Ақ Түйелердей Төбелер: Эрнест Хемингуэй әңгімесі

Short story by Ernest Hemingway
"Hills Like White Elephants" is a short story by Ernest Hemingway. It was first published in August 1927, in the literary magazine transition, then later in the 1927 short story collection Men Without Women. Later the story was adapted for film in 2002. "Hills Like White Elephants" is a short 38 minute film; British actor Greg Wise played The American.

The story focuses mainly on a conversation between an American man and a young woman, described as a "girl," at a Spanish train station while waiting for a train to Madrid. The girl compares the nearby hills to white elephants. The pair indirectly discuss an "operation" that the man wants the girl to have, which is implied to be an abortion, that was taboo to talk about.

While there is little context or background information about the characters, several scholars have analyzed how the setting influences the story. The expatriate atmosphere is "a motivating factor in character action," writes Jeffrey Herlihy in In Paris or Paname: Hemingway’s Expatriate Nationalism. Setting the piece in Spain "dramatizes the peripatetic subject" and allows the man to discuss abortion outside the "restraints from the behavioral prescriptions of his place of origin." This use of a foreign setting makes Spain not merely a background but "a catalyst of textual irony" in the story. Readers must come to their own conclusions based on the dialogue. This has led to varying interpretations of the story. One point of debate is whether or not the woman decides to get an abortion. Critics like Stanley Renner assert that the details in the story imply that the woman decides to keep the baby: "The logic of the story's design enjoins the conclusion that she smiles brightly at the waitress's announcement of the train because she is no longer headed in the direction of having the abortion that she has contemplated only with intense distress". Other critics conclude that the woman ultimately decides to get an abortion. There are many essays written which argue for all of these possibilities and more. There is no universal consensus because of the nature of the story; the reader is simply not given much information.

The description of the valley of Ebro, in the opening paragraph, is often seen as having deeper meanings: "It has long been recognized that the two sides of the valley of the Ebro represent two ways of life, one a sterile perpetuation of the aimless hedonism the couple have been pursuing, the other a participation in life in its full natural sense." Lanier asserts that every detail in "Hills Like White Elephants" is intentionally placed by Hemingway, and that the absinthe could have several possible connotations. She postulates that "the addictive quality of the drink is meant to emphasize the addictive nature of the couple's lifestyle It is an empty, meaningless existence that revolves around traveling, sex, drinking, looking at things, and having pointless conversations about these things". The most common belief as to the meaning of this reference has to do with color comparisons used throughout the story. In correlation with the drink "absinthe" as mentioned above, there is believed to be a contrast of joy and sorrow between the black licorice of the alcoholic drink and the whiteness of the hills. This can also be contrasted with the comparison between the white hills and the dry, brown countryside that represents the same joy and sorrow as the former. However, the true meaning of the title does not become fully known until the topic of getting an abortion is revealed between the couple, as the man states, it's an "awfully simple operation not really an operation at all just to let the air in". It is then understood that the use of the term "white elephants" may in fact be a reference to the white elephant sale. It's a sale put together through the donation of unwanted gifts, making the reader believe that this may be correlating with the act of getting an abortion. It could also mean the literal translation of elephant in the room meaning something painfully obvious that is not to be spoken about or referenced. "Elephant in the room" is a term used mainly by couples having a relationship crisis or difficulty including break ups, divorce, cheating, marriage, adoption, or abortion. This is viewed differently between the couple. The child is seen "as simply a white elephant to the man" to be rid of, whereas the woman only sees it as this due to the father's views. The final reference to the hills is when the girl contemplates her decision of getting an abortion through the following line, "it will be nice again if I say things are like white elephants, and you'll like it?" This is to provide an immediate understanding of the white elephant reference when we learn that the story's conflict revolves around an unwanted pregnancy is associated with the ubiquitous white elephant sale. These sales raise money that is worthwhile cause for people to donate unwanted objects. This is shown in "Hills Like White Elephants" as to the man, the girl is a white elephant with the child. Another important symbol in the story is the bamboo curtain. Many interpretations see the curtain as a barrier between Jig and the American. Literally, the curtain is a barrier between the American and the girl while he drinks in the bar among other "reasonable people" while the girl sits outside. Figuratively, the beaded curtain separates Jig, a sensitive girl who notices and touches the beads from the American who only acknowledges the drink advertisement and pays no more attention to the curtain than the hills. David Gilmour points out that the bead curtain has an even more specific symbolism. When Jig takes hold of two strands, the American believes that she views them as a rosary, giving a clue to Jig being Catholic. Gilmour goes on to state that any leap to thinking of Spain, Catholicism, and the abortion as connected ideas is a stretch and if Jig were praying, she would most likely be praying to turn back time so that she may not be entangled with the American. This belief is supported when she states, while holding the two strands, that she wants things to be as they were before. In contrast, Gary Elliott writes that the beaded curtain and its similarity to a rosary lends insight to the girl’s reluctance to go through with the abortion and is almost certainly indicative of her Catholic background. He goes on to say that while the curtain is a physical barrier between the two, it is really her religion, symbolized by the beads, that separates them. There may be more serious problems with the relationship than the purely circumstantial. Though the immediate problem is the unwanted pregnancy, the experience has revealed that the relationship is a shallow one. While most critics have espoused relatively straightforward interpretations of the dialogue, a few have argued for alternate scenarios. However, critics also argue that the female character makes her own decision in the end, and the story is actually pro feminist.