“Hills Like White Elephants”

Throughout literature, different literary elements are used in short stories to captivate readers and make the story entertaining. Different literary elements that are used to keep the reader’s interest are setting, plot, characterization, and point of view. When an author is able to implement these elements into his story in an effective manner, the elements give substance to his story and comprise the story’s purpose. In “Hills Like White Elephants” by Ernest Hemingway, Hemingway professionally uses setting and characterization to develop the theme and grasp the reader.

First of all, Hemingway establishes a setting that symbolizes the theme of decision making – specifically abortion which pertains to the decision being contemplated by the characters in the story. For example, the girl and the American are at a train station in Spain, and they are sitting outside in the heat of the sun. The setting that Hemingway employs is incredibly significant and uniquely defines the story. For instance, the train station symbolizes that two main characters must make an important decision and will go nowhere until they make their decision, and the heat represents the pressing nature of the decision that the girl and the American must make. Additionally, the train station has two sides to it; off to one side of the train station the land is dry with no shade or trees, but on the other side of the train station there are fields of grain and trees with the Ebro River running through them. Each side of the station represents the options for the important decision that the girl and the American must make. The dry side of the train station represents the girl’s womb that would be empty if she decided to get an abortion, and the living side of the train station with grain and trees represents the life that is in her womb which she could keep and grow if she does not get an abortion. In “Hills Like White Elephants,” the setting is the framework for the story and illustrates the entire point of the story.

Furthermore, the method of characterization that Hemingway implements also adds to the decision making theme and helps the reader relate to the situation. For example, all the reader knows about the two main characters is through what they say, and what they are called - the girl or Jig, and the American. Since the reader does not know a whole lot about the characters, he can put himself in their situation because the situation is not a personal that just the characters in the story go through. The impersonality of the characters also makes them and what they are going through universal, and all readers can relate to having to make a big decision just as the characters are doing. Moreover, the American speaks to the bartender for the girl because the girl can’t speak the language of the bartender. This aspect of the story represents the girl’s unfamiliarity with the situation she is in and her inability to make the decision that must be made. When the American speaks for the girl, the reader is shown that the American is the one who is calling the shots and telling the girl what to do. The characterization is not a huge part of the story, but it communicates a point to all readers and is directed at the readers.

In conclusion, Hemingway includes his setting and characterization with purpose. Through these two literary elements he is able to add to his story and utilize them meaningfully.

The setting and characterization also complement his theme of decision making and give the

reader something that he will find worthwhile.