Hills Like White Elephants

Earnest Hemingway’s “Hills Like White Elephants” starts off with a hyper-observed scene. The geography of the setting is precise. The narrator is even aware of the exact train schedule:

“It was very hot and the express from Barcelona would come in forty minutes. It stopped at this junction for two minutes and went to Madrid.”

The descriptions of the actions, when acknowledged, do not cut corners and completely commit to that action.

“The woman brought two glasses of beer and two felt pads. She put the felt pads and the beer glass on the table and looked at the man and the girl.”

Hemingway did not settle for telling us that the beers were served, or that the woman brought them, but goes all the way to the little felt coaster pads and has the woman looking at the couple. However, we don’t see her leave again, and later on the dialogue speaks alone. When that happens, the passage of time and actions are assumed, and we are now not sure of the forty minutes as we were before.

We are made to feel even more unsure as we continue to eavesdrop on the couple’s conversation. We are obviously missing something, and not just having them tell us what the operation is. Like Howard’s diary in “On Beauty”, this couple has their ‘in’ jokes that aren’t really jokes but annoyances and catchphrases, like when the girl remarks that, “Everything tastes of liquorice. Especially all the things you’ve waited so long for, like absinthe” or that “That’s all we do, isn’t it – look at things and try new drinks?”

I read this story a few times this weekend, and I believe that this is necessary. On the first reading, I admired the style, but didn’t really have a clue as to what just happened. It took repeated readings to start seeing the subtext or where the plainly written dialogue was sarcastic, for instance, because Hemingway gives no clues. On first reading, I took these lines at face value, not questioning whether the procedure really did leave people all that happy:

‘I know we will. You don’t have to be afraid. I’ve known lots of people that have done it.’

‘So have I,’ said the girl. ‘And afterwards they were all so happy.’

When the man tells the girl that he knows it is simple, and she rather witheringly comes back with “Yes, you know it’s perfectly simple”, we are listening to a tense couple that knows and can attack every little word the other utters. Not so perfectly simple.

In my opinion, this is a very good depiction of a stressed out, conflicted woman. The itchy, creepy, annoyed, gnawing feeling you get when someone you love is bugging you, not loving you enough and at the same time too much, is as palpable as the heat.