Hills Like White Elephants And Hemingway's Other Stories Analysis

Categories: Ernest Hemingway Hills Like White Elephants Short Story

Analysis, Pages 6 (1262 words)

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Every successful author has various writing approaches within their pieces of literature. These writing techniques are much like an artist’s signature at the bottom of a canvased masterpiece, to indicate to viewers and spectators, or in this case, readers, that a piece of work belongs to a specific creator. This added touch of flair gives individuality to their work, and sets the author apart from other writers; it provides the reader with a sense of remembrance of who the author is after reading multiple pieces of literature created by them.

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There are many different writing techniques in the field of literature, some being more practical, like alliteration, or the use of similes, while others are more complex, such as the use of theme, symbolism, and character development. Authors use the theme as a literary technique to convey their message, idea, or opinion to spark a belief, point of view, or understanding into the minds of their readers. Other types of complex literary techniques include symbolism, in which writers will use an artistic approach using symbols to represent ideas, or in other forms of literary technique, character development, in which writers will create believable characters by giving the character depth and personality.

As an example, Ernest Hemingway has a very exclusive way of carrying out his various short stories. Ernest Hemingway’s “The Killers”, “Hills Like White Elephants”, and “The Good Lion” all use theme, symbolism, and character development effectively. The theme in these three pieces of literature similarly displays the struggle for social acceptance and social conformity within various cultures.

These three pieces of literature also similarly display symbolism, and ambiguity, as well as how Hemingway’s characters are often defiant of what society expects. These patterns are found across all three stories, and are not only used effectively but are also characteristic of Hemingway’s style of writing.

Hemingway executes literary techniques within his short stories through his common theme that displays the struggle of social acceptance and social conformity within various cultures. This theme is found in all three pieces of literature, “Hills Like White Elephants”, “The Good Lion”, and “The Killers”. Within “Hills Like White Elephants” the theme of seeking social acceptance is very clear. This story is about a young man and woman traveling in Spain for a very specific operation that is never outwardly mentioned what the operation is, however, it is assumed this procedure they are traveling for is abortion. “Ernest Hemingway’s ‘Hills Like White Elephants’ is suited to a psychoanalytic perspective criticism and is the most effective, as it contains hidden, deeper meaning which the author had represented in this piece, by explicating the text to explore themes of choices, plot, setting and imagery, and essentially abortion” (Essay about Heart of Darkness: Psychoanalytic Criticism). This story is certainly set in a different period, for it was written in 1927; it was written in a period when abortion was not an accepted operation by society, as well as premarital pregnancy. The couple in this story are not married, and one may assume the couple also desires to keep the abortion a secret, because it is a premarital pregnancy, and because the operation of abortions is taboo, especially for the period. One can also assume that the couple wants to keep the pregnancy and the abortion a secret because of their traveling. The story is set in Spain where the couple is waiting to get aboard a train to get the operation. This is perhaps an underrated part of the story, that gives the theme more support. The couple is traveling to proceed with this procedure far from home so that no one around them will ever know about the pregnancy or the procedure at all. They desire to keep this a secret because they want to maintain their reputations; they desire to be socially accepted, and to do that, they go through extreme measures to ensure that they are conformed to what is expected from society.

Another one of the many ways that Hemingway executes literary techniques within his short stories is through his common use of symbolism and ambiguity. In Hemingway’s “Hills Like White Elephants”, many believe that the undiscussed topic throughout the story is about abortion, and how the woman feels about it in contrast to the man. The reader can get a sense of the woman’s feelings and how she desires to keep the baby, while the man selfishly pushes the woman to get the procedure done. One may assume the couple in the story are discussing an abortion through their dialogue. The man says, “It’s an awfully simple procedure… We’ll be fine afterward. Just like we were before… That’s the only thing that bothers us. It’s the only thing that’s made us unhappy” (Hills Like White Elephants 203). This is a very ambiguous, taboo story, “[that becomes] a work of irony spanning generations of determined readers desperate to find meaning within its ambiguous void” (Sequence of “It”: Explicating the Riddle of Ambiguity in Hemingway’s “Hills Like White Elephants”). Hemingway tells the story and creates a dialogue between the characters without ever giving away what the story is about, leaving many grey areas left for interpretation by the reader. Hemingway does this by providing metaphors and symbolism, without actually straightforward telling the story. Even the title of the short story, “Hills Like White Elephants” symbolizes pregnancy. However, because of the saturation of symbolism within this story, the plot’s message is not completely clear and has many layers of ambiguity that are meant to be left a mystery for readers to ponder on and interpret for themselves. The dialogue seems lighthearted, making it even more unexpected that the plot of this story was about something so dark, and secretive.

In conclusion. There are many different writing techniques in the field of literature, some being more practical, like alliteration, or the use of similes, while others are more complex, such as the use of theme, symbolism, and character development. Authors use the theme as a literary technique to convey their message, idea, or opinion to spark a belief, point of view, or understanding into the minds of their readers. Other types of complex literary techniques include symbolism, in which writers will use an artistic approach using symbols to represent ideas, or in other forms of literary technique, character development, in which writers will create believable characters by giving the character depth and personality. The interesting part about reading literature is that no author writes the same as another. Many of these literary techniques are used in various kinds of writing, however, they are all executed in very different ways. The theme in this piece of literature similarly displays the struggle for social acceptance and social conformity within various cultures. It also similarly displays symbolism, and ambiguity, as well as how Hemingway’s characters are often defiant of what society expects. These patterns are found across other stories, and are not only used effectively but are also characteristic of Hemingway’s style of writing. It has messages coiled up within it, left for the reader to interpret, in a way that is relatable and personal to them. Many of these underlying messages within Hemingway’s writings hit close to home, they include navigating social acceptance and peer pressure, as well as accepting the fears of life, like the bluntness of the inability to escape death. This short story along with others written by Ernest Hemingway is memorable because these issues are relatable and still affect readers today.