Hills Like White Elephants

Tone of communication refers to the way in which what one is saying comes across. I would argue that, in "Hills Like White Elephants," the woman's tone is imaginative and lighthearted, showcasing a...

To understand the title of the short story "Hills Like White Elephants" by Ernest Hemingway, it is important to isolate the central conflict in the story. A man and a woman are waiting for a train...

It's notable that Jig later changes her mind about the surrounding hills looking like white elephants. As has already been noted elsewhere, a white elephant is something that no one wants....

This story is narrated form a third-person objective point of view. This means that the narrator is not a participant in the events that take place and does not use first-person pronouns like I or...

Ernest Hemingway's short story “Hills Like White Elephants” concentrates on a conversation between an American man and Jig, his girlfriend. Jig, apparently, is a nickname of some sort, but it is...

To be able to understand the ending of the short story "Hills Like White Elephants" by Ernest Hemingway, it is important to grasp the relationship between the two main characters and the style that...

There are several metaphors and similes in Hemingway's story. The most prominent one is the hills, which Jig compares to white elephants. The hills represent many possible things, one of which is a...

The ending of Hemingway’s short story “Hills Like White Elephants” is a bit ambiguous. While it is implied that the couple’s conflict was resolved, it is open for interpretation and thus one could...

I think another irony in the story has to do with the fact that these two individuals, Jig (the girl) and her lover, only known as "The American," have clearly been physically intimate with each...

The female character in "Hills" actually does have a name -- "Jig" -- but it is used very sparingly by the male, and it may be a nickname rather than a proper name. Hemingway...

In “Hills Like White Elephants,” Hemingway uses the three different terrains to symbolize the state of the couple’s relationship and in particular Jig’s illusions about her life. When the story...

Hemingway use the number two for two purposes (no play on words intended). The first relates to the American man and the girl, whom he calls Jig, being a couple. This reinforces the man's...

The narrator conveys more sympathy for Jig, the woman, than for the man. Jig wants to give birth to the "elephant" in the room, which is her unborn child. She has made this clear to her partner but...

In Ernest Hemingway’s short story “Hills Like White Elephants,” the young woman called “Jig” is being pressured by her older male companion, usually called simply “the man,” to have an abortion....

"Hills Like White Elephants" is a short story by Ernest Hemingway that is ultimately about whether or not one of the two main characters will get an abortion. Most of the story is told through the...

The short story “Hills like white elephants” talks about a girl called Jig who is waiting to take the express to Madrid with her American boyfriend. As they wait, they talk about an operation that...

To understand why the woman, Jig, makes the comment about everything tasting like licorice and why this annoys her boyfriend, we have to understand that Jig is bitter. She is pregnant. Her...

A woman named Jig and her unnamed boyfriend are waiting at a train station in Spain for their next train. In the distance, the hills in the valley are described as long and white. The location of...

Now, this is an interesting question. The Real (plural: Reales) is a unit of Spanish currency used from the mid-14th century to 1864, when it was replaced by the escudo, and then by the peseta in...

The reason we can claim this story conversation, or dialogue, is about an abortion is because the American man gives a clue to the topic substance. He says, "It's just to let the air in." "It's...

The American and Jig have been leading a casual lifestyle in which they travel leisurely and party. As Jig notes, "I wanted to try this new drink. That's all we do, isn't it--look at things and...

Though it is never said explicitly either way, there are many reasons to believe that the American and the “girl” in Ernest Hemingway’s “Hills Like White Elephants” are married. Their conflict is...

The American seems to be referred to in this way to emphasize the idea that he is somehow representative of America and American values during this time period. He is interested in drinking,...

In “Hills Like White Elephants,” the relationship between the American and Jig seems to be based more on emotional dependency than authentic love. Consider how Jig asks the American if he loves...

Jig and the American never actually name the subject of their conversation. The closest they get is by referring to some kind of medical procedure, what the man calls "an awfully simply operation."...

Tone in literature can have two manifestations. The first, and most often referred to, is the author's tone. This expresses the author's feeling for the subject at hand. It is usually made clear in...

I like to read the train station setting as a metaphorical parallel to the situation of the couple. The young woman in the story is pregnant and so is dealing with a "scheduled arrival". Unless...

This story has often been discussed in eNotes. I think most readers have agreed that the man and woman are going to Madrid for her to get an abortion. They have evidently been discussing the matter...

In order for something to be a symbol, it must be have both literal meaning and figurative meaning. Therefore, there would actually have to be white elephants present in some literal way, and then...

In Ernest Hemingway's “Hills Like White Elephants,” Jig and her partner are discussing the “operation” that Jig's partner wants her to have, and they struggle to come to an agreement about what...

The story revolves around the conflict between a man and a woman, who are faced with the decision of what to do about a pregnancy. They view the situation differently, and they communicate...

In "Hills Like White Elephants," Hemingway puts the reader in the position of a voyeur and an eavesdropper. The reader can only obtain information from what is done and said by the two principal...

Hemingway had at least two purposes in writing "Hills Like White Elephants." First, as in all of his writing, he reacted against the ornate writing style of his Victorian and Edwardian predecessors...

At the very end of his short story “Hills Like White Elephants,” Ernest Hemingway fails to make absolutely clear the decision that the couple finally make: do they plan to have an abortion (as the...

In Hills Like White Elephants, the man and the girl are waiting for the train from Barcelona to Madrid at a small railway station in the Ebro Valley. Hemingway begins by saying that the hills...

Hemingway reveals his much about his characters through his use of dialogue and description of their actions and reactions. Readers can make educated assumptions about a character's personality...

"The American and the girl with him" are introduced in this curiously off-hand phrase, as though it is merely an accident that they happen to be together. We are told almost nothing about them. The...

The girl obviously wants to have the baby. The man obviously does not want her to have the baby, although he knows very well that she wants to have it. She knows that he doesn't want a baby because...

To assess the contemporary relevancy of the short story "Hills Like White Elephants" by Ernest Hemingway, it is important to understand what the story is really about. A couple is sitting at a...

The title of the short story "Hills Like White Elephants" by Hemingway is significant because it is the topic of conversation between the two characters represented in the story, the girl and the...

The conversation between Jig and her American boyfriend sounds flat, tense, angry, and jaded. They keep repeating the same statements over and over and never seem to get anywhere. For example, the...

In Hemingway's "Hills Like White Elephants," the American man is selfish because he has no interest in understanding the woman's point of view. The abortion probably needs to be discussed, and one...

The purpose of the trip is not mentioned directly in the text of "Hills Like White Elephants." As in many of Hemingway's stories (e.g. "The Killers"), the reader is put in the position of an...

Hemingway's short story "Hills Like White Elephants" focuses on the dialogue between a man and a woman while they are waiting for a train. The dialogue at first appears to be innocuous small talk...

I think that part of the story's beauty is that it really does not offer a resolution. In a commitment to present consciousness as it is, Hemingway does not capitulate to traditional storytelling...

In order to understand how an author indicates tone in a work, you need to have a correct understanding of the concept of tone in literature. Tone in literature is the attitude, opinion, assessment...