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See
O'Connor and Alberti's study guide for "Hills" and for the passage in A
Farewell to Arms in which the narrator contrasts the abstractions of
speeches about war to the places where brave deeds have occurred. The
study guide focuses on verbal irony in both the story and the passage from the
novel.
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In an online Word document,
Elisabeth Ibsen describes
useful drawing methods for four sections in the story in her analysis of
how one might teach this story for students whose first language is not
English, but her suggestions should help any reader makes decisions about the
attitudes of the characters.
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R. C. Evans uses this
story as the topic for a demonstration on how to write an opening,
supporting, and concluding paragraph in an essay. One challenge might be
to have students try to supply the missing paragraphs on the rail lines and
the heat. 4
The Langara College (Canada) Writing Center also provides a starter paragraph
that students might be challenged to develop into an essay, deriving from the
three-part thesis at the end of the sample on "Hills."
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Symbolism grows from the context of a
story: Students who want to see inside the teaching process and find some of
the symbols in "Hills" should look at this
lesson
plan by Brian Hillis for teaching about symbolism in the story.
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Stephen
Lane's production ideas for those who like to perform
"Hills" as a play--and a photo of the
white hills.
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A
summary and brief commentary on "Hills."
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The W.W. Norton web for "Hills"
lists
reading,
re-reading, and
exploration questions and tasks.
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Edunet's
A Room is a comprehensive guide to many ideas about Hemingway,
including an FAQ page with pretty good answers by Joshua Silverstein
and a photo gallery of Hemingway.
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Professor Marcel
Cornis-Pope of Virginia Commonwealth University has recorded a
lecture on "Hills," a "slice of life with a vengeance," that previews
ways to discuss the story. (Uses Real Player controls on the web
page, less than 15 minutes.)
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It can be useful to supply back
story for these characters, but looking at the language of the
dialogue is most useful for seeing their attitudes.
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The setting, including the two
parallel lines and the bead curtains, is economically described but
frames the story. The [seven] descriptive passages may be
thematically important.
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Does the narrator bias us toward
the American or to Jig?
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Since Hemingway apparently
claimed to be an existentialist,
Prof. Susan
Braley of Fanshawe College in Ontario asks her students if Jig and
the American are "successful existentialists"; her notes also might be
used to ask how these characters typify the "Lost Generation" (if that
term can fairly be applied to all of the some 30,000 expatriate
Americans living in Paris by 1924, and others of the generation who
survived World War I, but were fundamentally changed by it).
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Dr. Sharon Sellers'
study questions on the story.
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Per Mathisen of the Adolf Oiens
School asks
some interesting discussion questions about the story, especially
#8 about four possibly symbolic passages.
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Brian Hilis posted a
lesson plan on symbolism in "Hills"; see especially,
items 5, 6, & 7.
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Margaret Anne O'Connor and John Alberti at the Houghton-Mifflin web
offer several ways into "Hills" and A Farewell to Arms as Lost
Generation stories, emphasizing how both debunk the public image of
Hemingway [that developed in the decades after these stories], along
with a short list of study questions for each.
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The sample student essay at the bottom of this page
is about "Hills"; both raters agree that it meets general education
goals, probably because it shows a reasonably literate style and
independent, reasonable analysis, as well as clear organization.
PDF
(Adobe) version
HTML (webpage) version
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Pat Swenson of Cal. St. U.- Northridge includes
this writing
assignment on "dialog, subtext, and imagery" to express differences
between "apparent reality and inner reality" in "Hills."
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It's not a "simple" operation
because one has to live with the consequences, one of which is called
nowadays Post-Abortion Stress
Syndrome.
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Jason DeBoer tells everything
you've never wanted to know about absinthe. [Warning: The
first couple paragraphs tell you what you need to know; after that
there are graphic images and vulgarisms.]
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a history
of Zaragoza from the city chronicler, found by Paulette Estep
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a
history of
white elephants in southeast Asia, explaining mostly the positive
connotations of the animals, also found by Paulette Estep
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