“Hills Like White Elephants” is a short story by Ernest Hemmingway, that was published in 1927. The story focuses on a conversation between an American man and a girl. They are at a Spanish train station while waiting for a train to Madrid. The conversation becomes increasingly tense. The man wants the girl to have an operation, while the girl seems less certain about it. He reassures her that the operation is safe and simple. They order beers and drinks, while the girl comments on the view with white hills that looks like white elephants. The man disagrees with her perspective on the hills and seems to have a more rational perspective.
The structure and language are very simple and minimalistic. The text contains mainly around a dialogue, and it is constructed using the iceberg theory. We only see a small percentage of the story, which leaves the readers to figure out the rest.
The beginning starts in media res and begins with a description of the setting and characters. “The hills across the valley of the Ebro were long and white” (p. 1, l. 1) and “The American and the girl with him sat at a table in the shade, outside the building It was very hot and the express from Barcelona would come in forty minutes. It stopped at this junction for two minutes and went to Madrid.” (p. 1, l. 4-7). There are no details about the characters’ background, relationship, or conflict. But as the story goes on, and we get more into the dialogue, the more we learn about the conflict in between the lines. The conflict starts when the girl said, ‘They look like white elephants,’ she said. ‘I’ve never seen one, ’ the man drank his beer. ‘No, you wouldn’t have.’” (p. 1, l. 17-19). They have two opposite views, and the girl seems upset.
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