Tổng quan nội dung và ý nghĩa thông điệp truyện ngắn Hills Like White Elephants

HILLS LIKE WHITE ELEPHANTS Group 12: Nguyễn Phương Anh Trần Thị Ngọc Ánh Nguyễn Thuý Ngọc I. Introduction. 1. Author: a) Biography
- Ernest Miller Hemingway was born on July 21, 1899, in Oak Park, Illinois.
- Grew up in a middle-class family and developed a passion for outdoor
activities, particularly hunting and fishing.
- Got married at 22 years old and went to France to work as a journalist and start his career.
- After the war, he worked as a journalist, gaining valuable insights that
would later influence his distinctive writing style.
- In 1954, Hemingway was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature for his
mastery of the art of narrative and for the influence he exerted on contemporary style.
- In the later years of his life, Hemingway struggled with physical and
mental health issues. He tragically took his own life on July 2, 1961, at
the age of 61, in Ketchum, Idaho. b) Writing style
- His prose is known for clarity, directness, and emotional restraint.
- He prefers short, evocative sentences that create strong imagery.
- He uses powerful, precise verbs to convey meaning efficiently.
- He often uses dialogue to reveal character traits and move the story forward.
- He developed the famous “Iceberg Theory”, in which:
+ The deeper meaning of the story lies beneath the surface.
+ Important ideas are implied rather than directly stated. c) Works:
Hemingway was known for his distinctive writing style and adventurous
lifestyle. He made significant contributions to the field of literature. He wrote
novels and short stories about outdoorsmen, expatriates, soldiers, and other men
of action, and his plainspoken, no-frills writing style became so famous that it was frequently parodied.
- Work Ernest Hemingway composed about 10 novels, including famous
works such as: The Sun Also Rises (1926), Farewell to Arms (1929), To Have
and Have Not (1937), For Whom the Bell Tolls (1940), The Old Man and the
Sea (1952), Islands in the Stream (1970), The Garden of Eden (1986),..etc… 1
- He also wrote about 10 collections of short stories, such as: In Our Time
(1924), Men without Women (1927), Winner Take Nothing (1933), The Snow
of Kilimanjaro (1936), The Fifth Column and the First Forty-Nine Stories (1938), 2. Context: a) Historical context
- The story was written in 1927, after World War I.
- This was a period when people were experiencing a crisis of faith, a loss
of direction, and a decline in life values.
- The issue of abortion was still very sensitive and controversial at that
time, especially in Western societies.
( Explain: In 1927, the President of the United States was Calvin Coolidge.
He was a member of the Republican Party and served as president from 1923 to 1929.
Coolidge assumed the presidency following the death of Warren G.
Harding in 1923 and was later elected in his own right in the 1924 presidential election.
During this period, conservative values were dominant, including
opposition to abortion rights and a prioritization of the protection of unborn fetuses.)
b) Social & cultural context
- The story depicts a shift in gender roles: women begin to have a stronger
voice but still face pressure from men.
( Explain: After World War I, women in the West began to:
Have more personal autonomy (travel, work, expressing opinions)
No longer be fully dependent economically and socially on men
However, in reality, Men still retained the power of decision-making
Women faced subtle psychological pressure, not violence, but verbal manipulation. )
- Romantic relationships become fragile and lack commitment, reflecting
the free but empty lifestyle of the post-war era. 2
- The story indirectly addresses abortion, highlighting the conflict between: + Individual freedom
+ Responsibility and moral consequences
c) Social & cultural context
- Hemingway witnessed many broken relationships and gender conflicts.
- His personal experiences influenced how he depicted silence and the
emotional distance between two characters. d) Literature context
- Belongs to the Lost Generation movement.
- Applies Iceberg Theory:
+ Does not directly mention "abortion"
+ The main meaning is hidden beneath simple dialogue
- Minimalist language, focusing on dialogue and symbolism. e) Setting context
● Set at a railway station in Spain, between two railway lines. → This setting symbolizes: ● choice, ● a turning point in life,
● hesitation and emotional deadlock. 3. Title:
The title “Hills Like White Elephants” is a metaphor with multiple layers of meaning:
1. It refers to the idea of a “white elephant” — something valuable yet
burdensome or unwanted (a symbol of pregnancy in the story).
2. It alludes to a major issue that no one openly talks about (the child / the decision about abortion).
3. It evokes the image of hills resembling a pregnant belly,
reinforcing the central theme of the story. 4. Overview 3
The story by Ernest Hemingway follows a man and a woman waiting at a train
station in Spain. Through their indirect conversation, it becomes clear that the
woman is pregnant and the man wants her to have an abortion. They avoid
speaking openly about the issue, revealing emotional tension and
miscommunication. The story ends ambiguously, leaving the woman’s final decision unknown.
II. The Theory of Omission (Iceberg Theory) in “Hills Like White Elephants” 1. Theory of Omission.
a) Definition of Omission.
- The Iceberg Theory is a principle of writing associated with Ernest
Hemingway. According to this theory, a literary work only reveals
directly a very small part of the information, like the visible tip of an
iceberg, about one-eighth. The remaining seven-eighths of the iceberg -
the deeper meanings, context, emotions, and conflicts - should be hidden
beneath the surface, and the reader must infer them from small, carefully chosen details.
In other words, the writer deliberately omits explanations. He does not
“spell everything out,” but instead provides precise clues - dialogue,
actions, images, atmosphere, symbolic details – so that the reader can
connect the dots and grasp the hidden part.
- “Hills Like White Elephants” is an excellent example of this principle:
+ The story is very short, under 1,500 words.
+ It consists almost entirely of dialogue.
+ Most importantly, the keyword “abortion” never appears, yet all the
tension revolves around the girl’s decision whether or not to have an abortion.
b) Reasons why Hemingway refuses to state things directly.
To understand why Hemingway refuses to state things directly, and why such a
small slice of life can carry so much weight, we have to place the story in its historical context.
+ Lost Generation: Post–WWI disillusionment led many to drift
into travel, drinking, and unstable relationships—mirrored by the couple’s nomadic lifestyle.
+ 1920s law & morality: Abortion was illegal and taboo (especially
in Catholic Spain), so it was discussed indirectly as “a simple 4 operation.”
+ Women’s status: The “New Woman” gained more freedom, but
reproductive choices were still controlled by men and social norms,
with women bearing most consequences.
- Against this background of disillusionment, contradiction, and taboo,
Hemingway chose not to write a fully explained, moralizing story.
Instead, he compresses the whole historical–moral–psychological weight
into a short piece of dialogue. This is exactly how he realizes the Iceberg Theory in his fiction.
2. The visible one-eighth: The story’s minimalist surface.
a) Plot: almost no plot at all.
- Compared with a traditional plot:
+ We do not know when they meet, how long they have been
together, or how their relationship began.
+ There is no big dramatic scene of “shouting, breaking up” or “crying and reconciling”.
+ There is no clear ending: we never learn whether the girl has the
abortion or whether they stay together.
- Because of this, when the story first appeared, many people dismissed it
as “only a fragment of dialogue", not a complete short story. But exactly
this lack of conventional plot is a sign of the Iceberg form:
Hemingway only shows us one very thin slice of time, and pushes the
entire past and future of the characters down into the hidden part.
b) “Bare” characters: no full names, no biography.
- On the page, Hemingway names the characters very coldly and generically:
+ “The American” – the man.
+ “The girl” – the young woman, and only through his speech do we
learn her nickname, “Jig.”
- We are given no information about:
+ Their age, profession, or exact hometown.
+ Their families or social status.
+ Their appearance, clothing, or detailed personality.
- Everything we know about them must be inferred from their dialogue and actions: For Jig:
+ She often asks repeated questions. "And you really want to?" 5
"And if I do it you'll be happy and things will be like they were and you'll love me?"
"If I do it you won't ever worry?" "What do you mean?"
+ She constantly looks for reassurance: "And if I do it you'll be
happy and things will be like they were and you'll love me?"
→ This shows she is emotionally dependent, afraid of being abandoned, likely young and inexperienced. For the American:
- He orders drinks: “We want two Anis del Toro."
- He translates the Spanish for Jig: "What does it say?", "Anis del Toro. It's a drink."
- He steers and controls the direction of the conversation:
"It's really an awfully simple operation, Jig," "It's not really an operation at all."
“We’ll be fine afterward. Just like we were before.”
“... I've known lots of people that have done it.”
→ This suggests he is more experienced, used to traveling, and used to being in
control – including control over the decision about the pregnancy.
By erasing the characters’ detailed background, Hemingway makes them more
universal: they are not just one random couple, but can be seen as
representatives of many young couples in the Lost Generation.
c) Narrative point of view: the writer disappears.
- Another visible aspect of the surface is the narrative point of view. 6
+ The story is told in the third person, but it is a very special third
person - a kind of “camera eye”:
★ The narrator only records who says what, who does what,
and what the setting looks like.
★ There is no comment such as:
● “she said in despair,”
● or “he answered coldly,”
● or “she felt a deep sadness inside.”
- Compared with nineteenth-century writers like Dickens, who often “take
the reader by the hand” and explain the characters’ psychology and moral
positions, Hemingway completely withdraws.
- This is perfectly consistent with the Iceberg Theory:
● The visible part is only a bare transcript of dialogue with minimal description.
● The invisible part – all moral judgment, all psychological interpretation
– is left for the reader to construct.
3. The hidden three-fours: themes, symbols, and the spirit of the age. Jig:
1. Jig as an Emotionally Sensitive and Perceptive Character
● Jig observes the landscape and uses imagery (“white elephants”).
● She thinks symbolically rather than logically.
● She senses the importance of the situation before it is named.
2. Jig’s Emotional Insecurity and Fear of Conditional Love
● Jig fears losing the man if she refuses the abortion. ● Her question
“And if I do it you’ll be happy and things will be like they were and you’ll love me?”
shows dependence and uncertainty.
● Love appears conditional on her compliance.
3. Jig’s Awareness of Irreversible Loss
● She understands the decision cannot be undone. 7 ● Her line
“Once they take it away, you never get it back”
reflects awareness of permanent loss.
● She sees consequences beyond the present moment.
4. Jig’s Silence as Emotional Resistance
● As the conversation continues, Jig speaks less.
● Her repeated “please” signals exhaustion.
● Silence becomes a way to protect herself. The American man:
5. The American Man as Rational and Emotionally Detached
● He presents the abortion as logical and “simple.”
● He avoids emotional language.
● He prioritizes comfort and continuity.
6. The American Man’s Subtle Psychological Manipulation
● He claims Jig has a choice.
● He repeatedly frames abortion as “the best thing.”
● Only one outcome is treated as reasonable.
7. The American Man’s Use of Language to Avoid Responsibility
● He never says “baby” or “child.”
● He consistently uses the word “it.”
● Language creates emotional distance.
8. The American Man’s Desire for an Unchanged Lifestyle
● He wants life to return to “how it was.” 8
● He values travel, freedom, and lack of obligation.
● He shows little emotional growth. a) THEMES
+ Communication: Abortion
The first point: the most important keyword – “abortion” – never appears in
the text. Nor do we find “pregnancy,” “baby,” or “child.”
The man only uses softening expressions:
● “a perfectly simple operation,”
● “not really an operation,”
● “just to let the air in.”
In the 1920s, when abortion was illegal, sinful, and medically dangerous, it
makes sense for the characters to avoid naming it directly. This reflects a society where:
● People rely on euphemism and vagueness to discuss taboo subjects.
● What “cannot be named” often carries the heaviest emotional and moral weight.
Following the Iceberg Theory, omitting the word does not reduce the
seriousness of the issue; it actually makes it heavier. The reader must work
harder: we gather the clues – the planned trip to Madrid, the man’s insistence
that it is “simple,” the girl’s anxiety – and reach the conclusion ourselves that this is about an abortion.
What is not written on the page becomes the main mass of the iceberg.
+ Selfishness and Manipulation: Selfishness:
1. He prioritizes his own desires over Jig’s emotions
He repeatedly emphasizes that the operation is “simple” and “nothing at all,”
while showing no concern for Jig’s fear, anxiety, or emotional pain. 9
→ What he cares about most is his own comfortable life after the “problem” is resolved.
2. He pretends to give Jig a choice but actually pressures her He repeatedly says:
“It’s perfectly simple… If you don’t want to you don’t have to.”
Although this sounds respectful of Jig’s decision:
● He repeats his viewpoint over and over
● He consistently steers Jig toward only one option: having the operation
→ This is subtle manipulation, not genuine respect.
3. He treats the child as an obstacle to his lifestyle
He claims that they will be “fine” after the operation and that they will continue: “having everything”
“just like we were before”
→ This shows that he is thinking only about: ● Traveling ● Drinking ● A carefree lifestyle
while refusing to accept responsibility as a father.
4. He ignores Jig’s inner emotional struggle When Jig says:
“Would you please please please please please please stop talking?”
This desperate plea shows that:
● Jig is emotionally exhausted and deeply hurt
● Yet the man does not change his attitude and continues to defend his argument
→ He does not listen with empathy.
5. He is unwilling to change himself Throughout the story: 10
● Jig hesitates, reflects, and struggles internally
● The man never wavers and sacrifices nothing
→ A selfish person is one who demands sacrifice from others while refusing
to sacrifice anything himself. Conclusion:
The man is considered selfish because he is only concerned with
protecting his free lifestyle, pressures Jig into having the operation,
and completely ignores her emotions and future. Manipulation:
1. Minimizing the issue to control Jig’s perception (Minimization)
“It’s really an awfully simple operation, Jig… It’s not really an operation at all.”
The man deliberately downplays the seriousness of the abortion by
calling it “simple” and even “not really an operation.”
→ This is perceptual manipulation: reducing Jig’s fear so she is
more likely to accept the decision he wants.
2. Creating an illusion of choice while still applying pressure (Illusion of choice)
“If you don’t want to you don’t have to. I wouldn’t have you do it if you didn’t want to.”
Although this sounds respectful of Jig’s autonomy:
● He repeatedly restates his pro-operation argument
● He never seriously discusses the alternative option
→ Jig is given “choice” in words, but is psychologically pressured in reality.
3. Repeating arguments to wear down resistance (Repetition pressure)
“It’s the only thing that bothers us.”
“That’s the only thing that’s made us unhappy.”
By insisting that the child is the sole problem, he:
● Shifts blame onto the pregnancy
● Makes Jig feel that refusing the operation would make her responsible for their unhappiness 11
→ This is manipulation through indirect blame.
4. Using fear of losing love as leverage (Emotional leverage)
“We’ll be fine afterward. Just like we were before.”
He implicitly sends the message that:
● If Jig has the operation → the relationship will survive
● If she does not → the relationship may fall apart
→ He conditions love on compliance, forcing Jig toward his preferred choice.
5. Avoiding emotional responsibility and shifting the burden onto Jig (Emotional avoidance)
“I don’t want you to do it if you feel that way.”
Although this sounds sympathetic:
● He never asks how Jig actually feels
● He does not share responsibility or express his own emotions
→ Jig is pushed into being the sole bearer of emotional pain.
6. Ignoring Jig’s emotional plea
“Would you please please please please please please please stop talking?”
This moment shows Jig’s emotional breakdown, yet:
● The man does not change his position
● He does not pause to truly listen
→ This is manipulation through emotional domination and disregard.
7. Centering the argument on his own interests
“We can have everything.” “Everything” refers to: ● Travel ● Alcohol ● Personal freedom
→ He defines happiness according to his own values, forcing Jig to adapt to them. 12 Conclusion:
The man manipulates Jig by minimizing the operation, creating an
illusion of choice, repeating his arguments to apply pressure, and
emotionally conditioning her to believe that their relationship depends on her compliance.
+ Freedom and Constraint: Choice
The story also explores the tension between freedom and responsibility,
particularly through the language of choice.
The American man associates freedom with mobility, pleasure, and the absence of obligations. He says:
“That’s the only thing that bothers us. It’s the only thing that’s made us unhappy.”
By framing the pregnancy as the sole problem, he reduces a complex emotional
and moral situation to a single obstacle blocking their happiness.
Although he repeatedly claims that Jig is free to decide - “I don’t want you to
do it if you don’t want to” - his language presents only one acceptable
outcome. The freedom he offers is therefore an illusion of choice.
Jig, however, senses that the decision involves irreversible loss. This awareness appears when she says:
“Once they take it away, you never get it back.”
She never names what “it” is, but the implication is clear: the loss is permanent.
It may refer to the child, to innocence, or to a future version of herself. Interpretive focus:
The man claims to value Jig’s freedom, yet the version of freedom he promotes
can only exist if Jig accepts emotional, physical, and moral sacrifice.
Freedom, in this story, is unevenly distributed.
c) Symbolic space – a “map” of choices and morality.
Another deep layer is found in the symbolic use of space. Hemingway
describes very little: a few hills, a valley, a station, a train. But each detail
carries a strong symbolic weight.
- First, the “hills like white elephants.” 13
● The “hills,” round and bulging, suggest the shape of a pregnant belly.
● In Western culture, a “white elephant” is something rare and
precious but also a heavy, costly burden that is hard to get rid of.
→ The unborn baby thus has two sides:
➢ For Jig: potentially a gift of love, a source of happiness.
➢ For the man: a typical “white elephant” – a burden that
would ruin his free, traveling lifestyle.
● Her exchange – “I’ve never seen one” / “No, you wouldn’t have” –
can be read as a quiet accusation: “You are not the kind of man
who would ever want such a burden.”
- Second, the two sides of the Ebro Valley:
+ On one side: brown, dry, barren land, with no trees.
+ On the other side: green fields and a river, fertile and full of life.
+ The couple sit at the station in between these two landscapes.
➔ This is not just scenery; it is a direct metaphor for two possible life paths:
● The barren side: having the abortion and continuing the empty
cycle of “drinking – traveling – trying new drinks,” without roots and responsibilities.
● The fertile side: keeping the baby, facing responsibility, and
possibly building a family – though this is also full of risk.
=> The setting becomes a kind of moral map: each direction outside the
window represents a different life choice.
- Third, the station, the train, and the luggage:
+ The station is a temporary stop, not a home and not a final
destination → their relationship is also temporary, “in transit,” without a clear future.
+ The luggage covered with hotel labels shows a lifestyle of
wandering from place to place, one night here, one night there,
which is characteristic of part of the Lost Generation.
+ The approaching train and the countdown of time – “the train
comes in forty minutes,” then less – create the feeling that:
● They cannot postpone the decision forever.
● Time, history, and life itself are pushing them to choose,
just as the train will not wait.
- Fourth, alcohol – a false escape and emotional numbness:
Hemingway does not let the characters drink constantly by accident: beer, Anis
del Toro, more drinks… Alcohol in the story is also a subtle symbol. 14 + On the surface:
● They order drinks to kill time and to “try new drinks” just for fun.
● They talk about how the drinks taste: “It tastes like licorice,”
“Everything tastes of licorice”… + On a deeper level:
● Escaping reality – replacing real talk with drinking:
Instead of directly addressing the question “What should we do about the baby?”, they: ○ Drink,
○ Talk about the taste of the alcohol, ○ Joke about Anis del Toro,
○ Switch the topic to the landscape.
→ Alcohol becomes an excuse not to face the real problem.
● Expressing the lifestyle of the “Lost Generation”:
○ Jig’s line, “That’s all we do, isn’t it? Look at things and try new drinks,”
is not only a complaint about the man, but also a critique of their shared lifestyle:
they just look at surfaces, try new drinks, live without depth or commitment.
○ This is also a spiritual portrait of the postwar generation:
people who use alcohol and pleasure to cover up a sense of meaninglessness.
● The paradox of drinking while pregnant:
○ The fact that Jig drinks beer and liquor while pregnant (even if
people at that time did not fully understand the medical risks) suggests that:
■ Either she is ignorant,
■ Or she is deliberately ignoring reality, acting as if there
were no baby, trying to keep everything as before.
○ This contradiction highlights her in-between state – she cannot
fully accept the pregnancy, but she also cannot calmly erase it. She
is unable to face responsibility directly.
- Fifth, the bamboo bead curtain – a thin boundary you can see through but still separates:
In the English text, this detail appears as a “bead curtain” hanging in the bar,
with the words “Anis del Toro” painted on the beads. Many Vietnamese
translations call it a bamboo curtain. On the surface: 15
+ It is simply a piece of setting: a bead curtain separating the inside from
the outside, with an advertisement for Anis del Toro on it.
+ The waitress goes in and out, lifting the curtain, making it rattle.
At a deeper level, we can read it in three ways:
+ A thin boundary – transparent but still a barrier:
○ The bead curtain does not block like a wall; you can still see and
hear through it, but it is nonetheless a line of separation.
○ This mirrors their relationship:
■ They sit facing each other, talking, physically very close.
■ But there is still an “invisible curtain” between them – they
do not truly share their deepest feelings, and they cannot
really reach each other emotionally.
→ The bead curtain becomes an image of a soft barrier: it does not fully
block, but it prevents them from ever completely “touching” each other.
+ Inside vs. outside – escape vs. reality:
○ Inside the bar: shade, alcohol, the bartender, a “neutral” and seemingly safe space.
○ Outside: the harsh sunlight, the valley, the hills, the railway tracks
– the world of reality, choice, and the approaching train.
○ The curtain marks the threshold between these two worlds:
■ Inside: escape, delay, intoxication.
■ Outside: reality, decision, action.
→ When they pass through the curtain, they move from avoidance
towards confrontation with what must be decided.
+ Alcohol invading the entire living space:
○ The fact that the words “Anis del Toro” are painted right on the
curtain – the thing that divides inside and outside – suggests that:
■ Alcohol is not only in their glasses; it covers their whole environment.
■ Even the boundary between two worlds is “branded” by a drink.
→ Here alcohol is both the background of their life and a symbol of the
consumer–pleasure culture in which they are trapped.
d) The open ending – the “lost” mentality of the age.
- After all the discussion, the man carries the bags across the tracks, returns, and Jig says: 16
“I feel fine. There’s nothing wrong with me. I feel fine.”
- On the surface, it looks like a simple reassurance. But if we consider the
whole atmosphere of the story, this line likely functions as a defensive
mask, a way of hiding her internal fracture.
- More importantly, Hemingway never tells us:
+ Whether she goes through with the abortion.
+ Whether they remain together.
+ What their future will look like.
- In terms of the spirit of the age, it reflects the mindset of the Lost Generation:
+ There are no longer solid certainties from the past.
+ There is no simple “right” or “wrong” path.
+ People are forced to choose in a state of uncertainty, and must live with the consequences.
=> By omitting the entire “resolution” of the plot, Hemingway lets the
iceberg continue under the reader’s consciousness. Each reader, after
finishing the story, naturally asks: If I were Jig, what would I do? If I were the
man, what would I choose? At that moment, the hidden part of the story is still working inside us.
4. Lessons Drawn from “Hills Like White Elephants”
From “Hills Like White Elephants”, we can draw the lessons:
- Empathy over persuasion: Trying to “win” a decision harms trust; care
requires patience, emotional validation, and shared accountability.
- Honest communication matters: Avoiding direct words and hiding
behind euphemisms can deepen misunderstanding and emotional distance.
- Love is not pressure disguised as care: Real respect means giving
someone space to choose without guilt, manipulation, or emotional bargaining.
- Big choices have permanent consequences—choose based on
long-term values, not short-term comfort: When facing major
decisions (relationships, family, career), pause and consider what you
truly want in the long run, not just what feels easiest right now. 17
Document Outline

• 2. Jig’s Emotional Insecurity and Fear of Conditional Love
• 5. The American Man as Rational and Emotionally Detached
• 7. The American Man’s Use of Language to Avoid Responsibility
• 8. The American Man’s Desire for an Unchanged Lifestyle
• 1. He prioritizes his own desires over Jig’s emotions
• 2. He pretends to give Jig a choice but actually pressures her
• 3. He treats the child as an obstacle to his lifestyle
• 4. He ignores Jig’s inner emotional struggle
• 5. He is unwilling to change himself
• Conclusion:
• Manipulation:
• 1. Minimizing the issue to control Jig’s perception (Minimization)
• 2. Creating an illusion of choice while still applying pressure (Illusion of choice)
• 3. Repeating arguments to wear down resistance (Repetition pressure)
• 4. Using fear of losing love as leverage (Emotional leverage)
• 5. Avoiding emotional responsibility and shifting the burden onto Jig (Emotional avoidance)
• 6. Ignoring Jig’s emotional plea
• 7. Centering the argument on his own interests
• Conclusion: