Ernest Hemingway - Hills Like White Elephants

In this story, it's important to look at what's on the surface level and what's not. Hemingway tends to present a lot of things on the surface level without giving them much context, and this style of writing becomes typical of modernism. The story itself is presented as a fragment, suggesting that modern individuals have fragmented identities. Another way to describe this technique of Hemingway's is the iceberg theory, in which the author presents the tip of the character or 1/8 of the plot.

Another interesting thing to think about in this story is the title. How are white elephants used in the story? There is obviously the adage of an elephant in the room, and the elephant in the room is the woman's abortion which should be "nice." Furthermore, the girl is the first person to see that the hills are like white elephants, which suggests that there is always more than one perspective.

The short story is weirdly feminist, and this is weird primarily because Hemingway was definitely not a feminist. But this story validates women. The girl is genderizes her innocence/ignorance, her naivete, her timidity, her emotion in order to gain autonomy over the man. For example, she shuts down his knowledge by threatening to scream, which plays into that gender stereotype. By shutting down the man, she is able to breakthrough and gain some momentary autonomy.