Hills like white elephants

Part I

1) "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."
The setting of the story takes place in a foreign land at a bar near the train station. The place is hot and the "no shade and no trees" show that that side was experiencing drought. Its symbolic about where the story takes place becasue at one end of the station the land was dry and barren and at the other end had lush vegitation and the river was there . Since they have to make a decision about an abortion, the dry side could represent the woman's state after the abortion and the lush side could represent her pregnant state now. The two rail lines also play apart as they have to make a decision whether to move forward with it and continue on their adventure or to go back, accept it and begin a new adventure. The two characters are stuck in the middle and they have to make a decision.

2) The point of view of the story is third person objective. We as readers get to examine the sistuation from both the american and the girls side without being biased. However the characters thoughts are inferred from the convosation and the actions in the story. The narrator's attitude towards the characters is that the American wants to continue to be free spirited and have no responsibilities and the girl is doing it because he wants to. The American has already made up his mind but Jig is still undecided.

3) Hemingway style is simple and compact, with short sentences and paragraphs. In this story he used dialogue throught most of the story. He have his readers interpret what he means.


Part II
Ernest Hemingway (1899-1961), born in Oak Park, Illinois, started his career as a writer in a newspaper office in Kansas City at the age of seventeen. After the United States entered the First World War, he joined a volunteer ambulance unit in the Italian army. Serving at the front, he was wounded, was decorated by the Italian Government, and spent considerable time in hospitals. He was married any times and spent time traveling the world and creating adventures for himself.

1. Hemingway began his career writing for a news paper hence his stories are simple and compact.
2. He was an American who did a lot of traveling.
3. Like the American character in the story Hemmingway was also selfish.


"Ernest Hemingway - Biography". Nobelprize.org. 5 Apr 2011 http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/1954/hemingway-bio.html