"Hills Like White Elephants"

I read "Hills Like White Elephants" during my senior year of high school. I had read the introduction to the chapter, so I understood that the procedure that "lets the air in" was abortion, which made reading the story a lot easier to comprehend and the symbolism much simpler to identify. However, an analysis of symbolism in the story wouldn't be a reaction, it would be literary analysis, which is just another term for the depressing phrase of "critical reading."

I'm sorry; I digress. I love the way Hemingway (wow, that's odd, I said I loved something written by Hemingway) narrates this story. It's objective; reading it is like reading a play. The only insight we get into the characters is through their dialogues and the brief descriptions of their actions. Their feelings, their personalities, their motivations must all be decoded from the conversation between them. It's an exercise in close reading, but more importantly, it's a good way to visualize a play in my head. I saw a stage set, with chairs, a table, a curtain, and maybe a backdrop with the fertile scenery on one side and the barren landscape on the other. And in my mind I went through this play as they spoke, thinking about their gestures, their movements, their body language, and their facial expressions. There are no descriptions of these actions or these looks; you can only decipher them through the dialogue. There is no adverbial or adjectival modification to their statements or their looks. It's just one line of speech after another.

Apart from the play-like narration, this story always hits hard and plucks at the heartstrings. This story was published in 1927, yet this conversation (with the exception of the terminology and setting) could happen today. A man and a young woman, sitting and discussing an abortion would not be an uncommon scene in our modern world. The woman is reluctant, willing to please the man without caring about herself, "'I don't care about me.'" It's such a harsh statement. She doesn't care about herself, and she believes it's the resignation that will make everything "fine." If she does it he'll "'be happy and things will be like they were.'" There's pressure from the man to get the abortion, and while the girl is reluctant and at a crossroads, but she will acquiesce.

If you think about their lifestyle, traveling and trying new drinks and staying at hotels night after night, you can maybe empathize with the girl's wish to slow down, stop, have a life in one place, not full of traveling and frivolous games. It may be fun for a while, but after a time it becomes exhausting and boring. "'That's all we do, isn't it--look at things and try new drinks?" While the prospect of absinthe sounds intriguing, what's the point after a while? How is it fulfilling and meaningful? It's just as barren as the side the couple is sitting on, in contrast with the lush, green other side with a river. You get the feeling the man doesn't really care about the girl. Maybe he loves her, maybe he doesn't. His attempts to convince her that "it's perfectly natural" and they "just let the air in" don't really show much concern for her. He seems to say that he doesn't want her to do get the procedure if she doesn't want it, but without even giving description to his statements, Hemingway makes it clear that the man would rather keep traveling, keep going at a whirlwind pace without the confines of domestic life and a child.

It's a short, powerful, and compact story. Hemingway is sparse with his words, economical to the point that every phrase, every sentence, every description is imperative to understanding. You could read it multiple times and still find news things even though it's so simple and clean-cut. There's no embellishment, no unnecessary detail. Just the pure retelling of a conversation.