This is my best work because I have always loved Ernest Hemingway. His works always have such meaning and depth. I love stories that have a meaning and an understanding about how life works. He is one of my favorite authors.
Ernest Hemingway is one of the most well known writers that came through during the modern period. He used his life experiences and the involvement of the outside world’s issues and problems, to create stories that were relatable to his readers. His story, Hills Like White Elephants, not only focuses on the social issues of abortion, it also shows the events that were happening in his life during this time.
The story of, Hills Like White Elephants, is about a woman and a man who are deciding to have an abortion or not to have it. Ernest Hemingway took a chapter out of his own life to influence this story. He also took a page out of history when he decided to write on the issue of abortion in the 1920s. "Impending fatherhood and the responsibilities it entailed had a glooming effect on Hemingway, much as it does for the American in "Hills Like White Elephants" (O’Conner, pg. 1421)." In the story them man is trying to persuade her to have this abortion because it will interrupt their carefree traveling throughout the world. He tells her that is she has the abortion then their life could go back to normal. He says, "We’ll be fine afterward. Just like we were before. That’s the only thing that bothers us. It’s the only thing that has made us unhappy (Hemingway, pg. 1423)," Hemingway had lived a carefree existence, with traveling all over the world and all that changed when his wife became pregnant with their son John. Hemingway held a slight grudge because this interrupted his life and is blithe existence.
"Hemingway liked the idea of writing a story about abortion without actually mentioning it, and with "Hill Like White Elephants" he broached the controversial subject with unmatched subtlety (http://www.lostgeneration.com)". He never actually came out and told his readers that these two people were talking about having an abortion. Instead, he used hints such as, "It’s really an awfully simple operation, Jig, the man said. It’s really not an operation at all." He also says," I know you wouldn’t mind it, Jig. It’s really not anything. It’s just to let the air in (Hemingway, pg. 1423)." He uses these hints to uncover the fact that they are trying to uncover the fact that they are trying to decide if they should have it or not and the man is letting the woman know that it is a simple as letting the air out or the life out of the child.
Another example, of Hemingway using words to play on, and not actually coming out and saying it, is when the woman is talking about the hills looking like white elephants. She talks about the hills looking like white elephants, "because it is a costly and unwanted burden (http://en.wikipedia.org)." This is what they actually think a baby would be to their life. It would be a burden to their traveling because it they would not be able to go to all the places that they would have went to before. They most likely would not be able to do all the things that they would have done before they had the baby. They also thought of it as a financial burden because they obviously did not have full time jobs, because they were always traveling. This would probably mean that he would have to get a job somewhere to pay for having the baby. "Hemingway uses the plain language to disguise the topic but also to show the characters’ inability to cope with the issue. The American is afraid of commitment. Jig seeks his approval, but wishes for the stability of a child (http://en.wikipedia.org)."
Hemingway never wasted any words without them meaning something more. "Hemingway’s text is the result of a painstaking selection process, each word performing an assigned function in the narrative (http://enotes.com/hemingway). " An example of this would be when he writes, "There were labels on them from all the hotels where they have spent nights (Hemingway, Pg. 1425)." Hemingway is letting the reader know that these people have traveled a lot and that they love it enough to put labels on their bags as a reminder of how much fun they had. He put this in so that the reader could understand why the American man would think that actually having a baby would be a hindrance on the life that they have known and loved. Another example of this would be when the woman says, "Everything tastes like licorice. Especially all the things you’ve waited so long for, like absinthe (Hemingway pg. 1423). "This was to let the reader know that no matter what was coming out of her mouth, she wanted to have a baby and maybe the stability that came with it. She thought that they way everything was turning out, it were as bitter sweet as a tough piece of licorice. Almost, as if Hemingway was trying to portray that she wanted something sweet and pure like childhood candy, to only have it turn out to but tough licorice that really is not that sweet.
Hemingway was widely known for writing stories that showed the strength of the man, however in more than one of his stories he showed how the woman could also be strong. "Though he had a reputation for writing best about men in a man’s world of war or wilderness, Hemingway lived very much in a world of women. He was surrounded by women as the second child and first son in a family four sisters (O’Conner, pg. 1420)." "Hemingway saw between the suburban world of his strong-willed mother, Grace, and the escape from its complexities provided by the Michigan woods that his father loved (O’Conner, pg. 1421)." "Hill Like White Elephants", Hemingway portrays the woman in most part as being vulnerable and wanting nothing more than to make the American man happy. She is portrayed for the most part as not wanting to disrupt his carefree life with a baby. However, Hemingway does give a glimpse of a woman that knows what she will be sacrificing and that she is going to have to be the strong one. She knows that if she chose to have the baby it would destroy the life that he knows and loves so much. He shows a woman that only a strong and competent woman would do. She lets him know this by saying, "Then I’ll do it. Because I don’t care about me (Hemingway, pg. 1424)." She is letting him know that she is strong enough to give up her happiness so that he could be happy. This was probably what Hemingway saw his mother do repeatedly. Therefore, he put this in to show that women can not only be weak in the situation, but also can be strong even when they are the ones loosing out on the situation. Hemingway’s mother, because the way women were portrayed during this time, probably sacrificed her own happiness and desirers out of life to let her husband still have a taste of adventure when he and their son would go camping and she would stay home with the other children.
Ernest Hemingway was an exceptional man, whose writings told about stories that his readers could relate to. "Hemingway is direct. But he is also quite subtle, and subtlety is not a trait that we ascribe to the American way. In the end, Hemingway is an international artist, a man who never relinquished his American identity but who entered new territories too broad and too deep to fit within the domains of any national culture (http://www.enotes.com/hemingway). "
Bibliography
"Hemingway: An Introduction." eNotes: Ernest Hemingway.
Ed. Penny Satories, Seattle: enotes.com LLC, 2003.
14 November 2006. http://www.enotes.com/hemingway-masters/473967.
Lauter, Paul Ed. The Heath Anthology of American Literature. 5th Vols. Boston: MA. 2006. 1422-1425.
O’Conner, Margaret Anne. "Ernest Hemingway 1899-1961." The Heath Anthology of American Literature Volume D. Ed. Paul Lauter. Houghton Mifflin: Boston, MA. 2006. 1420-1421.
