As it is a ficticious short story, fictitiousit is riddled with symbolism and mystery with the main theme and subject of the matter being never mentioned in its proper wording. The story is aimed at producing a classic way of masculinity over the main theme of the story which is abortion and how selfishness of one side can corrupt a relationship.
Hills like white Elephants is short story by Ernest Hemmingway, which is a literature of fiction and allegorical work. As it is a ficticious short story, it is riddled with symbolism and mystery with the main theme and subject of the matter being never mentioned in its proper wording. The story is aimed at producing a classic way of masculinity over the main theme of the story which is abortion and how selfishness of one side can corrupt a relationship (Wyche 2002). It has two characters, one is a man mentioned and reffered to only by his nationality,and a name not mentioned and his companion is a woman who is reffered to as Jig and her nationality, origin is not mentioned only that the story depicts her as being a companion to the man in his travel. The man is mentioned by his nationality, which could mean he travels a lot and just happened to impregnate a woman in his travels as the story depicts that they spend nights in hotels and not a family home. This can be an indicator that the man probably had a family somewhere, and when Jig mentioned that she knew things might be an indication that she was afraid the man would abandon her the moment the operation is done(Susanty 2015).
The story unwinds by first describing the scenery around a tarvern which is next to a train station where the setting putting it in early 20th century . The location of the story is in between Barcelona and Madrid, and the two being two cities, it becomes a mystery if the American was living in the countryside, or they were had travelled from another place to be where they are. The country is spain and this gives the reason why the man is reffered to as American, probably to depict some kind of nationalistic tendencies of the people at that time (Rankin 2005). However, this can be an indication of the reservation they have on having the operation they want to undertake, in their hometown. They comment on the women they know who have had the operation, which is an indcater of the stigma which is associated with it. Jig seems aware of the social ramifications of it and the guilt which will come after it, wondering if the man will still love her if she were to undergo it which is one failure of love. She is concerned on who the society will take everything from her after probably, she is labled a prostitute and a killer of babies.
The American and the woman are sitting outside the tarvern and they are in perpetual arguments, seemingly never agreeing on anything about their personal lives. Argument is stimulated between the two, immediately in the first paragraph of their discussion, with the woman commenting on a seemingly broad and insenstitive sentiment that the hills yonder the train station look like white elephants. The man, seemingly uninterested on her sentiment says probably he has never seen a “white elephant” (Rankin 2005). Jig changes the topic and tells him to read her the advertisement on the wall, which turns out to be a an alcoholic beverage called “ Anis de Toro”, which the woman thinks the man should buy her. This can be interpreted as the attempts of the woman to change the subject from the previous when they could not agree on whether the American had seen a white elephant or not. Once again, she strikes a conversation and they continue to argue but Jig tells the man that she is trying to amuse herself. In this regard, she is trying to put new thoughts in her mind to avoid the incessant topic of the operation, which she is willing to compromise only because the American wants it. Although she becomes aware that she will win it, she puts a fake face of happiness to the man and the barwoman, and her “I feel fine” is an indicator that she is ready of any outcome after the operation has been carried out and probably knowing that she has lost her happiness (Wyche 2002).
The man prodes Jig that he will not force her to do it if she does not want, but it is jus a simple process and things will go back to happiness as they were before. Jig, seems angered and inebriated by the whole issue, in that her concern is much on the survival of their relationship than the baby. She is of the opinion that the turn of the relationship will be depended on if she will induce the abortion or carry on with the pregnancy. The man seems eager to convince Jig on her thought about the operation while Jig in her sentiments, is actually throwing subtle hints that she is uninterested with the idea. The man seems aware of the emotional weakness of Jig and uses it as leverage to convince her that it is just a simple process and it will bring happiness to them if the operation will be carried out. Jig seems dependent on the American and this is depicted in the ordering of drinks at the tavern which is a depiction of a patriarchal society (Susanty 2015).
REFERENCES.
Susanty, S. (2015). THE MEANING OF RELATIONSHIP IN HEMINGWAY’S “HILLS LIKE WHITE ELEPHANT”. Journal On English As A Foreign Language, Vol 2, Iss 2, Pp 1-10 (2015), (2), 1.
Rankin, P. (2005). Hemingway's Hills Like White Elephants. The Explicator, (4), 234.
Wyche, D. (2002). Letting the air into a relationship: metaphorical abortion in `Hills Like White Elephants'. The Hemingway Review, (1), 56.
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