Subtext and understatement in Hemingway’s works play a significant role, “Hills Like White Elephants” is one of the examples. The story centers on a conversation between an American and a girl at a Spanish train station while waiting for a train to Madrid. The dialogue represents the tip of the iceberg, as, at first glance, it seems like an ordinary, sometimes tense conversation. The couple indirectly discusses the “operation” that the man wants the girl to do, and this operation involves an abortion. The style is exact, telegraphic, so the story’s tone is relatively dry, sometimes the author even avoids the remarks. Behind these laconic dialogues, there is a whole story of relationships in which a bitter truth is hidden.
The images found in the story are significant; they help draw some analogies, plunging into the story of two people. The description of nature precedes the dialogues, and in the first paragraph, the Ebro Valley is presented. It symbolizes two ways of life, one is aimless hedonism, which the couple pursued on the road, resting, trying something new. The other represents life not only for their own pleasure but also for others, for their child. Comparison of hills with white elephants is significant and symbolic, as it suggests motherhood. Motherhood in this situation does not bring joy, the analogy with the idiom “white elephant” is observed, which means something burdensome and complicated.
“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.” (Liternet, 2021)
The unwillingness of a man to understand, support and simply immerse in thoughts with the girl can be traced. Conflict over white elephants metonymically replaces conflict at a deep level. “But if I do it, then it will be nice again if I say things are like white elephants, and you’ll like it?” (Liternet, 2021) After this remark, white elephants do not appear in the novel, but the quote, passing from the dialogue into the title, acquires the qualities of a “metonymic concept,” expressing the idea of loneliness.
Reference
Liternet. (2021). Ernest Hemingway – Hills Like White Elephants.