An Appreciation about
Hills Like White Elephants
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——by Lavender
张静佳 10300120174
About the Author
Ernest Miller Hemingway
(July 21, 1899 – July 2, 1961)
in a strict family with distinctly middle-class
values and oppressive sense of morality.
left home and began reporting for the
Kansas City tar.
literary style during his years as a reporter,
writing in short, factual sentences.
most of his work between the mid-1920s
and the mid-1950s,
the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1954.
“Hills Like White Elephants” in 1927, in
the book of Men Without Women.
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Iceberg theory
The facts float above water; the supporting structure
and symbolism operate out of sight.
Just as the visible tip of an iceberg hides a far greater
mass of ice underneath the ocean surface, so does
Hemingway’s dialogue belie the unstated tension
between his characters.
The Art of the Short Story
Hemingway: "You could omit anything if you knew that
you omitted and the omitted part would strengthen the
story and make people feel something more than they
understood."
The more a writer strips away, the more powerful the
“iceberg,” or story, becomes.
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Plots and Analysis
In accordance with his Iceberg Theory,
Hemingway stripped everything but the
bare essentials from his stories and novels,
leaving readers to sift through the
remaining dialogue and bits of narrative
on their own in the short story of Hills Like
White Elephants.
Both the American man and the girl
speak in short sentences and rarely utter
more than a few words at a time
These elements leave the characters’
thoughts and feelings completely up to
the reader’s own interpretations.
Its simplicity also avoids fewer
misleading words paint a truer picture of
what lies beneath.
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1. Symbolism—White Elephants
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A white elephant symbolizes something no one
wants; A burdensome or costly possession, an object
considered to be without use or value—in this story,
the girl’s unborn child.
The girl later retracts this comment with the
observation that the hills don’t really look like white
elephants, she even says that the hills only seemed to
look like white elephants at first glance.
2.Symbolism—the train station.
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Hemingway sets the story at a train station to highlight
the fact that the relationship between the American
man and the girl is at a crossroad.
Moreover, the contrast between the white hills and
barren valley possibly highlights the dichotomy
between life and death, fertility and sterility, and
mirrors the choice the girl faces between having the
baby or having the abortion.
3.Quotations
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★ (1)“It’s really an awfully simple operation, Jig,” the man said.
“It’s not really an operation at all.”
★ (2) “Well,” the man said, “if you don’t want to you don’t have
to. I wouldn’t have you do it if you didn’t want to. But I know
it’s perfectly simple.”
4.Quotations
★
★
★
★
★
★
★
★
★
★
“What did you say?”
“I said we could have everything.”
“We can have everything.”
“No, we can’t.”
“We can have the whole world.”
“No, we can’t.”
“We can go everywhere.”
“No, we can’t. It isn’t ours any more.”
“It’s ours.”
“No it isn’t. And once they take it
away, you never get it back.”
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The Theme
★ Men & women:
the book Men Without Women
★ Choices in life and love
when faced with a major decision
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"I feel fine," "There's nothing wrong
with me. I feel fine."
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Thank you！
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