Hills Like White Elephants Literary Analysis Essay

Words: 1017
Pages: 5

A Literary Analysis of Ernest Hemingway’s “Hills Like White Elephants” Most girls during their adolescent and even early adulthood years have had experiences similar to that in which Hemingway describes in this short story. From the beginning of the story, it is not clearly stated that the couple is having an argument about an abortion. During this time period, abortions were not as advanced nor common as they are today. The artificial ideas and the realistic views of the main characters in the story really help tie this story together. Through Hemingway’s thorough use of setting, characterization, and symbolism, teens and young adults growing up in this generation can respect the message this story delivers.
Setting is an important aspect
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The title of the story, “Hills Like White Elephants” at first glance, seems a bit unclear to what the story will be about. Even when Jig mentions that the hills look like white elephants and her partner responding he has never seen one, the reader still can not get the full impact of the issue at hand. However once carefully reading the story, one can understand the meaning behind the phrase which gives this story the emoticon appeal. Hills like white elephants are like saying one man’s treasure is another man’s junk; meaning, to one it may mean nothing, but to another, it may mean the world. The coming and leaving of the train shows how a person is either going to continue that ride with you, or decide to let that ride pass them by; in life, especially during your young adult years, you will have to make decisions that will require you to either stay on your current route or choose another one that better suit you. The idea of things being left unsaid ends this story perfectly. In life, you do not always know what you are going to do or what will happen next. Whats’s left unsaid, is simply the soul in a person who has not quite decided who its going to become yet. The simple, yet so powerful, underlying aspects of this story leave a mark on those who have realtionship problems; basically,