From “How To Read And Why”
by Harold Bloom
Frank O’Connor, who disliked Hemingway as intensely as he liked Chekhov, remarks in The Lonely Voice that Hemingway’s stories “illustrate a technique in search of a subject,†and therefore become “a minor art.†Let us see. Read the famous sketch called “Hills Like White Elephants,†five pages that are almost all dialogue, between the young man and her lover, while they wait for a train at a station in a provincial Spanish town. They are continuing a disagreement as to the abortion he wishes for her to undergo when they reach Madrid. The story captures the moment of her defeat, and very likely the death of their relationship. And that is all. The dialogue makes clear that the woman is vital and decent, while the man is a sensible emptiness, selfish and unloving. The reader is wholly with her when she responds to his “I’d do anything for you†with “Would you please please please please please please please stop talking.†Seven pleases are a lot, but as repetition they are precise and persuasive in “Hills Like White Elephantsâ€. The story is beautifully prefigured in that simile of a title. Long and white, the hills across the valley of Ebro “look like white elephants†to the woman, not to the man. White elephants, proverbial Siamese royal gifts to courtiers who would be ruined by the expense of their upkeep, become a larger metaphor for unwanted babies, and even more for erotic relationships too spiritually costly when a man is inadequate.
From the book’s preface:
There is no single way to read well, though there is a prime reason why we should read. Information is endlessly available to us; where shall wisdom be found? If you’re fortunate, you encounter a particular teacher who can help, yet finally you’re alone, going on without further meditation. Reading well is one of the great pleasures that solitude can afford you, because it is, at least in my experience, the most healing of pleasures. It returns you to otherness, whether in yourself or in your friends, or in those who may become friends. Imaginative literature is otherness, and as such alleviates loneliness. We read not only because we cannot know enough people, but because friendship is so vulnerable, so likely to diminish or disappear, overcome by space, time, imperfect sympathies, and all the sorrows of familial and passional life.
Hmmm. More than enough to chew on there.
I love Bloom’s thoughts on Otherness.
Still, how odd the companionship won through a ghostly handshake with words, which Chuang tzu characterized as mere footprints, of dead men. (Of course he was referring to the classics.) Anyway, Hemingway is dead now. So there you have it.
Thanks for the clarification.
And she was a beauty.
Comment by pokaku — December 27, 2005 @ 2:11 pm
And there YOU have it. The reason for the post, the last sentence, which is a prelude to Adam’s recent hard work – the upcoming addition to Mainecourse.com/places.
Comment by michael — December 27, 2005 @ 3:51 pm
I’d hazard that the phrase “the elephant in the corner” applies as well (though I can’t say if it was coined after Ernest’s time and therefore could not have been intended by him). Abortion is never mentioned, and while it seems an irrefutable inference, the oblique way the characters mince about the topic arguably gives readers (at least of this era) yet another entendre to the title.
I must confess I’m ignorant of his work, but it seems funny to me that famously blunt “Papa” would set forth such a euphemism-ridden cowardly exchange …
Comment by el Kib — December 28, 2005 @ 9:04 am
This is a great analysis – I’ve attached a link that expands on the topic and is contributed by tons of folks. There are links to an in-depth Community College of Virginia round up of several student reports:
A Literary Analysis for Hills Like White Elephants:
http://www.gummyprint.com/blog/archives/hills-like-white-elephants-literary-analysis/
Comment by Lateefx — October 12, 2007 @ 12:58 am
Thanks for stopping by and contributing that link. I confess I often think about Hills and its subtle imagery in this day of authors who need to beat one about the brow to get their points across.
Adam, you might be interested to note this quote from the top of the link left by Lateefx “The short story “Hills Like White Elephants,†by Ernest Hemmingway, is about a young couple and the polemic issue of abortion. Though the word “abortion†is nowhere in the story, it is doubtlessly understood through Hemmingway’s powerful use of two literary elements: setting and symbolism.”
Comment by michael — October 12, 2007 @ 7:49 am