Simple Hem

"Hills Like White Elephants" is simply typical Hemingway. The rhythm, the diction, the tone, the drinking in the hot, hot sun--it's all so perfectly Hem. Even Hemingway himself knows this. The girl says "'I wanted to try this new drink. That’s all we do, isn’t it – look at things and try new drinks?'" Yes, that is all one does in a Hem story.

That being said, this story, like any other Hem story is low and informal. His sentences are abrupt and detached, and his dialogue is simple. Not every writer can pull off this style in short stories, though, I think. Hemingway somehow manages to sew his own voice into this simplistic style and can get away with it.

The majority of this story is told in dialogue. The few lines that are descriptive of the surroundings are very straight forward: "The girl looked at the bead curtain, put her hand out and took hold of two of the strings of beads." Hemingway doesn't bother with flowery, decorative language to describe; instead, he relies on the reader's imagination and the actual objects and surroundings he describes to speak for themselves. "The warm wind blew the bead curtain against the table." This one simple sentence creates an entire setting. Each word serves a purpose and adds to the sentence--Hem does not throw around his words lightly.

Perhaps this is why Hemingway is so successful as a writer with such a terse style--he uses his few words well. They are specifically functional and always add something to the story. Other writers may write simplistically, but perhaps they are not as efficient with their words. Lets look a slightly longer description:

The hills across the valley of the Ebro were long and white. On this side there was no shade and no trees and the station was between two lines of rails in the sun. Close against the side of the station there was the warm shadow of the building and a curtain, made of strings of bamboo beads, hung across the open door into the bar, to keep out flies.

The first sentence "The hills...were long and white," is a pretty basic sentence (there is a subject "hills," prepostional phrase 1 "across the valley" followed by prepositional phrase 2 "of the Ebro," verb "were," and adverbial subject complements "long and white") and in its simplicity, it singlehandedly creates the story's setting. In the next couple of sentences, Hemingway builds on this first sentence and cuts a small, square picture to set his characters in. "There was no shade and no trees"--it was warm and bright, and he adds in the one side note about the "curtain, made of strings of bamboo beads, hung across the open door" because he will utilize it later on (when Jig wants to try to the drink it advertises.) Even though this curtain will later serve a purpose, he gives an immediate purpose: "to keep out flies."


Here's another Hemingway snippet:
"He did not say anything but looked at the bags against the wall of the station. There were labels on them from all the hotels where they had spent nights."

And this is this same snippet written in a higher, wordier style:

"The American said nothing in response to her, but looked down toward the suitcases he had laid against the stone wall of the station. Labels from all the hotels they had previously stayed at in the last year were glued onto the sides, irrevocable stamps marking their past."