Critical Analysis of "Hills Like White Elephants"

Analysis by Fred Edwards

Semiotics is the study of signs. It involves the study of signs and anything that stands for something else. From this definition it can be seen that semiotics is able to be applied within many disciplines. Signs include images, sounds, objects and words.

Semioticians study how meanings are made and are concerned with the relationship between the sign and it's meaning.

For something to qualify as a sign it must have physical form(word and text included) and must refer to something other than itself and others must recognize the fact that the sign represents something else.

Each sign is made up of the signifier(form which the sign takes) and the signified(concept or meaning it represents).

So in a nutshell semiotics looks at this story from a symbolic point of view looking at the signs used and their connotative meanings.

A casual reading of Ernest Hemingway's "Hills Like White Elephants" may leave the reader grasping for the main topic of the story. We see a couple engaged in conversation about going through with an operation and the effects it will have on their relationship. A reader- like myself- may not immediately key in on the fact that they are discussing the girl having an abortion. A look into Hemingway's use of symbols leaves no doubt at all of the topic of their conversation. His symbology compares fertility and barrenness mush like the decision being contemplated by the woman. In fact, many symbols used throughout the story reinforce this idea. Barrenness and fertility directly correspond to the life or death of the baby and the life and death of their relationship. Listed below is some of the symbology Hemingway uses and its connotative meaning. The reader his or herself can see how these meanings apply to and strengthen Hemingway's story.

Here are some signs that Hemingway employs:

• -- We see a contrast between barrenness and fertility while the girl is surveying the terrain which corresponds to the decision she is having to make at this time on whether to have an abortion or not. On one side of the station she looks off at the country which is brown and dry-barren. On the other side of the station she sees fields of grain and trees along the river-fertility. These scenes contrast life or death- the same question she is pondering. Trees are also symbolic of life itself.

• --Hills are said to be representative of the belly of a pregnant female.

• --White elephants are possessions unwanted by the owner but difficult to get rid of much like the baby she is carrying.

• --A train represents destiny or change and this is an express train indicating the change will be quick. Perhaps this is referring to how quick the "operation" is which will change her for a lifetime.

• --The train stopping for only 2 minutes corresponds to the brief time window she has to make this decision.

• --The trip or journey they are taking is representative of a call of fate. An adventure designed to explore the self until serenity is achieved. The last line seems to indicate she reached this point.

• --The trip also takes them from Barcelona to Madrid. This is a westward direction. The west represents the setting sun which is equivalent to death-the death of the child and their relationship as they know it.

• --Beads which are mentioned several times are symbolic of the circle of continuity. The circle being representative of the notion of totality, wholeness and perfection. It also symbolizes the striving towards wholeness and self-realization. Another meaning for the circle is potential as in an embryo. This could apply several ways. The potential(embryo) is self-evident. The girl is also struggling towards wholeness or self-realization in that-I have been told- a woman doesn't feel whole if she never has a child.

• --They decide to drink alcohol. Alcohol is the conjunction of opposites- male and female, active and passive and both in a state of creation and destruction. Alcohol also eliminates inhibitions and prohibitions.

• --"Do you want it with water" they are asked when ordering the drinks. Water being symbolic of life, birth and fertility.

• --When they order the new drink the girl states it tastes like licorice or absinthe. Absinthe is flavored with wormwood. Wormwood refers to something bitter grievous and extremely unpleasant. Such as what she is going through right now.

• --A shadow is referred to more than once. On page 758 line 10 the shadow is a representation of unconscious layers of the personality that are integrated into the structure of the experienced world through the process of individuation.

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