“Hills Like White Elephant”

An elephant in the room can be an uncomfortable and slightly embarrassing situation, and no one wants to answer or face it. The tension of this situation comes alive in Ernest Hemingway’s “Hills Like White Elephants”. The story watches as an American and a girl (not his girlfriend or even a friend, just a girl) try to tackle an important issue that they are faced with, an unwanted pregnancy. Hemingway’s use of syntax and the relationship he builds between the two characters makes the audience of his short story “Hills Like White Elephants” wrapped up into the discomfort and anxiety.

Hemingway uses le mot juste time after time in this short story, especially when it comes to the dialog of the American. His material cause allows for the plot of the story become clear without having to actually say what is happening. The American comes off as pressuring and persuasive towards the girl with comforting lines such as “It’s all perfectly natural” (line 47) and even repeating the line “It’s perfectly simple” (lines 56 and 65). The fact that Hemingway makes the American repeat the same thing a couple of times shows the audience that the man is obviously trying to convince the girl to do something that she is not exactly comfortable with.  They never say the problem straight out and it adds to the stillness and tension in the room; it becomes a huge secret from each other that they both know.

The dialog between the man and women also reveal a master and slave relationship between them. The American has the master morality since he convince the girl to do something she does not want to do or had no opinion on. He has objectified the girl with his western gaze. He cares very little for her, she happens to be a loose end he needs to take care of before leaving. The girl has the opposing slave morality and exists as a being-for-others. The existential situation she has been put in is that she is pregnant by an American. With anyone else the situation could have been a dream come true for the girl, to start a family and have a child; but with the Americans master morality, the girl is left in bad faith. She goes along with his plans and does whatever he wants her to do in hopes of keeping their love as he promises. Both of their personas advance the story line in a way that the audience can see what exactly is happening. If the master-slave relationship was not as prevalent between the two, the story would take a whole new turn. The girl would keep the child and the man would be stuck on what to do from there. For the story to have to go the way it did, the relationship between the two that Hemingway created was vital.

Hemingway’s “Hills Like White Elephants” highlights the damaged connections between an American and a girl. The audience is left feeling the emotions they both feel in that train car and seeing the elephant between them. The lasting awkwardness sticks with audience throughout the story and after. Hemingway successfully emerges his audience in his short story and conveys his emotions through his written word.