Third Person
(Objective) The third-person narrator takes the fly-on-the-wall technique to extremes in “Hills Like White Elephants.” We can see both the journalist and the storyteller in Hemingway working together to construct the story.
What type of narration is Hills Like White Elephants?
Third Person
(Objective) The third-person narrator takes the fly-on-the-wall technique to extremes in “Hills Like White Elephants.” We can see both the journalist and the storyteller in Hemingway working together to construct the story.
What is Hills Like White Elephants mainly about?
Although “Hills Like White Elephants” is primarily
a conversation between the American man and his girlfriend
, neither of the speakers truly communicates with the other, highlighting the rift between the two. Both talk, but neither listens or understands the other’s point of view.
What is Hills Like White Elephants theme?
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.
What are the symbols in Hills Like White Elephants?
- Barren/Fertile Land. As the story opens, we are introduced first and foremost to the setting’s barren landscape, which is described as “brown and dry,” with “no shade” and “no trees.” Yet while the story feels as though… …
- Light. …
- Alcohol. …
- The Train Station.
What literary devices are used in Hills Like White Elephants?
Hemingway’s work Hills Like White Elephants communicates several political viewpoints―such as abortion and nationalistic inferiority―and conveys conflict through the use of
imagery, symbolism, point-of-view, and setting
. In the beginning of the short passage, Hemingway presents multiple images to set the mood.
What is the conflict in Hills Like White Elephants?
The main conflict in the story “Hills Like White Elephants” is
the debate between the man and his girlfriend Jig over whether or not to abort their unborn baby that Jig is carrying
. The man obviously wants—and pressures—Jig to have an abortion while Jig is reluctant to go through with the procedure.
Hemingway’s purpose was
not to hide from the scars caused by the war, but to reveal them
. In this story about getting an abortion, his purpose is to show the aimlessness and emptiness of post-war life.
What is the resolution of Hills Like White Elephants?
“Hills Like White Elephants” is a very short story. Only about one thousand words, the story itself is comprised almost entirely of dialogue. Although there is a situation, there is no plot; although there are words spoken between the main characters,
there is no resolution.
What is the symbolic meaning of white elephant?
A white elephant is an idiom
for a valuable possession of which its owner cannot dispose
and whose cost (particularly cost of upkeep) is out of proportion to its usefulness or worth. So, the white elephant is the unborn baby that the couple is discussing.
What is the significance of white elephant?
The white elephant—which was more often than not stricken with albinism, and thus more a ruddy-pink color—was, and remains to this day, a symbol of success. To possess a white elephant
connoted political power, wealth and prosperity, great wisdom
, and the love of one’s people.
What is jig a nickname for?
Expert Answers
The jig is
a dance in Ireland
. Giving the girl the nickname of Jig may suggest that she is from Ireland and that she is, or has been, a lively, spirited girl, since the jig is an extremely lively dance.
What do hills symbolize?
Hills carry their own significance least of which is the concept of
higher and lower levels of land
– the latter can contain swamps, people, darkness, fields, heat, unpleasantness, life whilst the former can suggest isolation, life, death, thin air, purity, clear views to name a few.
What does the alcohol symbolize in Hills Like White Elephants?
When reading Hills Like White Elephants, it is obvious that drinking alcohol is a large part of their relationship. … The symbolic part of the alcohol is that
it is the only functioning part of their relationship
. It gives the couple a short-term relief from their real life problems and realities.
What does licorice symbolize in Hills Like White Elephants?
The girl compares the drink (Anis del Toro) to licorice and to
absinthe
. Absinthe can have a bittersweet flavor (like licorice). This insinuation might refer to their predicament: she wonders if she has the abortion, if they will continue to be carefree lovers as they had been before she got pregnant.
What is the irony in Hills Like White Elephants?
The irony of the title, then, is that
the man “buys” a white elephant believing that the action under consideration can return him and his girlfriend to their former relationship, but the girl, like the reader, knows they will never be the same
, for she turns from the vision of life, fields of grain and trees, and …
