desire, Jig contemplates only the prospect of having everything—that is presumably, continuing to live the life they have led before in perpetuity. Both have Europe dangled before them, only to have it snatched away by time’s progress” (Grant 270). They are always talking but never fully communicating because they dance around the subject and neither seem to understand each others point of …show more content…
They live this bohemian lifestyle where they just travel to look at things and drink. There is a description of many hotel labels on their bags which implies that they travel a lot and the fact that the man can speak Spanish suggests that he is educated weather that be through schooling or traveling. They don’t seem to have any worries up until the pregnancy which is the cause of their issues now. In the 1920s abortions were highly unpopular and very expensive. To even suggest that the young women should get an abortion would mean the American man is fairly wealthy. The man states “I’ve known lots of people that have done it” showing that this is not something new to him but is acting nonchalant about a procedure that should be taken seriously. He probably only has other wealthy friends. Their lives just sound very leisurely and the moment things get complicated it becomes something they have to take care of. “At least initially, the man has nothing to offer, nothing to contribute to the story, just as he has nothing more to contribute to Jig’s pregnancy now that he has invested his” time in creating life (Rankin 235). The man has the prospective that with money problems can just disappear. They both have issues with taking responsible and want to live life solely for the purpose of pleasure through their