Hills Like White Elephants

"Hills Like White Elephants" by Earnest Hemingway In his summary of "Hills Like White Elephants" by Earnest Hemingway, Paul Rankin comes to a few conclusions about the a young girl in the story. Using both Carl Jung and Karen Horney’s application of human behavior to buttress his opinion, Rankin comes to the conclusion that Jig was the superior actor and the unnamed American is the inferior actor in the play. The evidence Rankin uses to prove Jung’s theory is that the nature of the mans feelings of inadequacy and inferiority in the face of Jigs imminent transformation from the girl into motherhood (Rankin 234). And his conclusions using Horney’s school of thought is mans fundamental lack of a life-creating power with which woman is imbued, has motivated the creation of such historically masculine enterprises as state, religion, art, and science, in mans attempt to compensate for that insurmountable deficiencies .a (Rankin 235) There is further evidence that Rankin’s take on the American in White Elephants is one of an inferior player by using the banter between Jig and the unnamed American male to show she was in control, We encounter further evidence of the mans inferiority complex in his severe response to Jigs playful banter about the similarity between hills and elephants. Having already admitted that he has never seen white elephants, the man angrily berates Jig, saying, Just because you say I wouldn’t have doesn’t prove anything (Rankin 236). Paul Rankin’s over all view of "Hills Like White Elephants" is that the unnamed American male is a marginalized figure and Jig is the many player and fully in control of the entire situation. He also did not see the White Elephants as a metaphor for the unborn child but as a way for the girl to have greater control over the unnamed American male.

As I read "Hills Like White Elephants", my take on the story was that of two people that might have fallen in love or at least had a little tryst and as a result, the young girl in the story, Jig, got pregnant. To me there was a lot of symbolism in this story, not the least of which was the White Elephants which for me represented the blessings of a yet unborn child. Also, the symbol of the train tracks which perhaps might have represented choice or a road yet traveled. In any case, my take on Hemmingway’s work was more about the dilemma faced by two people laboring to answer the question about having an abortion or not to having an abortion.

I would take a few exceptions to Mr. Rankin’s conclusions about "Hills Like White Elephants". Certainly in no order of importance, the first issue for me is Mr. Rankin’s assertion that a closer look at what Janet Burroway refers to as the pattern of shifting power (Rankin 235), in this statement Rankin is suggesting that aJiga is the one who is in control and that the boorish American inamorato is just a side note, not really having anything to contribute to the conversation or the situation. I would disagree and say that the tone I took away from the series of parries was more along the lines of two confused younger people facing the unpleasantries of deciding to end or not end the life of an unborn child. The second issue that I would disagree with is that of Jung’s valuation of the mother for whose sake everything that embraces, protects, nourishes, and helps assumes maternal forma and mans feelings of inadequacy and inferiority in the face of Jigs imminent transformation from the girl into motherhood (Rankin 234). I think that these statements