Right out of the gate this was a pretty weird story. I found myself having to read several sentences over again just to make sure i understand what was being said.
Overall, i believe i got the idea of it. I believe that the "operation" that is being talked about is simply an abortion that they are both having a difficult time with. The trip to Madrid is where they have to go to make it happen. As far as the actual meaning behind "Hills Like White Elephants", i'm not entirely sure at all. I'm sure it has some sort of symbolism to the fact that she's pregnant or their thoughts on the situation as well as a lot of meaning behind the beads or the drinks or even the short amount of time that they had. Which maybe symbolized the amount of time she had for the abortion. I could just never put my finger on a lot of it.
There seemed to be a lot of reading between the lines with this story that was a little beyond me. Overall, i thought it was a very interesting read.
When I first read this story I had no idea what meaning the author was trying to convey. Then I read the prompt questions at the end of the story and it got me to thinking. I believe the story is about a man and a woman who have an unplanned pregnancy on their hands. Since the man is American and the woman is not, it makes me think that the man might have been on a vacation or a business trip (hence all of the stickers from the different hotels) and had a “fling” with a local woman. I also think that the woman wanted the child and was depressed about the man’s decision to terminate the pregnancy. The white hills could have represented her hope of a bright future on a dark, brown, desolate landscape. Also, her desire to try new drinks could have been her way of saying that she wanted herself and her companion to try something new like being parents. Once I reread the story a couple of times it started making sense and I was able to read behind the lines more. It was a very interesting story!
Upon reading the short story, “Hills like White Elephants”, written by Ernest Hemingway, I came across a very puzzling and awkward conversation between an American man and a woman named “Jig”, who are awaiting the arrival of the express train from Barcelona to Madrid. While enjoying a couple drinks, the couple stumbles upon the topic of a soon to be, possible operation, which obviously, after reading the passage, reveals itself as an abortion. The American man seems to be very stressed over the entire situation and states that both of their lives will be much happier without a child. Jig on the other hand does not display her feelings toward her American fellow because she does not want disappoint him or cause further controversy on the topic of the operation. This story reveals a hidden meaning involving the woman who desires to have better life than she has now, which she believes, will develop along with the birth of her child. Her American counterpart does not want the burden of having a “White Elephant”, with what in theory, comes with much expense and difficulty. All in all, I like the story because it reveals hidden meaning’s with which we as readers can use to understand different individuals feelings and point of view. It is just unfortunate that both the Man and the Woman cannot come to a decision that can captivate their yearning for a greater life to come.
I found this story to be very interesting. I was interested right from the start when Barcelona and Madrid were introduced, so I was eager to read the rest. However, the dialogue was somewhat confusing because it was unclear as to who was saying which lines. I also found it interesting that the man was called "The American man" and the girl was simply called "the girl." The story was very repetitive with the dialogue, but this lead to an easier interpretation of what was going on. When there was mention of an "operation," I wasn't sure what they characters were talking about. After reading further, however, it became more clear that they were talking about an abortion. This became more obvious as the story unfolded, and through the way the man and the girl were speaking. The man seemed to want the girl to have an abortion, as he described to her several times the ease of the operation. The girl seems to constantly flip back and forth between what she wants. There is a great amount of symbolism in this story. I believe that the white elephants represented her child being born, and the dry barren land that the hills are compared to symbolize the act of having an abortion. Also, the fact that they are unsure wether to take the train to Madrid is parallel with their uncertainty dealing with the operation. I didn't like that the story wasn't really concluded, but I found it to be an interesting piece of literature nontheless.
Ernest Hemingway is one of my favorite authors. I have read a few books by him, but not too many short stories. “Hills Like White Elephants” was a little bit slow and had a lot of repetition in the dialogue. I was also confused by a few details in the story that Hemingway did not elaborate on. I didn’t really understand what the ordering of beers had to do with the story; maybe it was something that the couple had in common; maybe trying out new beers or drinks was something they enjoyed doing together. The dialogue between the couple was always very tense too. The couple seemed to disagree on different things and a small “argument” is detailed in lines twenty-seven through thirty. The “operation” that they talk about throughout the story is never specified as to what it is exactly. The reader has to read between the lines in order to understand exactly what the operation is exactly. When the couple talks about having “everything”, but in line eighty-one the girl says that once they take “it” away they will never get “it” back. I think she means that once they have the abortion, they won’t have the baby back again and they can’t take back their decision either. I also think that the woman is being pressured by the man into having the “operation”. He says that it’s a simple operation and that it doesn’t even seem like an “operation”. I didn’t really like the idea of the couple deciding about an abortion and the pressure that the woman seemed to be getting from man. It connected to couples today at the time of pregnancy and they don’t want it. Either the man or the woman pressures the idea of abortion.
Tyson I think the idea you had about the operation being an abortion was a great idea, as I was reading the text I couldn't think of any ideas of what this so called "operation" could be. It must be a fairly common procedure, because both of them "have known lots of people that have done it." A large part of this short stories meaning seemed to come from what wasn't said. It seems like the woman actually wants the baby and the man is pressuring her into having an operation to get rid of it. There are still several questions that I have. Like why the title "Hills Like White Elephants"? Lets say the child is the White Elephant. What about the child makes it like the hills that it is being compared to? Is it the fact that the man ignored the Hills much in the same way he is ignoring this child by pressuring her into an abortion?
With lots of hints and clues throughout the tale, Hemingway never tells us what the “operation” is. I agree with Erica that one must read between the lines to solve the mystery. The plot of the short story is a conflict between the man and girl over an abortion, or having their first child together. I felt though that Hemingway expressed a bias toward men through his work. It seems as though Hemingway gives more significance to the American, while the girl remains in the shadows. This is displayed in the story as the male character is capitalized while she remains lower cased. Though this is due to the use of proper grammar as American is a proper noun more can be interpreted. This may be viewed as Hemingway giving the man an identity while the girl has a lack there of one, or as insight of Hemingway's view on the hierarchy of men and women in society. All in all I really enjoyed this tale.
There is soo much symbolism in this story its unreal, every sentence is plagued by it. It really makes me think of men as chauvinistic pigs, thinking of nothing but what is in the best interest of them. It makes me a bit depressed to think of how unaware people are of other people and their feelings. This guy is trying to passively manipulate this "girl" into giving up her choice about keeping her unborn child, calling the operation natural and telling her everything would still be the same between them. This is a bit ironic because abortion is completely UNnatural and the girl I believe secretly wants a change to occur in her life, since all they have been doing is travelling and drinking for what seems to be a long time (judging by the luggage tags). The girl sees the hills as something precious, he just sees something that will burden/change his life, which doesn't seem to fit in with his plans.
I think the girl becomes a woman by the end of the story. She changes dramatically it seems as she slowly recognizes that she CAN have this baby, she does have a choice, and its a choice that is ultimately hers, which the American keeps making clear. The American however seems to deevolve into an immature boy, as he tries to malleate the girl's decision without saying what he really means or wants. Basically leaving the decision all up to the girl. Some man.
I think she leaves him and has the baby, at least thats what I would do. I think she sees that he is not the man she once knew or maybe she's not the girl she once knew. She needs change and having the baby would change everything.
As I read Hills Like White Elephants again, I realized that the story is definitely about an abortion. At the end of the short story I see the man, accepting the fact that the woman is pregnant. “He picked up the two heavy bags and carried them around the station to the other tracks,” the man is taking his baggage of feelings of wanting the women to have an abortion and carrying them away. He wants the women to have the baby now. He knows she does not want to have the abortion. As the man comes back to their section he asks the women if she feels better, and she says, “I feel fine. There’s nothing wrong with me I feel fine.” She is letting the man know that she is glad that he made the decision to let her keep the baby, after they had been talking about abortion the whole time.
When we were first told that we had to read this story I was pretty excited about reading it and i thought that I would really enjoy it because I really like Ernest Hemmingway. But as I started reading this story I thought it was kind of weird and I didn't like it very much. It was really hard for me to follow and I couldn't understand some of the things that the author was trying to get across. As I read through the story I began to read between the lines and the story began to make sense to me. It was very confusing to me how he would say the American man and the girl. I didnt really understand that. As I read through I came to the conclusion that the story was about and unplanned pregnancy and the choice of whether or not to get an abortion. Overall I enjoyed this short story once we talked about it in class and i started understanding what it was about.
This was definitely one of my least favorite short stories of all the ones we’ve read so far this semester. Even after rereading it, I still didn’t understand the author’s point. Along with Roxanne, I actually had to read the review questions at the end for it to even make a little bit of sense. I have never been good at inferring the author’s meaning or reading between the lines and it seems that this is a major part of “Hills Like White Elephants”. From the characters’ dialogue, it’s obvious that there is something going on, but the author never directly states it so readers have to figure it out for themselves. Even after going over it with the class, I’m still not exactly sure what the white elephant has to do with anything. For me, it’s very frustrating to not be able to understand the author’s meaning. I definitely think Hemingway could have clued us in on the situation a little better.
"Hills Like White Elephants" presents a couple in the midst of a crisis. Although unmarried, the girl is pregnant and the man who has made her pregnant wants her to have an abortion. His belief is that the choice for abortion will free them to return to the lives they had lived before the pregnancy.He does not want to share the girl with anyone, particularly not a baby. He believes that the consequences of having the baby will lead to the breakup of the relationship.
12 comments:
Right out of the gate this was a pretty weird story. I found myself having to read several sentences over again just to make sure i understand what was being said.
Overall, i believe i got the idea of it. I believe that the "operation" that is being talked about is simply an abortion that they are both having a difficult time with. The trip to Madrid is where they have to go to make it happen. As far as the actual meaning behind "Hills Like White Elephants", i'm not entirely sure at all. I'm sure it has some sort of symbolism to the fact that she's pregnant or their thoughts on the situation as well as a lot of meaning behind the beads or the drinks or even the short amount of time that they had. Which maybe symbolized the amount of time she had for the abortion. I could just never put my finger on a lot of it.
There seemed to be a lot of reading between the lines with this story that was a little beyond me. Overall, i thought it was a very interesting read.
When I first read this story I had no idea what meaning the author was trying to convey. Then I read the prompt questions at the end of the story and it got me to thinking. I believe the story is about a man and a woman who have an unplanned pregnancy on their hands. Since the man is American and the woman is not, it makes me think that the man might have been on a vacation or a business trip (hence all of the stickers from the different hotels) and had a “fling” with a local woman. I also think that the woman wanted the child and was depressed about the man’s decision to terminate the pregnancy. The white hills could have represented her hope of a bright future on a dark, brown, desolate landscape. Also, her desire to try new drinks could have been her way of saying that she wanted herself and her companion to try something new like being parents. Once I reread the story a couple of times it started making sense and I was able to read behind the lines more. It was a very interesting story!
Upon reading the short story, “Hills like White Elephants”, written by Ernest Hemingway, I came across a very puzzling and awkward conversation between an American man and a woman named “Jig”, who are awaiting the arrival of the express train from Barcelona to Madrid. While enjoying a couple drinks, the couple stumbles upon the topic of a soon to be, possible operation, which obviously, after reading the passage, reveals itself as an abortion. The American man seems to be very stressed over the entire situation and states that both of their lives will be much happier without a child. Jig on the other hand does not display her feelings toward her American fellow because she does not want disappoint him or cause further controversy on the topic of the operation. This story reveals a hidden meaning involving the woman who desires to have better life than she has now, which she believes, will develop along with the birth of her child. Her American counterpart does not want the burden of having a “White Elephant”, with what in theory, comes with much expense and difficulty. All in all, I like the story because it reveals hidden meaning’s with which we as readers can use to understand different individuals feelings and point of view. It is just unfortunate that both the Man and the Woman cannot come to a decision that can captivate their yearning for a greater life to come.
I found this story to be very interesting. I was interested right from the start when Barcelona and Madrid were introduced, so I was eager to read the rest. However, the dialogue was somewhat confusing because it was unclear as to who was saying which lines. I also found it interesting that the man was called "The American man" and the girl was simply called "the girl." The story was very repetitive with the dialogue, but this lead to an easier interpretation of what was going on.
When there was mention of an "operation," I wasn't sure what they characters were talking about. After reading further, however, it became more clear that they were talking about an abortion. This became more obvious as the story unfolded, and through the way the man and the girl were speaking.
The man seemed to want the girl to have an abortion, as he described to her several times the ease of the operation. The girl seems to constantly flip back and forth between what she wants.
There is a great amount of symbolism in this story. I believe that the white elephants represented her child being born, and the dry barren land that the hills are compared to symbolize the act of having an abortion.
Also, the fact that they are unsure wether to take the train to Madrid is parallel with their uncertainty dealing with the operation.
I didn't like that the story wasn't really concluded, but I found it to be an interesting piece of literature nontheless.
Ernest Hemingway is one of my favorite authors. I have read a few books by him, but not too many short stories. “Hills Like White Elephants” was a little bit slow and had a lot of repetition in the dialogue. I was also confused by a few details in the story that Hemingway did not elaborate on. I didn’t really understand what the ordering of beers had to do with the story; maybe it was something that the couple had in common; maybe trying out new beers or drinks was something they enjoyed doing together. The dialogue between the couple was always very tense too. The couple seemed to disagree on different things and a small “argument” is detailed in lines twenty-seven through thirty.
The “operation” that they talk about throughout the story is never specified as to what it is exactly. The reader has to read between the lines in order to understand exactly what the operation is exactly. When the couple talks about having “everything”, but in line eighty-one the girl says that once they take “it” away they will never get “it” back. I think she means that once they have the abortion, they won’t have the baby back again and they can’t take back their decision either. I also think that the woman is being pressured by the man into having the “operation”. He says that it’s a simple operation and that it doesn’t even seem like an “operation”.
I didn’t really like the idea of the couple deciding about an abortion and the pressure that the woman seemed to be getting from man. It connected to couples today at the time of pregnancy and they don’t want it. Either the man or the woman pressures the idea of abortion.
Tyson I think the idea you had about the operation being an abortion was a great idea, as I was reading the text I couldn't think of any ideas of what this so called "operation" could be. It must be a fairly common procedure, because both of them "have known lots of people that have done it." A large part of this short stories meaning seemed to come from what wasn't said. It seems like the woman actually wants the baby and the man is pressuring her into having an operation to get rid of it.
There are still several questions that I have. Like why the title "Hills Like White Elephants"? Lets say the child is the White Elephant. What about the child makes it like the hills that it is being compared to? Is it the fact that the man ignored the Hills much in the same way he is ignoring this child by pressuring her into an abortion?
With lots of hints and clues throughout the tale, Hemingway never tells us what the “operation” is. I agree with Erica that one must read between the lines to solve the mystery.
The plot of the short story is a conflict between the man and girl over an abortion, or having their first child together. I felt though that Hemingway expressed a bias toward men through his work.
It seems as though Hemingway gives more significance to the American, while the girl remains in the shadows. This is displayed in the story as the male character is capitalized while she remains lower cased.
Though this is due to the use of proper grammar as American is a proper noun more can be interpreted. This may be viewed as Hemingway giving the man an identity while the girl has a lack there of one, or as insight of Hemingway's view on the hierarchy of men and women in society.
All in all I really enjoyed this tale.
There is soo much symbolism in this story its unreal, every sentence is plagued by it. It really makes me think of men as chauvinistic pigs, thinking of nothing but what is in the best interest of them. It makes me a bit depressed to think of how unaware people are of other people and their feelings. This guy is trying to passively manipulate this "girl" into giving up her choice about keeping her unborn child, calling the operation natural and telling her everything would still be the same between them. This is a bit ironic because abortion is completely UNnatural and the girl I believe secretly wants a change to occur in her life, since all they have been doing is travelling and drinking for what seems to be a long time (judging by the luggage tags). The girl sees the hills as something precious, he just sees something that will burden/change his life, which doesn't seem to fit in with his plans.
I think the girl becomes a woman by the end of the story. She changes dramatically it seems as she slowly recognizes that she CAN have this baby, she does have a choice, and its a choice that is ultimately hers, which the American keeps making clear. The American however seems to deevolve into an immature boy, as he tries to malleate the girl's decision without saying what he really means or wants. Basically leaving the decision all up to the girl. Some man.
I think she leaves him and has the baby, at least thats what I would do. I think she sees that he is not the man she once knew or maybe she's not the girl she once knew. She needs change and having the baby would change everything.
As I read Hills Like White Elephants again, I realized that the story is definitely about an abortion. At the end of the short story I see the man, accepting the fact that the woman is pregnant. “He picked up the two heavy bags and carried them around the station to the other tracks,” the man is taking his baggage of feelings of wanting the women to have an abortion and carrying them away. He wants the women to have the baby now. He knows she does not want to have the abortion. As the man comes back to their section he asks the women if she feels better, and she says, “I feel fine. There’s nothing wrong with me I feel fine.” She is letting the man know that she is glad that he made the decision to let her keep the baby, after they had been talking about abortion the whole time.
When we were first told that we had to read this story I was pretty excited about reading it and i thought that I would really enjoy it because I really like Ernest Hemmingway. But as I started reading this story I thought it was kind of weird and I didn't like it very much. It was really hard for me to follow and I couldn't understand some of the things that the author was trying to get across. As I read through the story I began to read between the lines and the story began to make sense to me. It was very confusing to me how he would say the American man and the girl. I didnt really understand that. As I read through I came to the conclusion that the story was about and unplanned pregnancy and the choice of whether or not to get an abortion. Overall I enjoyed this short story once we talked about it in class and i started understanding what it was about.
This was definitely one of my least favorite short stories of all the ones we’ve read so far this semester. Even after rereading it, I still didn’t understand the author’s point. Along with Roxanne, I actually had to read the review questions at the end for it to even make a little bit of sense. I have never been good at inferring the author’s meaning or reading between the lines and it seems that this is a major part of “Hills Like White Elephants”. From the characters’ dialogue, it’s obvious that there is something going on, but the author never directly states it so readers have to figure it out for themselves. Even after going over it with the class, I’m still not exactly sure what the white elephant has to do with anything. For me, it’s very frustrating to not be able to understand the author’s meaning. I definitely think Hemingway could have clued us in on the situation a little better.
"Hills Like White Elephants" presents a couple in the midst of a crisis. Although unmarried, the girl is pregnant and the man who has made her pregnant wants her to have an abortion. His belief is that the choice for abortion will free them to return to the lives they had lived before the pregnancy.He does not want to share the girl with anyone, particularly not a baby. He believes that the consequences of having the baby will lead to the breakup of the relationship.
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