Symbolism In Ernest Hemingway's Hills Like White Elephants

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The Man, the Girl, and a White Elephant

The well-crafted dialogue and underlying symbolism found throughout Ernest Hemingway’s “Hills Like White Elephants” creates a domino effect of analytic thinking that challenges the readers’ minds to read both between the lines and beyond the page. These elements bring articulate, controversial and provocative depth to this short tale of choice. Despite the lack of explicit detail, Hemingway – utilizing the Iceberg Theory – tackles the ever-lasting, ever-controversial matters of abortion, addressing the issues of all parties involved, and tells the story of a young girl with child, a man, and a decision. In questioning the significance of “white elephants”, readers are provoked to wonder: Who or what is truly the white elephant? Readers also question the girl’s choice and the couple’s future, whether she keeps the baby and/or stays with the man. To answer these questions, one must comprehend the dialogue which sets the atmosphere of the relationship and …show more content…
Though rather quiet at the start of the story, later becoming very vocal, her choice words and selective silence speak volumes about her character, growth and thoughts (Wyche). She is particularly sarcastic when speaking to the man, his responses displaying a contrast of intellect between the two. This is likely partway the cause of the familiar air surrounding the tension felt when Jig expresses how the hills “look like white elephants”. When the man admits to never having seen one, to which the girl replies, “No, you wouldn’t have” (Hemingway 886), he contradicts himself in proclaiming he may have indeed seen one, and just because she says something, that does not make it so. Jig then changes the subject, revealing that she is accustomed to his antics and understands how to deal with him. This moment of dialogue also showcases irony, in that the man says he has never seen a white elephant while the girl bares one (of his) in her womb (Weeks,
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