The Hills like White Elephants - Essay Example

The Hills like White Elephants Introduction In the story The Hills like White Elephants a man and a woman are waiting for the train at the railway station. Intensity is felt in their relationships. Is she going to make an abortion? Actually, the story is only about that, but Hemingway manages to provide his work with the complexity typical for a modernist poem. The story is full of the hidden meanings, and due to the opacity Hemingways stories are so strongly stamped in memory. Here it is important to note that intended darkness is suitable for the story: in a big novel such a manner of narration would look extremely tiresome. The given paper will prove that “The Hills like White Elephants” is a puzzle, the solution of which is deliberately made unachievable by the author to make every reader apply the story to his own life. In the center of Spain, somewhere between Barcelona and Madrid, there are two people sitting in the bar of the small station: an American man and a young woman. A reader does not know anything about them except that they are waiting for the train to Madrid where the girl will have a surgery, probably abortion. A reader does not know who they are, how old they are, whether they are in love with each other or not and what reasons forced them to make this decision. From their conversation provided with an extraordinary accuracy a reader can learn neither about their motives, nor about their past. This short story makes a reader imagine a great number of situations on the basis of this five-page dialogue: the man is married and induces the mistress to make abortion to protect his wife; he is a bachelor and insists on abortion not to complicate his life. Also it is possible to admit that he behaves this way not because he is selfish, but because he does not want a child to complicate the girl’s life. After all it is possible to imagine anything: he is seriously ill and does not want to leave the girl with a child; it is possible even to imagine that the father of the child is another man left by the girl, thus the American advises her to make abortion, but in case of refusal he is ready to be his father. And what about the girl? She could agree to make abortion to obey. However, she may have made this decision herself, but as the day of surgery is coming, she loses courage, feels guilty, but still demonstrate the last resistance addressed rather to her own conscience, than to the partner. Really, one can imagine different situations, which are hidden behind this dialogue and what is the most important is that every person imagines his own situation. As for character of the heroes, it is also difficult to decide: the man can be sensitive, loving, gentle, but at the same time he can be an egoist, a sly fellow, a hypocrite. The girl can be supersensitive, delicate, moral; but she can also be a capricious and hysterical manipulator. Original motives of their behavior are not clear as the dialogue doesnt specify how the replies are given: quickly, slowly, with irony, gently or with anger. The man says: “I love you now. You know I love you”. She answered “I know” (Hemingway). But what does this “I know” mean? Is she really sure that he loves her or says this with irony? And does this irony mean that she does not believe in his love or she does not need it any more? Moral fluctuations are guessed behind the girl’s replies. She speaks, looking at the landscape: "And we could have all this. And we could have everything and every day we make it more impossible ". The man wants to calm her: "I said we could have everything”. She argues: “No, we cant And once they take it away, you never get it back ". And when the man again wants to say that the operation is harmless, she says: "Would you do something for me now? Would you please please please please please please please stop talking?”. He replies: “But I dont want you to, I dont care anything about it”. And she said: “Ill scream”. Then the tension reaches the culmination. The man gets up to carry baggage and when comes back asks: "Do you feel better?". The girl replies: “I feel fine. Theres nothing wrong with me. (Hemingway). These are the last words of the well-known story of Ernest Hemingway The Hills Like White Elephants. If they are talking about an abortion, here a reader can make a conclusion that she will not make it as she feels fine as she is. A small station is a place to make a serious decision. Concussion Young people are quarreling over trifles: hills are not like white elephants for the man, "everything tastes of liquorice" for the heroine, she does not care about the consequences of a surgery, which the young man insists on or tries to prevent at the same time. The story is founded on the dialogue that is several times interrupted by laconic, but relief landscape sketches of the hills which are burned out by heat. They emphasize the mood of the heroes, the atmosphere of estrangement and misunderstanding. Behind the minimum use of the language means or minimalism, the big world of human thoughts and feelings is hidden. Every reader can understand this in his own way applying the story to his own life and own problems. The author left a puzzle for us, which we have to resolve. The most serious difficulty lies in the fact that people of different gender, race, position can interpret this story in their own way. There will never be two equal opinions, and this is the most interesting. But there is an idea that still can be the same: in any situation, in any quarrel, in any controversy we should remember that it is the most important to save the dearest to “feel fine”. References Hemingway E., Charters, Ann, ed. (2003). “Hills Like White Elephants. The Story and its Writer: An Introduction to Short Fiction. 6th Ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s Read More