Essay about Hills like white elephants

Submitted By pencil26
Words: 333
Pages: 2

Analysis: Hills like White Elephants
In the short story “Hills like White Elephants” by Ernest Hemingway we zoom into a couple at a train junction in Valley Ebro. As we read into the story we uncover the journey to be taken by the couple. There are choices to be made, important decisions to take. The change in the relationship can be foreshadowed by the separations created by the tracks and various other objects in the story.
Hemingway sets out the setting at the beginning before starting with the conversation between The American and The Girl. Before we get to hear the conversation, Hemingway hints about the relationship in the story. The couple at the bar is drinking away their problems, both trying to avoid the certain subject of the “procedure”. The girl, being indecisive, relies on the American. Hemingway portrays the American as a rigid man, the one with the experience, knowledge, and in control. The girl is in love with the American and is willing to go through the “operation” if it means going back to the way they were.

The relationship takes a change when the girl realizes things will not go back to the way they used to be, or at least the way he promises. She is a dynamic character; she goes from doubt to knowledge, while the American doesn’t change. The twist in her character shows the change their relationship will take. The point of view of the girl changed when she got to see the nice and fertile side of the track, instead of the dry and dead area