Hills, White Elephants, Rails
Ernest Hemingway (1899-1961) was an outstanding American author whose style is famous for brief and easily understanding words but which challenges readers to explore the hidden implication. “Hills Like White Elephants” which is from his 1927 collection Men Without Women is an example of the Iceberg Theory as well as his unique style. Within the simple dialogues of the characters are the internal conflict of a girl and the external conflict between the couple about an “operation”. The story is set in a hot day in 1925 at a Spanish train station where an American man and a girl are waiting for the express train from Barcelona to Madrid. They order beer as well as hard alcohol while waiting. The couple argues about the girl’s opinion that “The hills look like white elephants” (line 23). Then they discuss “an awfully simple operation” as the American man tells the girl (line 65). The man tries to convince the girl by emphasizing that it is a “simple operation” (line 65),”It just let the air in” (line 69, 72), “perfectly natural” (line 72), “perfectly simple” (line 87, 99, 144). He keeps repeating to the girl that “I don’t want you to do it if you don’t want to” (line 85, 89, 130, 139). On the contrary, the girl avoids mentioning the operation. She looks at the view, points out that the hills beyond “looks like white elephants” (line 23, 51, 58). She questions the operation and wonders what will happen after it have been done. She says that she will do the operation because “I don’t care about me” (line 100). But she also understands that things will never be the same as before; since “… once they take it away, you never get it back” (line 123). The conflict comes to a cliff; therefore, the girl asks the man stop talking. Finally, when the man returns to her as the train will come in a few minutes later; the girl tells him that she feels fine and nothing wrong with her. The story ends without leaving any clues about the couple’s...