Emmy Rechsteiner
19 May 2009
PDP American Literature
Mr. Mead 1A
Hills Like White Elephants Literary Analysis
The short story, “Hills Like White Elephant” by Ernest Hemingway, is the type of story in which you are required to read between the lines. Published in 1927,
Hemingway uses many different literary devices embedded into the story. On the surface it seems just like any other “plain-Jane” story. However when you look deeper, you see that Hemingway uses setting, dialogue, and symbolism to portray confliction in confronting the future, evasion of responsibility, and the mindset of post-war lifestyles worldwide.
Starting at the first paragraph the setting immediately introduces the tense atmosphere that will surround the rest of the story. The story takes place in Spain in the late 1920’s. The setting is described in such words, “The hills across the valley of the Ebro were long and white. On this side there was no shade and no trees and the station was between two lines of rails in the sun. 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.” From then you notice the couple is in the middle of making a hard decision where there are only two choices, two directions, just like the two rail lines that pass by the station. Also, the loneliness around the railroad station mean that there is no way to back out of the problem at stake and that the American and the Jig must address at the moment. The heat makes the scene into a teakettle, boiling and screaming under pressure. Therefore, the setting blossoms a whole new look onto the story, and ties in to the conflict.
