...The Message behind “White Elephants” “Hills like White Elephants” by Ernest Hemingway represents a girl sacrificing the way she feels about white elephants, so she can have the guy “the American” can continue to love her as he did in the past. The girl “Jig” first introduces the white line of hills as white elephants. Throughout, the whole conversation the couple is drinking alcohol as they talk. The setting of the story and the couple’s conversation takes place at a train station in between Barcelona and Madrid overlooking the Ebro River. Consequently, the white elephant represents an idiom for something valuable of possession but it is not something one would desire. In this case, the white elephant denotes an abortion. The couple sat down and ordered drinks as the girl causally looked off in the sky, above the hills claiming that the hills looked like white elephants. “They were white in the sun and the country was brown and dry” (Hemingway 229), it means that the white hills were prominent against the brown contrast and the shape of elephants in the hills popped out in the sky. “But if I do it, then it will be nice again if I say things are like white elephants, and you’ll like it?” (Hemingway 231), by this comment, the girl hopes to save her relationship with him by following through with the abortion. She feels that, that is what the guy wants from her and by asking him if she follows through with the process, will everything will be back to normal. The girl questioning...
Words: 1154 - Pages: 5
...Bittersweet Love: Forces that Cause Love Relationship to Change for Better or Worst Jazzmin Jones Instructor Chunn ENG 125 February 2015 Literature has been the foundation that develops the need to have conflicts that can creates inspiring pieces of ideas of how to overcome it or learn from it if it cannot be resolves. It express the hardships and struggles from the experiences of the writer that reader can establish connections or may acknowledge it as a worldly or personal crisis. In short story, “Country Lovers” by Nadine Gourdime and “Hills Like White Elephants” by Elswell Hemmingway, both centers around the conflict that involves the issues of forces that may threaten to end love relationships in way both couples didn't want, by exploring the use of literary techniques such as symbolism, climax, and setting. Both stories deal with forces that is causing a love crisis between each other. The theme in “Hill Like White Elephant”, the couples are dealing with the topic of their unborn child and abortion and in “Country Lovers” focus on the love of childhood friends that turn into sexual curiosity that is against society rules and expectation between blacks and whites. Hills Like White Elephants, the whole story is consist of dialogue between a young woman who is nicknamed “Jig” and the unnamed American lover, trying to talk to each other but neither are listening or viewing each other point of views. The “white elephant” symbolizes to Jig's unwanted pregnancy that...
Words: 881 - Pages: 4
...Hills Like White Elephants Ernest Hemingway 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. Close against the side of the station there was the warm shadow of the building and a curtain, made of strings of bamboo beads, hung across the open door into the bar, to keep out flies. 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. ‘What should we drink?’ the girl asked. She had taken off her hat and put it on the table. ‘It’s pretty hot,’ the man said. ‘Let’s drink beer.’ ‘Dos cervezas,’ the man said into the curtain. ‘Big ones?’ a woman asked from the doorway. ‘Yes. Two big ones.’ The woman brought two glasses of beer and two felt pads. She put the felt pads and the beer glass on the table and looked at the man and the girl. The girl was looking off at the line of hills. They were white in the sun and the country was brown and dry. ‘They look like white elephants,’ she said. ‘I’ve never seen one,’ the man drank his beer. ‘No, you wouldn’t have.’ ‘I might have,’ the man said. ‘Just because you say I wouldn’t have doesn’t prove anything.’ The girl looked at the bead curtain. ‘They’ve painted something on it,’ she said. ‘What does it say?’ ‘Anis del Toro. It’s a drink.’ ‘Could we try it?’ The man...
Words: 1466 - Pages: 6
...Analyzing Hemingway Ernest Hemingway’s short story “Hills like white elephants” at first glance is difficult to understand. It undoubtedly causes most readers to go over it multiple times to grasp exactly what is taking place. The way the story is written is so complex with the 50/50 mixture of traditional storytelling and an abundance of character to character dialogue as well. That’s not the best part; the story’s setting means everything to it. The Train station setting ties in to the plot of the story, the characters behavior, and even the point of view that the story is being told from. The story is about a man and a woman discussing the sensitive subject of abortion. They are at a train station waiting for their train while having this conversation. The man and girl are sitting by other passengers awaiting the train while you the reader are told of their surrounding landscape. On one side it is a dessert-like environment with scorched land and no sign of life in sight. The other side of the train station was a green and healthy environment like what you would expect to see inside a greenhouse. The setting in the story greatly an example of this is the point of view of which the story is told. As mentioned earlier the average reader after reading once may say the author is the narrator of the story there are some lines in the story that mean otherwise though. There are two instances near the beginning that caught my attention. “It’s pretty hot,” the man said...
Words: 837 - Pages: 4
...A Fortune The short story A Fortune is written by Joy Monica T. Sakaguchi. In the short story A Fortune the reader acquires knowledge about a first-person narrator, a young boy who shares the same destiny as the little boy we hear about later in the story despite of differences in social status. They both hunger after acknowledgement from their fathers, they have both been ignored and mistreated by their fathers; they both suffer from the same privations and both are searching for redemption. The short story A Fortune begins in medias res and is written in past tense and is told through a male first-person narrator, which leads to an understanding of the narrator’s inner thoughts and feelings. The narrator’s appearance is superficially described as rather unattractive, but his name remains unknown for the reader which creates anonymity. Through several flashbacks the reader gradually understands the narrator’s childhood, personality and social status in society. His social status is emphasized by the writing style in the short story as well – his usage reflects his social inheritance. By using contractions, slang and everyday language the reader gets the impression that the first-person narrator belongs to a lower social group in the society. This finds expression in sentences like: ’Boy would he yell at me’ or ‘My ma tried to raise me well’ where the narrator uses slang, or for instance the sentence ‘Hey, kid, you lost?’ where the verb “are” is omitted. However, the reader...
Words: 1142 - Pages: 5
...cookie-making process: Me Mixer Me Spoon and tray Roommate Oven and tray Oven and tray INPUT OUTPUT Roommate Oven and tray Tray Roommate Roommate Remarks: Since it does not consume any time, the first step, that is to take an order, is here ignored. Inventory is not kept at any time as the cookie dough is continuously being processed by the dozen to fit the bottleneck's capacity and only produce fresh cookies according to placed orders. 2. We assume the following: The minimum amount of cookies per order is one dozen cookies (the case states that the process produces “cookies by the dozen”). There are at least two trays and spoons, as the case mentions “cookie trays” and “spoons” Since the amount of time necessary to unload the oven is considered “negligeable”, it can be done during the same minute used to load the next batch. In this view, the first order takes 26 minutes but each following batch only requires an additional 10 minutes (see Gantt chart 1 attached). Capacity of resources (dozen cookies per hour): | Me | Roommate | Mixer (1) | Trays (2) | Spoons (2) | Oven (1) | Cycle time | 8mns/unit | 4mns/unit | 6mns/3unit = 2mns/unit | 15mns/2units = 7.5mns/unit | 2mns/2units =1mn/unit | 10mns/unit | Capacity | 7.5/hour | 15/hour | 30/hour | 8/hour | 60/hour | 6/hour | Since 4 hours = 240 minutes, the team can fill up to 22 orders in...
Words: 844 - Pages: 4
...the story is described from his point of view. As a result we can quite easily relate to the “I” and thus we almost immediately sympathize with him, because we know his each and every thought and feeling. The “I” is the kind of person who yearns for people, his father in particular, to recognize his worth and appreciate him. We see this in lines 13-14, where he talks about his father: “(…) I just didn’t want to know how much Pop thought I was worth.” After his father leaves the “I” keeps doing pickpocketing, because he wants to prove himself to his father by giving him all the money, when he comes back. The “I” is for that reason focusing on the future all along, which probably lies at the root of him being so excessively fond of fortune cookies, because they tell you about the great things, which the future holds in store for you. In addition to the main character we have the young boy Jeremy, who is almost the very picture of the “I” as a child. Jeremy isn’t like other kids at his age; he is quiet and keeps his eyes down, so that he won’t upset his father, who only sees all the things Jeremy does wrong. You can clearly see how the “I” empathizes...
Words: 843 - Pages: 4
...------------------------------------------------- Hills like White Elephants Ernest Hemingway (1927) The distant hills symbolize an exquisite place of escape—but these hills look like "white elephants" (an ironic detail). They remind her that consequences of the decision she faces might be costly. 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. Close against the side of the station there was the warm shadow of the building and a curtain, made of strings of bamboo beads, hung across the open door into the bar, to keep out flies. 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."What should we drink?" the girl asked. She had taken off her hat and put it on the table."It's pretty hot," the man said. "Let's drink beer." "Dos credenzas," the man said into the curtain."Big ones?" a woman asked from the doorway. "Yes. Two big ones." The woman brought two glasses of beer and two felt pads. She put the felt pads and the beer glass on the table and looked at the man and the girl. The girl was looking off at the line of hills. They were white in the sun and the country was brown and dry. Ironic symbol—the hills, traditionally a symbol of attractiveness, beauty, tranquility, appear to Jig as not...
Words: 1793 - Pages: 8
...short story “A Fortune” is written by Joy Monica T. Sakaguchi, the story is about a man who is pick pocketing people, and that is what he is doing for living. He often visits a local Chinese restaurant where he gets free fortune cookies, and one day he gets one that says: “a change in you daily routine will lead you to treasure”. Does this mean he need to pick pocket more, less, stop it, increase the picking? It deffinently will change everything. The title “A fortune” is actually simple, but also very confusing. He gets this fortune cookie that says: “A change in your daily routine will lead you to treasure” and obviously it is a fortune. The guy meets a boy that is very sad, and the father in front that is very dominating, like the narrators own father. The narrator gets a close relationship to the boy, and the guy gets emotional, because he never had this cloce bond to anyone. He has been through many hard things and he doesnt want the boy to be like him, he want the boy to feel special. He realizes how much he has been missing in his childhood, all the things his father didnt tell him, but what he really needed. He give the boy all his fortune cookies, and want the boy to have an challenging but hopefully a well future. And just like the cookies was important to the guy, he wants them to be important to the boy.It is an first person narrator in this short story, and the narrator is a guy in his early/mid twenties. He has his own apartment, and his family is hardly described...
Words: 777 - Pages: 4
...Analysis of Hemingway’s “Hills Like White Elephants” In Ernest Hemingway's short story "Hills Like White Elephants," the decision on whether or not to have an abortion puts strain on the characters’ relationship. The two characters, Jig and the American, have differing views on abortion. Hemingway uses the elements of symbolism and dialogue to portray such a serious conversation in which a major life decision is about to be made. Like the proverbial elephant in the room that everyone sees, but no one wants to acknowledge, not once is the subject of abortion mentioned, but it is implied. The reader must be willing to read what is not there. While most writers set the stage for their readers, Hemingway leaves the interpretation completely up to the reader. This story takes place in 1926 in Spain, a country where abortion was illegal until 2009 (“History of Abortion”.) The fact that the procedure was illegal is probably why the word abortion was never mentioned during their public conversation in the bar. Money is obviously not an issue for the American as referenced to the many hotel stickers on their suitcases and as we know, money can buy anything including medical services. Jig is interpreted as a young and naïve girl, who is struggling with the decision that is laid upon her. The American is interpreted as an harsh, manly man who is adamant during his dialogue about what he wants, even to the point of trying to downplay the procedure by stating that it was an “awfully...
Words: 591 - Pages: 3
...“Sorry sir, our hospital can’t cure Ebola… We recommend you to go to another hospital.” “But.. but I can’t, I’ve already been to many other hospitals. Please, please doctor…” “I am really sorry sir. All we can do is keep you quarantined in the hospital,” the doctor replied with a deep cold voice. This is 11th hospital that had rejected me, and they all rejected me since I have no money. My friend, Peter, also suffered from Ebola, but he had the best doctors in the world to cure him. The only difference between him and I is our wealth. I thought that people could not judge other people by money. How come this society is still judging people by their wealth. Rich people can do all the wrongful things, but they get around with it, because they have money to bribe people. I just can’t endure this society. I’m not going to die like this. I only have a week to live and I want spend that time traveling around the US with my mom. Fortunately, my mom doesn’t know that I have Ebola, and I will keep hiding the truth from my mom. My heart doesn’t let me. If my mom finds out about my secret, I don’t know what I’ll do. Tonight, I am breaking out from this hospital, I already planned out my trip. On my way out, a quick thought came through my mind. “ Get the cure.” “Get the cure.” If I found a way to get the treatment for Ebola, I won’t have to worry about my mom finding out about my secret and I’ll be able to spend as much time as I want with her. Without hesitation I quickly turned...
Words: 1208 - Pages: 5
...“Hills Like White Elephants” by Ernest Hemingway is a short story every student studying English Composition should read. The narrative explores the difficult topic of abortion which college students should read about. Not only did the story explore the couple's dynamic it also delved into the feelings each partner had about the pregnancy. In “On Reading Fiction”, the author explains that readers enjoy fiction for three reasons, because it is an escape from reality, a possible answer to problems in their lives, and allows the reader the comfort of knowing that others are facing the same problems and feeling the same emotions as them. The author states, “we like it because fiction, as an image of life, stimulates and gratifies our interest in life.” This is without a doubt true, knowledge is power and reading about people’s lives and their experiences gives a leg up to the reader in his or her own life. While there are numerous short stories to choose from, “Hills Like White Elephants” should be part of the curriculum for college students because it digs deep into the conflicts everyone may face at one point in their lives about decision making, relationships, and changing your destiny. Being an ongoing issue in society, the topic of abortion is important to read about. Regardless of gender, reading about abortion is important because both parties should have a say in whether to keep the baby. Although not pointed out in black and white, in “Hills Like White Elephants” the reader...
Words: 955 - Pages: 4
...Hills like white elephants “Hills Like White Elephants” is a short fiction story written by Ernest Hemingway. The story is about a couple and we only know them as the American and his girl Jig. In the beginning of the story they are sitting at a station bar in Ebro in Spain having a beer and waiting for their train to arrive. Jig looks out of the window and she looks at the hills across the valley and tells her boyfriend that they look like white elephants. As they are sitting at the table “Jig” looks at the bead curtain in the window and there is paint on the curtain saying “Anis Del Toro”. It was apparently a famous drink and they ordered two of them. Their regular conversation suddenly turned in to an argument after she compared the hills with white elephants. Jig is pregnant and that has made the couple unhappy. The American tries to convince Jig into having an abortion if she wants to. She says that she wants to have the abortion but only because that she no longer cares about herself. The American tells her not to do it for that reason. Their argument escalates quickly and they order two extra drinks just before their train arrives. The story is written in a 3rd person narrator. The narrator is a “fly on the wall” and observes everything about what the two characters “Jig” and the American say and how they act. In this story we follow the two characters the American and “Jig” through the whole time. This story is primarily a conversation between the two of them but...
Words: 549 - Pages: 3
...JIG’S DEVELOPMENT OF MIND IN “HILLS LIKE WHITE ELEPHANT” Marta Benvinda dos Santos Silva[1] Márton Támas Gémes[2] In “Hills like white elephants”, a couple, Jig and the American, discuss whether an abortion is the best way to solve the problems they are having in their relationship. Their conversations show that the man is undoubtedly in favor of it. As he constantly repeats, it is “an awfully simple operation”. (HEMINGWAY, 1976, p. 40) Jig, on the other hand, seems to be very uncomfortable towards it, acting under pressure. However, she passes through a transformation of mind along the short story, from submissive to independent from her company’s demandings. In this paper, we intend to analyze the woman empowerment against the male dominance. We will therefore focus on the figure of Jig, whose development, can be analyzed in four major moments, according to Renner (1995): ordering drinks at the bar, the discussions about the abortion, the changes on the setting and the last conversations before the train arrives. Jig’s attitude since the very beginning reveals her dependant and submissive character as a woman. When ordering her drinks she felt the necessity of always refer to her companion and ask him for confirmation, as she needed to be sure if she was making a mistake or not: “What should we drink?”, the girl asked. […] “It’s pretty hot,” the man said. ...
Words: 1080 - Pages: 5
...Home-Style Cookies Jane Smith BUS644: Operations Management Professor Ben-Gourion Mestman February 6, 2012 Home-Style Cookies Production Processes The batch processing system begins when orders are received from distributors. Production schedules are based on the orders received. Each day, a list of cookies to be made is given to the person in charge of mixing. The ingredients needed are activated through a master list containing all the ingredients to ensure accuracy. After all ingredients are mixed, the batter is then poured so the cookies can be baked. Once the cookies are finished baking, they are cooled and then placed in the boxes manually by staff who removes the broken or deformed cookies. The boxes are then wrapped, sealed, and labeled automatically. The company has increased productivity by cutting the non-filled individual cookies on a diagonal so more cookies can bake at a time. In addition, automating the ingredients helps cut back on human error when mixing the ingredients. Increasing the length of the ovens made it possible to bake more cookies at one time. This increase in addition with cutting the non-filled cookies on the diagonal, makes it possible to be more productive. When one uses the machine productivity measure, it is evident that the number of units of output divided by the dollar value of output per machine hour is higher increasing the length of the oven. The company is making the right decision...
Words: 961 - Pages: 4
