Hills Like White Elephants by Ernest Hemingway Essay example

Hills Like White Elephants by Ernest Hemingway

“Which line of criticism best suits this short story?

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Ernest Hemingway’s ‘Hills Like White Elephants’ is suited to aPsychoanalytic perspective criticism and is the most effective, as itcontains hidden, deeper meanings which the author had represented inthis piece, by explicating the text to explore the themes of choices,plot, setting and imagery, and essentially abortion.

Psychoanalytic criticism expresses the secret unconscious desires andanxieties of the author. This particular thought of criticism isassociated with looking for evidence of psychological conflicts,guilts, ambivalences, which undoubtedly is overflowing in thisparticular piece. The couple in this short-story have to deal with theconflict of ambivalence, for it is anti-climatic in terms thatthroughout the piece, there is conflict of ambivalence, the undecidedminds of these two people of whether or not to abort their unbornchild. Firstly, the whole first paragraph alone immediately is filledwith themes to the consciousness mind of the reader. ‘The hillsacross…were long and white’ establishes an abortion theme and plot,and is not just hills that are long and white’; hills are shaped likebumps which suggests the image of a womb. The title of the story‘Hill’s like White Elephants’ makes its stand on the theme of abortion– as a white elephant is associated with something helpless anduseless – like a foetus inside a mother’s womb. Therefore, the titlealready established to the reader (before reading the text) that thereis a complex meaning to this story, thanks to a psychoanalyticviewpoint. The fact…

… quickly butter her up to make a quick decision, especially before thetrain arrives, before they press ahead to the next step of theirjourney through life.

It is apparent that Psychoanalytic criticism is, nonetheless, the bestmethod of criticism for this particular piece. Although Hemingway wascommonly known as a New Critic author, one cannot understand the pieceby reading it literally (as a new critic would methodise) withoutfully understanding and retrieving the hidden meaning of what hereally wanted us to tell us in the text. Sharp use of imagery actingas background effects to the plot and theme of abortion weaved into asetting of crossroads of life (different directions of journey throughlife) help bring the fuller meaning of the story and the author’sintention, which is finally sought by the reader.

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