Transcript Hills Like White Elephants

Hills Like White
Elephants
Ernest Hemingway
Let’s read it together!
• Volunteers for reading:
• The Narrator : You will read
anything that is not dialogue.
• Jig (the girl)
• The American
• A woman (the waitress)
Multiple Meanings for White Elephant?
A few possibilities…
• White Elephant: The game where people pass
around gifts that nobody wants.
• White Elephant: revered and worshipped in
India as sacred and something to be cherished.
• The expression, “The Elephant in the Room”
Based on these three ideas…what is the major
conflict between the couple? What
“procedure” is Jig going to possibly have?
What’s the impact of Hemingway’s choice to not
tell the reader this info directly?
What is absinthe?
• Green colored drink with very high level of alcohol by
volume that originated in Europe.
• Banned in the US, France, Netherlands, Belgium,
Switzerland, and Austria-Hungary by 1915 for
“psychoactive properties.” Revival in 1990s in Europe.
Legalized in the USA again in 2007.
• Known for being mysterious, addictive, and “mind
altering.” Reportedly, these cases of psychosis were
over exaggerated.
• Sweet taste with a bitter aftertaste…how does this
represent the relationship we see in the short story?
• Alec, Kaleigh, Greg, Max
• Maddie, Isaac, Ilaina, Emily
• Ryan, Sophie, Jake, Tyler, David
• Nick, Andrea, Daniel, Carlos
• Jeremy, Skylar, Alena, Giles, Zach
• Tushon, Khadija, Luke
• Olivier, Hana, Abbie
• Jackson , Ev, Daniel
• Connor, Luc, Malcolm, Bailey
• Sean, Heather, Cal
• Serena, Mariesa, Conor
Where do we see these ideas &
conventions & what role do they play
in the story?
Ideas
• Lack of Communication
• Choices
• Identity
• Foreignness
• Alcohol
• Abortion
Conventions
• Iceberg theory
• POV
• Setting
• Characterization
• Dialogue
• Repetition
• Irony
• Symbolism
Discuss
1. How does this short story exemplify characteristics of
Modernist writing?
2. Is this couple going to stay together? Why or why not? What
does Jig decide to do?
3. Out of the American and Jig, who is the better communicator?
Or are they both terrible? Explain.
4. Why the heck is her name Jig? Why doesn’t the American have
a name? How do these choices by Hemingway impact the
reader?
5. How is alcohol used in this story? What is its purpose?
6. How does Hemingway use the scenery to symbolize the
conflict as well as Jig’s feelings about her situation?
7. How do the railroad tracks symbolize the couple?
• Would an abortion be an “awfully simple” operation at this
time in history? What kind would it have to be?
• At the end of the story, Jig says there’s nothing wrong with
her. How else can we interpret that line? What do you think
Hemingway meant?
• Would you feel differently about the story if the roles of Jig
and the man were reversed, that is, if Jig wanted the abortion
and the man wanted her to marry him and keep the baby?
• How can we think about this story in relation to women at
the time, like Jordan and Daisy? Are these modern women
really getting what they want? Or are their rights still being
stifled?