Study Questions for the Short Story, "Hills Like White Elephants" by Hemingway
Study Questions for the Short Story, "Hills Like White Elephants" General Directions: The questions for this story will get you to think about a theme for the story. Before you re-read and again after you re-read the story, review the study questions and try to answer them for yourself. They may be the basis of quiz questions in a course, or they may help you to write an essay about the story. The theme of a story is some implication about human nature that goes beyond the literal story. It's a statement that the author seems to be driving at--or to be driven by. It's your view of the meaning behind the story based on your image of the characters, their motivation, the setting and plotting of the story, the trustworthiness of the narrator, the author's writing style and symbolism, as well as the cultural, historical, and biographical implications for the story. After you figure out what the author's image of life is, you need to go back through the story to figure out what details support your view. You also need to be able to explain away any details that don't support your view of the story's meaning. Study Questions for "Hills Like White Elephants" . Looking back on the story, list the evidence that tells what kind of operation Jig is confronting. How risky is it physically and emotionally? (See one group's answer here.) The Evidence for Abortion LOOKING BACK ON
Santiagos power of observation in "The Old Man and the Sea".
Santiago’s power of observation Through the old man and the sea, Santiago is given heroic proportions. He is “a strange old man,” still powerful and still wise in all the ways of his trade. After he hooks the great marlin, he fights him with epic skill and endurance, he is determined to “fight them until I die,” because he knows that “man is not made for defeat….a man can be destroyed but not defeated.” Santiago’s spiritual excellence, confidence, perseverance and conscious of introspection make believe us about his whole life is closely connected with the sea thus he dedicates full effort in fishing. And with all these he contains another very strong characteristic and that is his power of observation. Conscious of introspection helps him to gain courage from his icon DiMaggio. A man possesses such spiritual power has enough reason to win. With his wonderful observation power he picks each and every element, so beautifully that we never feel monotony during our reading the novella. We come to know about Santiago’s introspection as he sails far out on the sea. In searching for and in catching his big fish, Santiago gains a deepened insight into himself and into his relationship to the rest of created life. For the birds that rests on his line and for other creatures who share with him such a capricious and violent life, the old man feels friendship and
The Change in Frederick Henry in "A Farewell to Arms"
Jessica Ross Mr. Kimbrough Honors English 12 November 25, 2012 “Farewell to Arms” In “Farewell to Arms” by Earnest Hemingway, the narrator, Fredrick Henry, is a young American ambulance driver in Italy during World War 1. In the beginning of the novel he is introduced as courageous, strong and intelligent. This idea came from the quote; “If people bring so much courage to this world the world has to kill them to break them, so of course it kills them. The world breaks every one and afterward many are strong at the broken places. But those that will not break it kills. It kills the very good and the very gentle and the very brave impartially. If you are none of these you can be sure it will kill you too but there will be no special hurry.” In chapter three Henry is portrayed as a kind man. When his roommate, Rinaldi, spots an English nurse, Henry loans him 50 lire so Rinaldi can seem like a wealthy man. Even though Henry was not a religious man he was still nice and friendly to the priest. In chapter 5 Henry and Catherine were chatting about Catherine’s job, they agree to “drop the war” as a subject of conversation, Henry tries to put his arm around her. She resists but, in the end, lets him. He comes off as pushy yet confident. In chapters 5-7 He claims that the war does “not have anything to do with me,” and he feels no real commitment to it. When
Hemingway's "A Clean, Well-lighted place" analysis
CLEAN, WELL-LIGHTED PLACE 1 A Clean, Well-Lighted Place Sergio Leon The Art Institute of Tampa December 11, 2012 ENG 2203- English Literature and Writing ________________ A CLEAN, WELL-LIGHTED PLACE 2 In Hemingway’s A Clean, Well Lighted Place, the interaction between the older waiter and the younger waiter proves that with age and life experience, people have a greater understanding of others. In A Clean, Well Lighted Place, symbolism and sympathy play a role in helping understand the characters. I was drawn to this work because of the connection between the older waiter and the old man. This is evident in the dialogue between the waiters, the treatment of the old man by the waiters, and the older waiter’s thoughts and actions after the old man leaves the café. The story takes place in a café in Spain, possible in the 1930’s. This story was published in 1933 and I believe that the author wrote it with his present time in mind. The first character is the old man, who is deaf, yet he enjoys the stillness of the night. For this reason, he is sitting at an outdoor table, in the shadow of a tree. The old man drinking alone, and it’s near closing time at the café. There are two waiters working in the café, an older one and a younger one.
A Farewell To Arms Analysis. Throughout the novel A Farewell to Arms the main characters search for some type of tranquilizer to help them deal with the war.
A Farewell to Arms Throughout the novel A Farewell to Arms the main characters search for some type of tranquilizer to help them deal with the war. Each character is search of something that will make them feel better about the horrors of the war going on around them. Hemingway shows how the cruelest realities can permeate and destroy the illusions that the characters construct to alleviate their pains. The story takes place during World War I; which is a time full of disillusion, sadness and loneliness. The protagonist, also serving as the narrator, is Frederic Henry, an American ambulance driver serving in the Italian war. Frederic is a classic Hemingway male character. He is a man of stoic action with his own convictions of honor. In the beginning of the novel he displays these many attributes, but he eventually evolves in the course of the reading. He gives up his macho pretentiousness and womanizing ways in return for a life with Catherine. Catherine Barkley is an English nurse that Frederic falls madly in love with. Rinaldi, is a surgeon and also a friend of Henry's and finally there is the Priest, that becomes in some way a confidant to Frederic. The novel principally is a love story that describes the transformation of Frederic and Catherine's feelings of flirtatiousness to a deep enduring love. The war itself serves as an instrument for
Hemingway's "Hills like White Elephants" Literary Interpretation Analysis
Luciana ENC 1102-151961 23 January 2012 Hills like White Elephants Literary Interpretation Analysis This story takes place in Madrid - Spain at a train station in the late 1920's. Hemingway used symbolism in his story "Hills like white elephants". According to the Merriam- Webster Dictionary; symbolism is the art or practice of using symbols, especially by investing things with a symbolic meaning or by expressing the invisible or intangible by means of visible or sensuous representations of artistic imitations or inventions that is a method of revealing or suggesting immaterial, ideal, or otherwise intangible truth or states. The whole story is mostly a dialogue between an American man and a girl also called "Jig" who have to make a decision that will forever affect their lives. The author uses the idea of their destinies being able to go in two different directions, just like a railroad track can go; however, there is no way to look back, the only step is forward. Hemingway uses some key elements to develop the theme of the story. The theme is about how Jig sees the possibility of keeping her unborn child and having a happy life, while the American man fails to see the possibilities and works to persuade her to go through the abortion. The author never names the topic of their discussion but as their dialogue progresses; it becomes evident that Jig is pregnant. Of
Ernest Hemingway's "Soldier's Home"
Ernest Hemingway's "Soldier's Home" By Jimmy Jackson A person's return from war is always a frustrating experience. Facing the normalcy of everyday life while the memories of the gruesome struggles still rage inside a person's mind can wreak emotional havoc on a person's well being. The situation becomes much more dire when the environment he is coming home to tries to push him towards the routine of day-to-day living without letting him adjust gradually. This situation is all too real in Ernest Hemingway's "Soldier's Home" (World). The main character of the story, Harold Krebs, has just returned home from a two-year stint in war-torn Germany. Through his brief tale of life, back at home in Oklahoma, one can clearly see a man struggling to find his place in a difficult world. His family, like so many others, tries to help him get on with life without dealing with what he has just gone through. His town seems to be a completely different place to Harold, although it seems to be the ex-soldier himself who has changed so much. Perhaps the most difficult hurdle to cross is the fact that there is no one Harold can comfortably share his feelings with; without that, his growth as a person will be limited severely. Because of the pressures exerted upon this character, both externally and those self inflicted, the struggle to return to normalcy can be just as difficult as
A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway
A Farewell to Arms The book A Farewell to Arms, written by Ernest Hemingway, is a classic about the love story of a nurse and a war ridden soldier. The story starts as Frederick Henry is serving in the Italian Army. He meets his future love in the hospital that he gets put in for various reasons. I thought that A Farewell to Arms was a good book because of the symbolism, the exciting plot, and the constant moving of the main character. The symbolism in A Farewell to Arms is very much apparent. Ernest Hemingway has always been one who is big on the symbolism of night as being bad. To the main character in Hemingway's novels, nights have always been a sign of death, or something negative to happen. Another one of the symbolisms in A Farewell to Arms is when Henry tries to escape from the Italian army by jumping off one of the ships the army was traveling on and running away from the army. This symbolism was the water that he jumped into was a symbolism of the new, clean life that he was going to live from now on. At this time, Henry goes off and finds his wife to be. The plot in A Farewell to Arms was always active. They were never staying in one place too long. It had a very good story line, which was a love story that ended up in a tragedy. The main character's wife got pregnant and she was off to have her baby when problems started
A biography of Ernest Hemingway.
A biography of Ernest Hemingway Ernest Miller Hemingway was born in Oak Park, Illinois, the 21st of July of 1899. Hemingway is known to be one of the most influential writers of the twentieth century. He has written more than one hundred short fiction stories, many of them to be well known around the world. Some of these short stories had just as powerful an impact as his novels. As a young man, Hemingway left from his hometown to Europe, where he worked for the Red Cross during World War I. His time spent there inspired him to write some of his most famous novels. Most of which spoke of the horrors of the war (Benson xi). Hemingway's short stories, "Soldier's Home" and "Another Country" are used to show the damaging psychological and physical effects of World War I. Hemingway knew first hand the horrors of war. In May of 1918, Hemingway became an honorary second lieutenant in the Red Cross, but could not join the army because he had a defective left eye. Hemingway first went to Paris, and soon after receiving new orders he traveled to Milan, Italy. The day he arrived, an ammunition factory exploded and he had to carry mutilated bodies and body parts to a makeshift morgue. This was definitely a most terrifying moment for the young Hemingway. After being seriously injured weeks later, Hemingway found himself recovering at a hospital in Milan. After his stay at the American
Hemingway's graphic portrait of the lost and wounded post-World War I generation presented in The Sun Also Rises.
Beneath Hemingway's graphic portrait of the lost and wounded post-World War I generation presented in The Sun Also Rises, a blatant anti-Semitic intent emerges. Whether Hemingway was merely a mouthpiece for the intolerant views of his contemporaries or allowed his personal prejudice to seep into the story line can not be ascertained, yet one of the main figures in The Sun Also Rises is consistently assaulted for his Judaic heritage. Robert Cohn's scornful introduction occurs in the first few pages of the novel. The narrator, Jake Barnes, constructs a stereotypical image of Cohn, including a disfigured nose, a bought editorial byline in a magazine he helped finance, and a lackluster relationship, in which Cohn unwittingly succumbs to girlfriend Frances' dominion. This contemptuous description correlates with the standard Jewish stereotype as presented by Edgar Rosenberg: The stereotype of the Jew is that of a fairly thoroughgoing materialist, a physical coward, an opportunist in money matters; secretive in his living habits, servile in his relations with Christians, whom he abominated,...an outlandish nose, an unpleasant odor, and a speech impediment also. He was a literalist...hardly qualified for tragedy. (56) Hemingway, via Jake Barnes, methodically illustrates each aforementioned attribute. For instance, Cohn's stinginess is clearly evident as he entreats Jake to buy