What is the main theme in 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 does Hills Like White Elephants say about the role of communication in relationships?

By Ernest Hemingway “Hills Like White Elephants” is a rich study in human communication. Intense, focused, and concentrated, the story depicts a couple at a crisis point in their relationship. They struggle, in public, to communicate their opposing views on the course their relationship should take.

What is the couples relationship like in Hills Like White Elephants?

The dominance of man in relationship is clearly manifested in Hemingway’s “Hills like White Elephants”. The author depicts a relationship between man and woman, who quarrel and oppose each other trying to decide what to do with their unborn baby, but it is surely a man who demonstrates his dominant role.

What made the couple unhappy in Hills Like White Elephants?

It’s the only thing that’s made us unhappy. As the man continues trying to persuade the girl to terminate her pregnancy, he points out that the only issue in their relationship concerns the possibility of a child. He tries to convince her that if the pregnancy hadn’t happened, they would be perfectly happy.

What is the point of the girl’s comparison of the hills to white elephants?

The point of the girls’ comparison of the hills to white elephants indirectly represents her wanting of keeping the baby. White elephants are something that no one wants. She first compares them to the hills because she doesn’t want to keep the baby.

What is the setting of Hills Like White Elephants quizlet?

Hemingway sets “Hills Like White Elephants” at a train station to highlight the fact that the relationship between the American man and the girl is at a crossroads. Planted in the middle of a desolate valley, the station isn’t a final destination but merely a stopping point between Barcelona and Madrid.

What attitude do jig and the American have toward their relationship?

Unfortunately, Jig depends emotionally on the American – as many women depended on their male counterparts in the 1940s – and lacks the autonomy and willpower required to openly affirm herself in their relationship.

What is the relationship between jig and the American?

While Jig represents fertility, life and continuity, the American represents sterility, dryness and death.

What decision does the girl make at the end 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 theme of Hills Like White Elephants quizlet?

Although “Hills Like White Elephants” is primarily a conversation between the American man and his girlfriend, neither of the speakers truly communicates with the other, highlighting the rift between the two. Both talk, but neither listens or understands the other’s point of view.

What is important about what is not being said in the story Hills Like White Elephants?

What’s not being said in Hills Like White Elephants is the whole point of the story. The characters never directly say that they’re talking about pregnancy and abortion, but that’s the heart of their conversation and the entire story.