What do the hills symbolize in Hills Like White Elephants?

Hills which are like white elephants represent a belly of a pregnant woman. It describes the state of the couple’s relationship if their unplanned pregnancy results in death. Things can’t go back to the way they were, their lives will always be impacted by the decision to carry out the abortion.

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.

What is the most important symbol in the story Hills Like White Elephants?

A white elephant symbolizes something no one wants—in this story, the girl’s unborn child.

What is the implied meaning when the woman compared the hills to white elephants?

In the story the woman’s pregnancy is implied through their conversation. She refers to the near by hills as elephants; “They look like white elephants” (464). She is comparing the hills to her own situation, pregnancy.

What is the resolution in 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 moral lesson of the story Hills Like White Elephants?

The underlying theme of Ernest Hemingway’s ‘Hills Like White Elephants’ deals with the difficulties a couple, particularly the female, has in facing an unexpected and ultimately unwanted pregnancy.

What do beaded curtains symbolize?

Strings of beads are familiar infant’s playthings; thus, to the woman the curtain may symbolize the unborn child. Such a thought would be no less likely in her mind, as she handles the beads, than her earlier perception of the distant hills as white elephants.

What is the conclusion of Hills Like White Elephants?

The ending of Hemingway’s 1927 story, “Hills Like White Elephants” was interpreted for decades in one way: the female protagonist surrenders to her partner’s wishes that she undergo abortion. Around 1980, new readings of the story’s ending story began to appear.

What is the symbolism of white elephants?

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 the symbolic meaning of hills?

They can represent wildness, freedom, a line between civilization and the wilderness. They can also represent rocky times, a tough transition, or a hard choice.

In what ways is Hills Like White Elephants a study on decision making?

In “Hills Like White Elephants”, Ernest Hemingway utilizes symbolism and characterization to reveal the complexity of decision making and communication to illustrate that in a relationship one must communicate effectively to avoid separation or being forced to do something one doesn’t want to.

What is the tension in hills like white elephants by Hemingway?

Updated May 24, 2019. Ernest Hemingway’s “Hills Like White Elephants,” tells the story of a man and a woman drinking beer and anise liqueur while they wait at a train station in Spain. The man is attempting to convince the woman to get an abortion, but the woman is ambivalent about it. The story takes its tension from their terse, barbed dialogue.

What is the style of hills like white elephants?

‘Hills Like White Elephants’ (1927) is one of Ernest Hemingway’s best-known and most critically acclaimed short stories. In just five pages, Hemingway uses his trademark style – plain dialogue and description offered in short, clipped sentences – to expose an unspoken subject that a man and a young woman are discussing.

How do you track themes in hills like white elephants?

LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Hills Like White Elephants, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work. The story opens with an extended description of a train station located in Spain’s Ebro valley. In these opening details the landscape’s barren, hot, and shadeless nature is emphasized.

What does the tension suggest about the unnamed “white elephant?

This tension suggests that the two are desperately trying to avoid talking about the unnamed “white elephant” between them.