hills like white elephants2

8/7/2019 HILLS LIKE WHITE ELEPHANTS2

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KEVIN THEYVANBOO

MOHD. HAFIZZUDDIN IQBAL B. AZMAN

HILLS LIKE WHITE ELEPHANTS

By Ernest Hemingway


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y On a hot day at a train station in Zaragoza, Spain, a man and

woman sit at a table on the shady side of the building while they

prepare to order drinks.

y A set of tracks runs on each side of the station. The train for

Madrid will arrive from Barcelona in forty minutes on the sunny

side of the building.

yIn front of them, the land is dry. There are no trees. Distant hillsappear white in the sun, and the woman says they look like white

elephants.

y Their conversation reveals that the woman, Jig, and the man,

identified only as an American, are at odds over her pregnancy.She wants the child and hints that she would like to settle down.

He wants her to abort the child, saying the procedure is awfully

simple and not really anything. Afterward, he says, life for

them can continue as before.


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y They go back and forth on the question of the child. Jigfinally says, perhaps with a taint of sarcasm, that she willhave the procedure because I dont care about me. The

man says he does not want her to have it if you feel thatway.

y Jig gets up and walks to the end of the building. There, shelooks around to the land on the other side. She sees trees,

grain fields, and the Ebro River, then says, And we couldhave all this. When the man tells her that they can havewhatever they wantWe can have the whole worldJigsays, It isnt ours any more . . . And once they take itaway, you never get it back.

y A woman brings them two more beers and alerts them thattheir train will arrive in five minutes. The man then carriestheir two suitcases, each displaying labels from all thehotels at which they lodged, to the other side of the station.When he returns, he asks how she feels. She replies,Theres nothing wrong with me. I feel fine..


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FEMINISM

y Feminism refers to an assortment of social

movements that try to define, establish and defend

political, economic, and social equality for women, to

ensure that women have equal opportunities and

rights within society.

y Themes explored in feminist theory includes:

discrimination, stereotyping, objectification (especially

sexual objectification), oppression, and patriarchy.


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y This story was written in the late 1920s

where at this time people were

conservative

yAt this time, women are seen as inferior

to man where it was the patriarchal

society which was dominanty Women are not given the chance to

voice out their thoughts, emotions and

opinions


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y The main character in this story, Jig, loves toenjoy her life, What should we drink?, Therewere labels on them from all the hotels wherethey had spend nights.

y This statement shows that Jig is a girl who enjoyslife without worrying about how her life would bein the future.

y

Out of the enjoyment that she had all this while, itresulted in her becoming pregnant.

y They are planning for an abortion, its to let theair in.

y The man wants the girl to have abortion, its

really an awful simple operation where the girl isdefensive of her decision. This shows that theprivacy of the girl is not respected.


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y The man in the story forces the girl to abort the childso that they can live as usual, Well be fineafterwards. Just like we were before.

y Jig chooses to shut out her feelings and simply gothrough with the abortion, I feel fine.theres nothingwrong with me. I feel fine.

y Jig realizes that life has a different perspective where

becoming pregnant opened her eyes, changed herview on life.

y The Hills Like The White Elephant symbolizes twothings:

(a) The birth of her baby with full of innocence and

purity.(b) The financial burden to maintain


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y Reader-Response criticism is not a subjective, impressionistic

free-for-all, nor a legitimizing of all half-baked, arbitrary,personal comments on literary works. Instead, it is a school

of criticism which emerged in the 1970s, focused on finding

meaning in the act of reading itself and examining the ways

individual readers or communities of readers experience

texts. These critics raise theoretical questions regarding howthe reader joins with the author "to help the text mean."

They determine what kind of reader or what community of

readers the work implies and helps to create. They also may

examine the significance of the series of interpretations the

reader undergoes in the reading process.

http://www.wsu.edu/~delahoyd/reader.crit.html

Washington State University: Michael Delahoyde


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Phrase of interest

y its really an awfully simple operation , it`s not

really an operation at all, it`s just to let the air in.

(page 36)

ythere were labels on them from all the hotels wherethey had spent nights.

(page 38)


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Reader response Jig, the girl in the in the story are considering

the possibilities of abortion.

Jig after knowing that she pregnant wanted to

keep the baby.

The conservative society deem being a single

mother is a taboo she had no choice other

than follow what the man persuading her to

do, abortion.

In our modern society although some will leer

and jeer at you but most will respect the

decision to keep the baby.


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y We could relate this to our society now that theythink abortion is OK in the sense that it could

help solve certain problems.y Out of abortion, there comes BABY DUMPING

which have become the talk of the town recently.

y This phenomenon is caused by people who enjoylife like the character in the story, Jig where theyare not really concern about her future.

y Out of wedlock, they get pregnant and they abortit. There are certain times that they give birth anddump it everywhere like rubbish.

y Just like Jig in the story, she decided to keep thebaby but when persuaded by the man, shedecides to carry on with the abortion.


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Islamic perspective

y Premarital intercourse is commended as HARAM.

y In the holy verse of Quran it is said to never come close

to it.

yPunishments protects the lives of innocent unborn.

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