What Is The Importance Of Communication In 'Hills Like White Elephants'?

Hills like White Elephants” was first published in 1927. It was written by Ernest
Hemingway an American writer and journalist. Hemmingway uses symbols found in dialogue and setting to demonstrate the importance of communication in decision making for a couple. The station where the drama unfolds is “between two lines of rails in the sun” at a train station surrounded by hills, fields and trees in a valley in Spain. The story involves two main characters, the male protagonist who is referred to as the ‘American’, and is accompanied by ‘the girl’ as they await a train to take them to Madrid. “Hills like White Elephants” is a captivating dialogue that highlights the power and importance of communication, through demonstrating the inevitable consequences …show more content…
The American tells the girl that he doesn’t want her to do the operation if she doesn’t feel ‘that way’, the girl walked away and “the shadow of a cloud moved across the field of grain and she saw the river through the trees”. I believe the “shadow of a cloud” represents the abortion, something she doesn’t want to happen. Therefore by girl seeing the river through the trees, perhaps Hemmingway is implying that the girl has made her own decision and she has overcome this ‘shadow’ that was placing a burden on her happiness. The tone of a piece of literature can be defined as the emotion or feeling that the author conveys through his words. Tone can be hard to separate from mood, however, as a rule of thumb the mood is the emotion throughout the entire piece while the tone can change throughout the piece. In "Hills like White Elephants" Hemingway indicates tone both through his description of the scene as well as through the strained conversation between the characters. There is a sense of conflict between the characters regard in Jig's pregnancy and the older man's desire for her to end the pregnancy with an abortion. This produces a tense tone to the piece and leads the reader to wonder about the deeper problems in this relationship. At the beginning of the story the tone is very tense with lots of outbursts and disagreements, the American Is often instructing the girl to “cut it out”. However, as the story progresses the tone becomes less tense , but more of sadness and worry that the situation is still not resolved, the American states “You know how I get when I worry,” which demonstrates that it’s not just the girl struggling to resolve this conversation into a meaningful and civil conclusion. The girl’s frustration of their lack of communication spoils over to the point where she no longer attempts to change