Hills like White Elephants

*white elephant = expensive & useless

1. Introduction

• The story was published in 1927 by Ernest Hemingway.
• ingenious symbolism
• powerful dialogue
• Iceberg theory*

2. Plot summary

• Jig is pregnant
• Takes place in Spain
• read between the lines, they are talking about Jig's upcoming abortion
• Mostly dialogues
• Takes place in about 40 minutes

3. Themes and recurring elements

• Alcohol is present thorought the entire story, whether it is 'to try new things' or just to survive to the oppressive heat (beer)
• could be because of the uneasiness due to the choice she has to make
• Abortion
• Romantic relationship : mature/lasting (woman) or fleeting/sex (man)
• Responsibility / hedonism

4. Symbolism and setting

• landscape: on one side of the tracks it is green and fertile, and on the other it is brown and dry.
• the hills could represent the hills of the pregnant woman, with the huge belly
• white elephant means something expensive and useless, or also a sign of something good to happen. two sides of the same story
• train station: the characters could go their separate ways, or continue on the same train together.
• Jig: jig is a dance / slang word for sex... she is a sex object for him
• for the man, the baby is a white elephant
• 2 bags, 2 pads, 2 drinks, 2 tracks, 2 people... three's a crowd

5. Dialogue

• Very simple dialogues... have to read between the lines
• never explicit

"If a writer of prose knows enough about what he is writing about he may omit things that he knows and the reader, if the writer is writing truly enough, will have a feeling of those things as strongly as though the writer had stated them. The dignity of movement of the iceberg is due to only one-eighth of it being above water. The writer who omits things because he does not know them only makes hollow places in his writing."

Amazingly well-said