Ashley Fisher - Week 10 Example

In her essay "Hills Like White Elephants": The Jilting of Jig," Nilofer Hashmi close reads the short story "Hills Like White Elephants" by Ernest Hemingway while discussing the various possibilities of what may have happened past the last page of the written story. He predicts what ensued between the couple by employing details, symbolism, and the title to support his argument. Hashmi addresses the many ideas concerning the future of the troubled couple of the story. However, he settles on the argument that in the end the girl, Jig, will decide to have the abortion, expecting that this is the way she can stay with the American, yet the American will leave her after she has the operation.

The details within the story that the author utilizes to support this argument include the specifics that the girl smiles at the American when he says he must move the bags, urges him to hurry back so they can finish their drink together, and smiles again when he returns from placing their bags. Hashmi argues that these details all point towards the idea that the girl indeed wants to remain with the American.

Next, Hashmi interprets the title of the story to mean that the American will leave Jig after she has the abortion because their relationship will be filled with painful memories and he will no longer have any obligation to her. Hashmi argues that the hills in the title represent Jig’s dream of family relationships, and the American’s unwillingness to endorse it symbolizes the killing of the dream. And it is not just the dream that the American longs to push away, but also the girl herself. The careless fun they used to have has been drained from their relationship, so the American has no reason to return to it, since all he wanted was fun from the start.

Throughout his journal Hashmi constructs a well-supported argument, and I agree with his reasoning. The girl in this story is confused, even when she says that the hills look like white elephants she later changes her mind and says that “they don’t really look like white elephants” (224). This shows how easily she can be persuaded, and that she acts to please the American, which implies that she will end up getting the abortion like he wants her too. Also, in the end of the story the American sits at the bar to take a drink with others who were “all waiting reasonably for the train” (227). He chooses sitting with people who wait reasonably – unlike Jig – with no apparent worry in the world, which is how he wishes to continue living his life. As Hashmi said, the story of this couple will conclude with the girl getting the abortion to please the American, only to have him leave her once the deed is done.