White Elephants...Like the Christmas Gifts?

Hills Like White Elephants is a very interesting story, and is one of my favorite works by Ernest Hemingway, an author whose stories I usually enjoy. One of the things that makes it so intriguing is it's structure; the story is stripped of all unnecessary description and wordiness (I hope that's a word, if not I'm pullin a Shakespeare on that one), and what is left is almost pure dialogue. In the first read through, one might think that it is just a story of two people talking about meaningless things. However, the key is to read between the lines to see the tension and problems between the couple. This kind of structure leaves much more analysis up to the readers, and I think it makes the story more interesting.

A prominent theme in the story is that of white elephants; it is in the title, and the girl mentions that the hills look like white elephants a few times. The term white elephant is often used to describe something that is unwanted, and in this story it refers to the girl's unborn baby. While this isn't said outright, it can be gathered by reading into the story. The man is trying to convince the girl to have a simple operation, which would only "let the air in", and the girl can't decide whether or not to do it. The indecision on whether or not to keep the baby is shown when she decides that maybe the hills don't look like white elephants after all, they are just colored the same.

Another theme in the story is that of communication. The man and the girl talk to each other the whole story, yet they don't really seem to listen to what the other person is saying. They try to avoid talking to each other by drinking, which the girl points out is all they seem to do. This belies the problems that the couple is having, and shows that, even if the girl does have an abortion, their relationship won't go back to normal like the man says.

The story is set in a train station in between two cities, which represents the fork in the couple's relationship. At the end of the story the man goes one way while the girl stays behind at the table, symbolizing the fact that their relationship is over and they both know it.

All in all, I think it's a great story. Kind of depressing, but a good read if you take the time to read it more than once and to think about it.

Thank you for joining us for "Scintillatingly Sanguine Short Story Stints" with Nick Neuman, and we hope you will be with us again next week when we discuss Judy Blume's "Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing."