For the weekend:
Please read the paper copy I gave you in class of “Hills Like White Elephants” by Ernest Hemingway. What on earth are they talking about? How does it make you feel? Leave a brief comment discussing the process of discovery you went through reading this piece.
Writing Assignment 3.a
Like I said in class:
I want you to eavesdrop/overhear/try to remember a conversation and dictate it to me. Just use a standard format like so:
Person A: I am talking to person B
Person B: Yes, you are. And we are having a lovely time of it.
Give them better names than that. Think “Pumpkin” and “Honey Bunny.” Just a page is fine. We’re going to be using these in class and you will be asked to share them so keep that in mind.
And finally, here are some of the clips we watched in class featuring great dialogue/monologue, and a few we didn’t get to.
husbands and wives first scene
hannah and her sisters
crimes and misdemeanors
the last temptation of christ
out of sight trunk scene
pulp fiction diner scene
synechdoche, new york
fiction 210 with Molly 
I think that there are many ways to write a short story with a lot of Dialogue in it. I think the stories with alot of dialogue in it are really interesting and i am excted to write one.
I thought the story by Ernest was different.. but interesting and really shows how dialogue makes the story more interesting. It gives a lot more room for your mind to picture characters and settings.
I think that the surgery and the white elephant hills are somehow connected on some symbolic level. When I read the story I interpreted the hills to be a sort of looming conflict in the character’s near future, and the logical conflict seems to be the procedure that the main character is trying to convince his girlfriend to go through with.
When it comes to dialogue, Hemingway does an excellent job at establishing a sort of awkward relationship between the two characters. They don’t really seem to be having a conversation with each other, or at least they aren’t listening to each other very well, which is an efficient way of showing the reader, through dialogue, that their relationship isn’t as great as it could be.
I enjoyed reading “Hills Like White Elephants”. It was interesting to see how Hemmingway was able to tell an entire story with only dialogue. At times it took a few seconds to realize that in one line they went from drinks being brought to them to setting the empty glass down on the table. But I liked how the reader is able to connect unsaid actions in a story without stage direction. I think it would be a bit difficult for me to do, but not impossible.
Now, relating to the story, it was obvious that the couple were discussing some sort of the procedure. At times I thought they were having it done together, but then realized that ‘she’ was going through it alone to ‘fix’ their relationship. The white elephant hills, to me, represented their relationship. Upon first mention of the landmarks the man mentions that he hadn’t seen white elephants before. The woman, regardless of what the man says, has it made up in her mind that it was impossible for him to have ever seen white elephants. She seems to like to take control without input from the man. This theme is carried throughout during their conversations about their relationship, the man tries to tell her that he loves her now, even without the ‘procedure’ but she refuses to listen and insists that she needs it to fix their relationship.
I thought it was really fun how these authors could write a whole story using just dialogue. I think that it is going to be a challenge for me to do but i’m excited to see how mine turns out. I feel as if dialogue shows more to the reader about the characters personalities and relationships they have with the others they are talking with.
Now on to the story part….
I was very confused at first who was going through the procedure and for what reason. The more I read the more I started to understand what was going on and that it was just her going through the procedure. I liked how it was a challenge to figure out who was doing what actions.
This story got me excited AND nervous to write a story based only off of dialogue. The story was impressive, and not only made you think but it made you want to read more. I like reading dialogues because it gives the reader more of a chance to develop a picture of what the characters look like. I’m excited to start writing my dialogue and nervous at the same time!
I really liked this story. Granted, it did seem to go around in circles a little, though I realize it was meant to. I find dialogue-heavy stories really interesting, especially when it’s so artfully done, because I find myself really picturing what the characters look like and what their mannerisms could be. I struggle a bit with dialogue, personally, so I would like to get better at it. This story made me feel a bit confused and a little stressed because my mind went off on some really weird tangents, interpreting what they could be talking about. But I enjoyed it nonetheless.
I liked how i could start to pick up on hte relationship between the two characters within the first page. It was quick into the story and didn’t stop focus the whole time. At first i thought they were talking about one of the cheating on the other. Then i checked it out on the google machine and read htat it was about an abortion. After reading it a second time through it made a lot more sense. O enjoyed much more the second time reading through and picking apart the dialogue.
This was a very interestingly written story. In the beginning it was kind of confusing to understand what was going on and didn’t really keep my attention. Towards the middle you can begin to realize the two are in a relationship and that something bad was going to happen. It was cool that the story was completely dialogue but it was repetitive and confusing when it came to following the story. I liked when they were talking about having everything, the mountains, the fields, everything. It was interesting how all we knew for demographics was somewhere that people speak spanish and all they do is drink beer. I didn’t like this piece too much but it was nice to be introduced to a different way of writing.
This was a very interesting story. The fact that it was mostly dialogue was something I liked and didn’t like. I liked it because it let my mind form my own ideas about the characters and what they looked like, their mannerisms, etc. It let my mind go out on tangents visualizing the setting and trying to figure out what the procedure they were talking about was. I didn’t like that I had to figure it out because I couldn’t. I had to look it up. Having it entirely in dialogue made it kind of hard for me to follow, especially with the time lapse.
I thought this story was really, really odd and didn’t make a whole lot of sense. I did like the dialogue and how most of the story was made up of dialogue and not much else. It did leave me a bit confused, because you don’t know what it is they’re doing, or planning to do.
I really like “Hills Like White Elephants”. The dialog in the story was confusing for me to understand at first, but I read it for a second time and liked it a lot better and I started to create ideas and see the story evolving. I am nervous to write a dialog story but also excited. I think that I am going to have to think outside the box to create a story.
“Hills Like White Elephants” was confusing the first time i read it. I had no clue what type of surgery she was going to get and why was it such a big deal. So i after i thought about it i decided to google it. There i found an anlaysis that said it was about abortion, and than it made sence. I spaced that i had to comment on the story till class today. I also went over the story again and it seemed so much more melancholy than before. The scenes were more dark and dreadful. Knowing that the “secrect” procedure was actually an abortion really brought the story to life and an analysis of the story was 100% different.
Knowing that the specific surgery the two characters are discussing in Hills Like White Elephants helps the reader appreciate the story more. The story has a very realistic feel to it. These people talk vaguely and try not to mention the surgery specifically most likely out of fear. They even have little arguments within the entire discussion. Many of the times the characters contradict themselves. They are drinking. So much of the setting and dialogue makes the story feel realistic. It’s almost like the reader is sitting at another table listening to this conversation.
The Hills Like White Elephants seemed a little bit misleading at first, but it becomes evident and clear that she is going to have an abortion. I feel as though having a knowledge of this proceedure and reading it over again, I have accumulated more of a respect for the situation more so than I did when first reading this story. I also feel a more personal connection with the story due to the fact that I have had quite a few friends in the same position; some of them followed through with it and others did not.
According to legend, before Siddhartha Gautama (Buddha) was born, his mother had a dream about a white elephant. This legend, combined with the rarity of white elephants, has made white elephants sacred in some parts of Asia. Receiving a white elephant from an emperor is extremely prestigious, but taking care of an elephant is very costly. The “blessing” has a severe price.
In the story, the couple is “blessed” with pregnancy, but this “blessing” may cost the couple their relationship. They feel they may need to get rid of their white elephant.
Random ponderings:
I wonder if Hemingway thought of the male as the West and the girl as the East. The girl claims she is willing to get the abortion because she does not care about herself, she cares about the relationship; the group. Many Eastern cultures are collectivist, the group is valued over the individual.
The man is both open and boorish at the same time with his lover. He is open to her needs concerning the abortion, but he seems oblivious to her needs when she wants to stop talking about it. This reminds me of the relationship between Rice Christians and missionaries. A Rice Christian is a person who converts to Christianity in order to receive food, or other goods, from a missionary. The missionary is giving, but he is also insistent.
“It’s really not anything. It’s just to let the air in..” Nice way of putting it. I was amazed how much I learned about these people and their predicament in a couple pages of dialogue; especially considering they never explicitly say anything about abortion. Who would? It’s realistic because most people would dance around a conversation like this just like this couple did. I can’t figure out what the elephants allude to exactly, but I think it has something to do with what she talks about toward the end – when she says the world isn’t theirs anymore – as if after this procedure she won’t be able to imagine silly things like white elephant hills, and make cute remarks to make him laugh. The fun’s over, one way or another.
The girl seems torn about the abortion, not wanting to give up her current life with her boyfriend just to have this baby. They seem to party a lot together. She is even drinking as they are waiting for the train. She doesn’t think much of herself. She wants to give up her baby because she doesn’t want to disappoint her boyfriend, if she has the baby they won’t get along anymore. A part of her also does want the baby, but it doesn’t seem likely she’ll keep it.
I had no idea what the procedure was until I did google it. There was obviously something very important and life changing about to happen but wouldn’t have guessed an abortion. I’m not so great with metaphors. I read that the white elephants represented purity of the girl and the station between two lines of rails represented two different paths. Never would have guessed that. Ha.