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Hills like white elephants - Coggle Diagram
Hills like white elephants
Content
The man and the woman are at a train station drinking beer
As the story continues the couple drinks stronger stuff
it seems that the couple starts to talk about deeper stuff as the story goes on
The man wants the girl to get an operation which seems to be an abortion
The girl is on the fence about it
She says the hills look like white elephants which could signify the baby because a white elephant is something hard and expensive to maintain.
"The woman brought two glasses of beer and two felt pads. She put the felt pads and the beer glasses on the table and looked at the man and the girl. The girl was looking off at the line of hills. They were white in the sun and the country was brown and dry.
"They look like white elephants," she said. "
"It's really an awfully simple operation, Jig," the man said. "It's not really an operation at all."
The man really seems to want the girl to get the abortion
the couple seems to have a shaky relationsip
The couple seem to avoid a lot of the conversation, or "dance" around the important stuff
"Would you please please please please please please please stop talking?"
Style
Hemingway has a very barebones style which makes the reader think about what he is actually reading
with this style a lot of the story is up to the reader to figure out what is going ont
there is not much information, rather the whole story takes place in the present withotu telling the reader about anything
The story is very dialogue centered and progresses like a normal conversation would
Context
This story was written during the great depression
There was an alcohol ban in the US at this time
Ernest Hemingway served in the military during WWI
abortions killed a lot of women back then
Talking vs having a meaningful convesation