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Hills Like White Elephants Thesis

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Published: Mar 19, 2024

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The difficulty of effective communication, the symbolism of the landscape, an open-ended conclusion.

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Literary Theory and Criticism

Home › Literature › Analysis of Ernest Hemingway’s Hills Like White Elephants

Analysis of Ernest Hemingway’s Hills Like White Elephants

By NASRULLAH MAMBROL on May 25, 2021

The frequently anthologized Hills Like White Elephants  first printed in transition magazine in 1927 is often read and taught as a perfect illustration of Ernest Hemingway’s minimalist, self-proclaimed “iceberg” style of writing: In much of Hemingway’s fiction what is said in the story often is less important than what has not been said. Like the iceberg—only one-eighth of which is visible above the surface—Hemingway’s fiction is much richer than its spare language suggests. Hemingway has great faith in his readers and leaves them to discern what is truly happening from the scant facts he presents on the surface of his story. On a superficial level, Hills is merely about a man, a woman, and an “awfully simple operation” (275). What the narrator never actually tells the reader, however, is that “awfully simple operation” is an abortion, a taboo subject in 1925. Underneath the surface of this story are THEMEs and motifs that are characteristic of many of Hemingway’s other works as well. As do many of those works, “Hills” tells the story of an American abroad and depicts the strained relationships between men and women that clearly intrigued the author. As with many of the relationships Hemingway portrays, this man and woman apparently have nothing in common but sex and the heavy consumption of alcoholic beverages.

Ernest Hemingway/Goodreads

Hills  is also a story of avoidance. Instead of having a significant, rational conversation about the issue at hand, the “girl,” Jig, says only that the hills of Spain look like white elephants. “Wasn’t that clever?” she asks the unnamed man (274). This rather inconsiderate male companion agrees, but he actually wants to talk about the procedure. Jig would rather not discuss it. When he pressures her, she replies, “Then I’ll do it. Because I don’t care about me.” Jig is the typical Hemingway female, selfless and sacrificial. She is prepared to have the abortion, but the reader is left with the distinct impression that any previous magic between the couple is gone. “It isn’t ours anymore,” Jig tells the American (276). The unfortunate accident of pregnancy has ruined the relationship; it will never be the same. Hemingway explores many of the same themes in his important war novel A Farewell to Arms and in The Sun Also Rises.

Analysis of Ernest Hemingway’s Novels

BIBLIOGRAPHY Hemingway, Ernest. “Hills Like White Elephants.” 1927. Reprinted in The Complete Short Stories of Ernest Hemingway: The Finca Vigía Edition. New York: Scribner, 1987. Johnston, Kenneth. “ ‘Hills Like White Elephants’: Lean, Vintage Hemingway.” Studies in American Fiction (1982). Renner, Stanley. “Moving to the Girl’s Side of Hills.” The Hemingway Review (1995).

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A Summary and Analysis of Ernest Hemingway’s ‘Hills Like White Elephants’

By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)

‘Hills Like White Elephants’ (1927) is one of Ernest Hemingway’s best-known and most critically acclaimed short stories. In just five pages, Hemingway uses his trademark style – plain dialogue and description offered in short, clipped sentences – to expose an unspoken subject that a man and a young woman are discussing.

You can read ‘Hills Like White Elephants’ here before proceeding to our summary and analysis of the story.

Plot summary

A man (an American expatriate) and a young girl (or ‘girl’) are drinking in the bar of a railway station in Spain, while waiting for their train. As it’s hot, they order some beers to drink, and then try an aniseed drink. The girl looks at the line of hills in the valley of the Ebro and remarks that they look like white elephants.

Her male companion, with whom we deduce she is in some sort of relationship, says he has never seen a white elephant and then gets defensive and annoyed when she remarks that he wouldn’t have, presumably because they’re so rare.

Their small talk then takes in the curtains of the bar, but gradually their conversation turns to an ‘operation’ (of sorts) which the man is trying to persuade the girl to undertake.

This procedure, which is referred to as ‘it’ throughout the story, is almost certainly an abortion, the girl having fallen pregnant by the man. However, it becomes clear that he wishes her to get rid of the baby, although she remains undecided. Eventually, growing tired of the man’s attempts to sway her, she demands that he stop talking.

They hear that their train is arriving, but when the man goes outside there is no sign of it. When he goes back inside and asks the girl how she is feeling, she replies curtly that she’s ‘fine’.

The title of Hemingway’s story, ‘Hills Like White Elephants’, is fitting for a number of reasons. First and perhaps most obviously, the title of the story denotes not the main and most pressing topic of the two main characters’ conversation – the unspoken ‘it’, the girl’s ‘operation’, which the man is trying to encourage her to have – but one aspect of their small talk as they skirt around that topic.

The girl’s comment about the Spanish hills looking like white elephants is mere filler, an example of ‘treading water’ as she and her male companion drink enough alcohol to make broaching the dread topic of their conversation – without actually directly mentioning it – palatable or even possible.

‘White elephants’ itself has two potential meanings here. There is a rare albino elephant known as the white elephant, whose presence at the royal court, in countries like Burma and Thailand, was considered a sign that the monarch reigned justly, and that the kingdom would be blessed with peace and prosperity.

But the second meaning is implied in Hemingway’s story. A ‘white elephant’ is a Western cultural term describing a possession which its owner cannot dispose of. The maintenance cost of such a possession is out of proportion to its usefulness or desirability.

Given the (implied) topic of the man and girl’s conversation – the girl’s reluctant decision to abort the baby she has conceived by the man – this meaning of ‘white elephant’ comes into view with a tragic force. The (unwanted) baby the girl has conceived with the man is like the proverbial white elephant, something that would cost a great deal for her to keep and maintain.

But by the same token, she finds it hard to ‘get rid of’ her white elephant, presumably because of the finality of such an act, though it is also implied that she worries over the safety of the procedure. (We should remember that medical procedures in 1927 were often not as relatively clean or as advanced as they now are.)

So the very title of Hemingway’s short story, ‘Hills Like White Elephants’, subtly and obliquely references the very thing which the two of them cannot bring themselves to mention or name openly: the title, then, both reveals and conceals the real subject of the story.

‘Hills Like White Elephants’ contains many of the most representative elements of Hemingway’s fiction: the spare style, the plain and direct dialogue, and the Spanish landscape which he often wrote about. And yet all three of these things can be said to work against, or be in tension with, the story’s subject-matter.

The spare style exposes the uncomfortable nature of the couple’s relationship (despite his repeated exhortations that she shouldn’t go through with ‘it’ unless she wants to, he is clearly trying to persuade her to have the abortion for his sake); the directness of the dialogue masks the failure of the two characters to have a frank conversation about ‘it’; and the Spanish landscape is not mere backdrop but a detail that is brought into the story only because the girl is finding it hard to address the momentous subject she knows she must eventually face.

And that leads us to wonder whether there might not be another meaning playing around that title, ‘Hills Like White Elephants’: the so-called ‘elephant in the room’, the idiom (prominent in the United States by the early twentieth century) denoting a conspicuous and important issue which nobody wants to discuss.

One also wonders whether, somewhere in his prodigious mind, Hemingway was recalling Mark Twain’s 1882 detective story, ‘ The Stolen White Elephant ’, in which the elephant turns out to have been in the original spot all along. Like the proverbial elephant in the room, Hemingway’s ‘hills like white elephants’ are there, prominent and immovable, and even getting on a train is not going to allow one to escape their true meaning.

Because so much of the characters’ dialogue works by subtext and through small talk, we are encouraged to deduce the nature of their relationship through observing how they interact, even more than by paying attention to what they talk about.

The man’s response to the girl’s dismissive comment that he wouldn’t have ever seen an actual white elephant is a case in point, since it suggests a controlling aspect to his personality, whereby an offhand and largely meaningless remark is taken up by him and responded to in a manner that is as defensive as it is petty.

Similarly, it is worth pointing out that the girl goes back on her initial statement that the hills resemble white elephants, saying shortly after this that the hills don’t actually look that much like white elephants after all, and only remind her of their colour. (This is interesting because many so-called white elephants are ‘white’ only in name: many of them are actually grey or pinkish in colour.)

This similarly reflects her vacillation over ‘it’, the termination of her pregnancy which she is evidently reluctant to undertake. As so often in a Hemingway story, how he reveals things through characters’ dialogue is as significant – and perhaps in this case even more so – than what is (not) being said.

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Analysis of 'Hills Like White Elephants' by Ernest Hemingway

A Story That Takes on an Emotional Conversation on Abortion

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Ernest Hemingway 's "Hills Like White Elephants" tells the story of a man and woman drinking beer and anise liqueur while they wait at a train station in Spain. The man is attempting to convince the woman to get an abortion , but the woman is ambivalent about it. The story's tension comes from their terse, barbed dialogue .

First published in 1927, "Hills Like White Elephants" is widely anthologized today, likely because of its use of symbolism and demonstration of Hemingway's Iceberg Theory in writing.

Hemingway's Iceberg Theory

Also known as the "theory of omission," Hemingway's Iceberg Theory contends that the words on the page should be merely a small part of the whole story—they are the proverbial "tip of the iceberg," and a writer should use as few words as possible in order to indicate the larger, unwritten story that resides below the surface.

Hemingway made it clear that this "theory of omission" should not be used as an excuse for a writer not to know the details behind his or her story. As he wrote in " Death in the Afternoon ," "A writer who omits things because he does not know them only makes hollow places in his writing."

At fewer than 1,500 words , "Hills Like White Elephants" exemplifies this theory through its brevity and the noticeable absence of the word "abortion," even though that is clearly the main subject of the story. There are also several indications that this isn't the first time the characters have discussed the issue, such as when the woman cuts the man off and completes his sentence in the following exchange:

"I don't want you to do anything that you don't want to—" "Nor that isn't good for me," she said. "I know."

How Do We Know It's About Abortion?

If it already seems obvious to you that "Hills Like White Elephants" is a story about abortion, you can skip this section. But if the story is new to you, you might feel less certain about it.

Throughout the story, it is clear that the man would like the woman to get an operation, which he describes as "awfully simple," "perfectly simple," and "not really an operation at all." He promises to stay with her the whole time and that they'll be happy afterward because "that's the only thing that bothers us."

He never mentions the woman's health, so we can assume the operation is not something to cure an illness. He also frequently says she doesn't have to do it if she doesn't want to, which indicates that he's describing an elective procedure. Finally, he claims that it's "just to let the air in," which implies abortion rather than any other optional procedure.

When the woman asks, "And you really want to?", she's posing a question that suggests the man has some say in the matter—that he has something at stake—which is another indication that she's pregnant. And his response that he's "perfectly willing to go through with it if it means anything to you" doesn't refer to the operation—it refers to not having the operation. In the case of pregnancy, not having the abortion is something "to go through with" because it results in the birth of a child.

Finally, the man asserts that "I don't want anybody but you. I don't want anyone else," which makes it clear that there will be "somebody else" unless the woman has the operation.

White Elephants

The symbolism of the white elephants further emphasizes the subject of the story.

The origin of the phrase is commonly traced to a practice in Siam (now Thailand) in which a king would bestow the gift of a white elephant on a member of his court who displeased him. The white elephant was considered sacred, so on the surface, this gift was an honor. However, maintaining the elephant would be so expensive as to ruin the recipient. Hence, a white elephant is a burden.

When the girl comments that the hills look like white elephants and the man says he's never seen one, she answers, "No, you wouldn't have." If the hills represent female fertility, swollen abdomen, and breasts, she could be suggesting that he is not the type of person ever to intentionally have a child.

But if we consider a "white elephant" as an unwanted item, she could also be pointing out that he never accepts burdens he doesn't want. Notice the symbolism later in the story when he carries their bags, covered with labels "from all the hotels where they had spent nights," to the other side of the tracks and deposits them there while he goes back into the bar, alone, to have another drink.

The two possible meanings of white elephants—female fertility and cast-off items—come together here because, as a man, he will never become pregnant himself and can cast off the responsibility of her pregnancy.

"Hills Like White Elephants" is a rich story that yields more every time you read it. Consider the contrast between the hot, dry side of the valley and the more fertile "fields of grain." You might consider the symbolism of the train tracks or the absinthe. You might ask yourself whether the woman will go through with the abortion, whether they'll stay together, and, finally, whether either of them knows the answers to these questions yet.

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Hills Like White Elephants

Ernest hemingway, ask litcharts ai: the answer to your questions.

The Limits of Language

As in most of his fiction, Hemingway is interested in where language breaks down between individuals and how what is unsaid or what is unspeakable can define and divide individuals. At a purely stylistic level, Hemingway exposes the inadequacy of language through his use of unnamed characters and minimalist, stripped down sentences. Without using details to describe how “ the man ” or “ the girl ” look or sound, Hemingway instead chooses to focus…

Significantly, this story unfolds as the man and the girl wait at a station for a train to Madrid. The heat is oppressive and the two are forced to wait, drinking away the afternoon till the train arrives. This sense of agonizing waiting permeates the story from the setting itself—a hot, dry river valley at a literal crossroads—to the crucial decision the couple is trying to make: whether or not to have an abortion.

Freedom vs Family

As the story makes clear from the beginning, both the man and the girl are accustomed to a free, uncommitted lifestyle. When the man looks at their combined luggage, it is covered with “labels…from all the hotels where they had spent nights.” The two of them have spent a long time traveling together, going wherever they wanted without restriction. The decision to carry through with the girl’s pregnancy and create a family would completely alter…

Men, Women, and Relationships

At the heart of “Hills Like White Elephants” is Hemingway’s examination of the man and girl ’s deeply flawed relationship, a relationship that champions “freedom” at the cost of honesty, respect, and commitment. In this sense, the man and girl represent stereotypes of male and female roles: the male as active and the female as passive. In this gender framework, the man makes the decisions and the female complies. However, as the story illustrates, such…

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• 30 Paper Topics for ‘Hills Like White Elephants’

Many students have tasks to present interesting essays in literature class. There is no secret that Ernest Hemingway is a great author that grabs the reader’s attention immediately. Therefore, if a student decided to write a short formal essay about ‘Hills Like White Elephants’ topic, success is ensured to them.

Our service composes the most exciting topics on any subject, and this short story by Ernest Hemingway is not an exception. Read the list of ‘Hills Like White Elephants’ essay topics and get your dose of inspiration for your essay.

‘Hills Like White Elephants’ Research Paper Topics

• How do relationships described in ‘Hills Like White Elephants’ relate to people from real life?
• Analysis of the man character from ‘Hills Like White Elephants’ based on in-text citations.
• Does Ernest Hemingway’s ‘Hills Like White Elephants’ have a feminist perspective?
• The description of the woman character in ‘Hills Like White Elephants’ based on quotes from the short story.
• How does Jig from ‘Hills Like White Elephants’ see the setting around her and the two sides of the valley as symbolic of her choices?
• How does Hemingway use setting and concrete detail to achieve compression in ‘Hills Like White Elephants’?
• Describe your opinion of how ‘Hills Like White Elephants’ ends. What will happen to this couple?
• Is ‘Hills Like White Elephants’ biographical towards Hemingway’s life? How do aspects of his life apply to the hesitation of the two characters in the story?
• Differences and similarities of ‘Good People’ by David Foster Wallace and ‘Hills Like White Elephants’ by Ernest Hemingway.
• Does the central theme of ‘Hills Like White Elephants’ reveals insight about all of humanity?
• The themes of ‘Hills Like White Elephants’ and its significance to the central characters.
• What is the idea that bridges the short stories: ‘Hills Like White Elephants’ and ‘A Good Man Is Hard to Find’?
• Comparison of the role of women in Hemingway’s ‘Hills Like White Elephants’ and Faulkner’s ‘A Rose for Emily.’
• The elements of setting and characterization Ernest Hemingway uses to convey the deceptive side of human nature in ‘Hills Like White Elephants.’
• A comparison of two characters from Hemingway’s ‘Hills Like White Elephants.’
• What kind of relationship is in ‘Hills Like White Elephants’ between the woman and the man? What was their past life, and do they seem to get on well together now?
• Does the conflict between men and women described in ‘Hills Like White Elephants’ reveal global conflict in real life?
• What is the “operation” the man and the woman in ‘Hills Like White Elephants’ are discussing about? How do their opinions differ about it?
• Is Ernest Hemingway’s ‘Hills Like White Elephants’ a story about a doomed relationship? Is “operation” going to change things for a better future of this couple, or separate after?
• Does Ernest Hemingway’s ‘Hills Like White Elephants’ indicate that the two young people are not close enough? How does this lack of communication dictate the outcome of this story?
• The title of Hemingway’s short story ‘Hills Like White Elephants’ and the meaning of this idiomatic expression.
• The meaning of the beaded curtain in ‘Hills Like White Elephants.’
• What is the sense in Jig’s final statement: “I feel fine… There’s nothing wrong with me. I feel fine’?
• How is the short story ‘Hills Like White Elephants’ relevant today in terms of society, culture, and politics?
• Does the male protagonist manipulate the female protagonist to do what he wants? What is the motif of his manipulation?
• What differentiates the fears of man and woman in ‘Hills Like White Elephants’?
• What have critics published about Hemingway’s short story ‘Hills Like White Elephants’?
• In the dialogue between the man and woman in ‘Hills Like White Elephants,’ do the characters speak in report talk or rapport talk?
• The similarities between two stories by Ernest Hemingway: ‘Cat in the Rain’ and ‘Hills like White Elephants.’
• What is the descriptive function of setting this story in Spain? How could the story be changed if it took place in any other country?

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Comparison of “Hills Like White Elephants” and “Good People” Essay

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Ernest Hemingway and David Foster Wallace’s short stories are very similar because they raise the same topic, use the setting of nature to convey mood, and tell similar stories. However, the characters of “Hills Like White Elephants” and “Good People” have different paths to making the decision. While both couples decide in favor of abortion at first, Jig and the American man are guided by their feelings and romantic relations, while Lane and Shari are pressured by their religious principles.

At first glance, Hemingway and Wallace’s stories have many similarities, since they tell about a couple facing the issue of unwanted pregnancy and abortion and use the setting to convey mood. In both cases, men are more worried about the likelihood of becoming a father, although girls also have many doubts. Both men also do not force their women to undergo the procedures, and the word “abortion” is not mentioned directly. Both couples decide to have an abortion after a tense and uncomfortable conversation at first, although the decision does not seem final. At the same time, in Hemingway’s story, the hot and dry plain and white hills are described to convey the tension of the situation (253). Wallace uses a more pleasant landscape, but a fallen tree in the water and “its ball of exposed roots going all directions” add gloom to the scene as well as the emptiness of the park (para. 1.). Consequently, the stories share common characteristics that make them very similar in many ways.

However, one can observe significant differences in the relationship of couples and circumstances that impact their decision. Lane and Shari are both religious people who have been in a relationship for a short time. They both feel guilty because they violated the prohibition on intimate relationships before marriage and decided to make the more serious sin of abortion in terms of religion (Wallace para.3). At the same time, Jig and the American man are guided by their feelings and happiness of free life to decide (Hemingway 255). At the same time, although Jig does not mind becoming a mother, she is afraid that such a decision will ruin her relationship with the man. For this reason, the choice for Lane and Sheri seems more complicated, since both options have more severe consequences for either career and the future or the fundamental principles of their life.

In addition, the difference between couples is the feeling of love that guides them. Jig agrees to the procedure to keep the relationship with the man the same, and they both openly talk about love for each other (Hemingway 255). At the same time, although readers do not know how this situation will affect the characters, they can conclude that Jig agrees for the sake of love. At the same time, Lane and Sheri are considering having an abortion because Lane does not love Sheri, and the girl cannot oblige him to stay with her because of the baby (Wallace para.5.). However, in Sheri’s final decision to keep the baby and Lane’s subsequent doubts, they demonstrate that refusal to abortion can be their way in the name of love (Wallace para.5 ). Thus, while love plays a central role in both situations, it leads the characters’ stories to different endings.

Thus, the analysis demonstrates that although the authors use the same theme for their stories, the characters’ development is significantly different due to the feelings and beliefs that guide them. Jig and American man make decisions based on their vision of happiness, while their religious principles influence lane and Sheri. At the same time, love has different effects on couples, although it is central to decision-making.

Works Cited

Hemingway, Ernest. The Short Stories of Ernest Hemingway . Simon and Schuster, 1995.

Wallace, David Foster. “Good People.” The New Yorker, 2007, Web.

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