Hills Like white elephants -Britta Tornberg

"Hills Like White Elephants"

The beauty of Hemingway's literary works is that their is so much meaning beneath the surface of his writing. "Hills Like White Elephants" is a particularly challenging work because although there are obvious keys to what the short story is about, you are not directly given the meaning of the work. The story requires your own interpretations of it. By doing research on the author I gained a background knowledge of the story and the authors possible point of view while writing. Hemingway was notorious for having many lovers as well as being a drunk. This helped my form the hypothesis that Hemingway has been in a similar situation but wanted to keep it "low key" due to the time period. I feel he wrote this story trying to express his life situation without  directly mentioning an abortion. I enjoyed this story because it challenged me to think more for my self and beyond the words in the text. The first time I read this story I assumed it was about an abortion because the man in the story mentions to his girl a simple operation where they just let the air in. He also told the girl he will still love her although he was pushing for her to get the operation. At first I thought I was over thinking the meaning of this short story until the class discussion showed me how "Hills Like White Elephants" is loaded with symbolism