"Hills"

Dawn Castlebury

Hibbison

February 10, 2004

"Hills like White Elephants"

By Ernest Hemingway

Using Symbolism to Predict the Ending

Hemingway used symbolism throughout the story “Hills like White Elephants” and that allowed many different ideas and interpretations of what actually happened in the end. I found myself reading the story over and over and each time I would see a different view of how the story ended. As I read many of the student and teacher commentaries, it seemed like they all took one or two symbols like the hills, beaded curtains, train station, train tracks, the drinks, the scenery or the dialect of the couple and followed that throughout the story leading to their prediction of who got what they wanted.

The hills were obviously symbolic because Hemingway even used that as the title. The first sentence was, “The hills across the valley of the Ebro were long and white.” Jig said, “They look like white elephants” referring to the hills and when the American says that he has never seen one, she says no you wouldn't have. I think this is evidence that they are from different backgrounds and cultures and Hemingway used the hills to show that. A little while later the hills came up in conversation again, when she said that the hills were lovely and they didn't really look like white elephants. To me this is when Jig starts thinking about not having an abortion and not looking at this (hills) as a problem, instead she sees this as something that could be a good thing. Abdoo also sees the hills as a symbol of Jig’s pregnancy if she doesn’t have the abortion, saying “Jig's attention to the ‘color of their skin’ for the hills suggests a pregnant woman lying down, as she may be in several months if she doesn't have the abortion, but it could signify, too, the pale skin tones of a stillborn baby.” Urgo said, “His power is in the shade; hers is ‘in the hills’,” which is an analogy meaning he wants her to have the abortion and she wants to have the baby, so this shows that he also looked at the hills as a symbol of Jig’s pregnancy. After reading the story and seeing the evidence, it is clear that Hemingway wrote this story with the idea that the hills were symbolic of Jig’s pregnancy.

The clouds were also very symbolic in this story because clouds often cast shadows and shadows (darkness) are usually a symbol of death, as Barbour also suggested. The part that stuck out the most to me was when Jig was standing at the end of the station and she was looking out at the fields along the riverside; then a cloud came over and put a shadow over the scenery. It seemed like the cloud symbolized the abortion and the beautiful scenery was their relationship. I think this part showed how they both viewed the pregnancy. The American made it very clear that he viewed the pregnancy as a problem and he showed that he wanted Jig to get the abortion when he said, “We’ll be fine afterward. Just like we were before.” When Jig was looking at the landscape, even when the cloud came over, she made the comment, “And we could have all this,” which shows that she didn’t look at her pregnancy (cloud) as a problem; instead she saw something beautiful happening--she saw the growth in the trees and fields of grain and she wanted growth for her unborn child.

Another example of symbolism is that the station they were at was between two railroad tracks; one side of the station was shaded and the other side didn’t have any shade or trees. As anyone would do on a hot day in Barcelona, they sat in the shade. In my opinion the shade or darkness symbolizes death or the abortion. At the end of the story the American says, ”I’d better take the bags to the other side of the station,” which could be a hint that the American finally realized that Jig didn’t want to have the abortion by coming out of the darkness and moving to the other side.

The couple’s dialog was hard to follow because they didn’t really express their feelings or emotions. Another reason the dialogue was hard to follow was because Jig and the American had trouble deciding on a topic, so they were constantly switching topics. It was clear that the American wanted a secure answer to whether she was going to have the abortion or not. Jig never really gave him an answer; instead she talked about drinks and asked him a ton of questions. Five minutes before the train was coming the American insisted on talking about the abortion until Jig begged him to change the subject and even said, “I’ll scream.” The summary of Brown's views include a characterization of the dialog: “Although both characters in ‘Hills’ use language to express their anxieties and even ‘gain power over the other,’ no constructive communication occurs to lead them to reconciliation. References to drinks, a ‘safe' topic’ section off the story and set up the irony of the man's final solo drink of anis, which Jig found disappointing.” I agree with Brown that the couple talked about “absinthe” more than the operation because they used it as a “safe topic” and their dialog never really let the readers see what they were thinking or feeling, so as a reader you had to really look at the symbolism in this story.

After reading the story and putting the symbolism together, I came to the conclusion that Jig made the decision not to have the abortion. For example, the hills in the story stood for her pregnancy and she said they were lovely, which would mean that she looked at her pregnancy as a good thing. Another example was when the cloud came over the landscape; the cloud symbolized the way the American viewed their relationship when Jig got pregnant. Jig didn’t see it as a bad thing; she saw a growing experience ahead of her if she didn’t have the abortion and she wanted them to grow as a family with this baby. If you remember, they were sitting in the shade (darkness) the whole time and in the end the American moved the bags to "the other side" of the station, which also showed that Jig changed her mind and the American accepted her decision. As soon as she saw these symbolic figures that influenced her decision, like the hills and the scenery with the cloud, she knew that she didn’t want to have the abortion. While they were waiting for the train, the American made his last plea to try to convince her to have the abortion. She refused to listen to him and told him that she didn’t want to hear it--probably because she had already made her mind up that she was going to have the baby. Although I’m not sure if Hemingway wrote this story with an ending or he used different symbols in the story so the reader could interpret what they meant and how the story ended, I think that Jig made the decision to continue with her pregnancy and not have the abortion. However, I don’t know if the American liked her decision and if the couple lived happily ever after.

posted by permission of the author in February, 2004


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