Hemingway: A Study on Dialogue
In Ernest Hemingway's "Hills Like White Elephants" the dialogue is very realistic in that there is so much that is conveyed through what is not said. In speech, people are lazy, flawed, and informal, often speaking in sentence fragments and contractions. Diction is very important as is syntax, and Hemingway uses his language concisely.
The characters are familiar with each other, and thus it does not make sense for the dialogue to be an exposition dump. Instead, the dialogue is in bits and pieces, and Hemingway writes the dialogue as though he is a fly on the wall, simply listening. The characters know what they are speaking about, so it does not make sense for the characters to spell everything out for the sake of it. Instead, we as readers must surmise the context for ourselves.
At first, the couple make small talk as they discuss what to drink while on vacation in Spain. The man speaks menial Spanish and asks for two beers. They banter quietly, skirting around the topic they truly wish to talk about. They seem awkward with each other as the only thing that is brought up is hills that look like white elephants by the woman, and alcohol by the man. Finally, the man mentions an operation and says it is quite simple and repeats the sentiment several times as though he doesn't know what else to say.
It is clear the woman is pregnant, and though this is not explicitly stated, the operation the man speaks of is an abortion procedure. It is through what is not said and reading between the lines that Hemingway's genius is shown.
Through their dialogue, we can clearly see the characters are at odds with one another, despite being on a foreign vacation enjoying beer and absinthe while waiting for their train. The way they speak to each other is accurate in several ways: they speak like they are familiar with each other, though given the difficult subject matter, they are awkward with each other, restating things and not truly listening to one another. The husband wants his wife to have an abortion, and the wife is uncertain about what to do about it, though by the end she makes a decision, though what she decides to do is debatable. Given that she is drinking alcohol, and at the end asks for another drink, it is likely she decides to abort the baby to try and go back to how things were between them, though there are lines that suggest to the contrary earlier on, and allude to her wanting to keep the child.
"No, we can't. It isn't ours anymore."
"It's ours."
"No, it isn't. And once they take it away, you never get it back." (205)
It's unclear if by "it" she means the child or the “single” life without children, or if she's referring to something else. The way they speak to each other is very interesting. The man clearly doesn't want the child, just wants his wife, but says he will support her and that he doesn't want her to make the choice to abort if it's only for his benefit. There's pressure, but it's not contrived, and even though it's clear what he wants, he doesn't press her too hard about it and attempts to reassure her.
The way the conversation flows is quite natural, and in his reassurances, the man bothers the woman, and she repeats the word "please" seven times in her request for him to stop talking. It's excessive, but it certainly gets her point across to the reader. The man is silent for a time but can't help repeating his sentiment about wanting what's best for her and she threatens to scream before changing the subject to the train and then back to the drinks at hand. Even the subject change is how it would occur naturally too. When someone wants a topic dropped, they come up with something else to distract and move the attention elsewhere. She does this well.
Words have many meanings, and because Hemingway does not spell it out to us, and because everyone interprets differently, everyone could come to a different conclusion as to what the resolution of the woman's decision truly is. It's fascinating because you can see both sides of the argument and find evidence either way. The fact that the ending is so up to interpretation with no resolution fits with the theme of the couple being on vacation waiting for a train. If you were a fly on the wall, you would only hear part of the conversation even if you were eavesdropping, and you would never know what she decided. They are two people passing by whose lives will continue elsewhere beyond reach, and the fly on the wall would also be left forever wondering about that couple drinking beer and absinthe on vacation.
In conclusion, Hemingway uses his dialogue sparingly, giving us only the bare minimum to understand what's being said. The dialogue is short and concise, the characters don't listen to each other and instead keep talking over one another, they change subjects when subjects get difficult, and they don't overshare and state what would be obvious to one another. All of these things in conjunction work to give a realistic depiction of two people truly having a difficult conversation that would alter their future together. There is no need to suspend belief, as one could imagine this exact conversation happening in front of them. There is tension, awkwardness, and random lines being blurted by both parties when the silence becomes too much and they struggle to say something to distract from the topic at hand. All of these things are essential to great dialogue.
[WORKS CITED]
Kelley, Joseph, and Ernest Hemingway. “Hills Like White Elephants.” The Seagull Reader: Stories, W. W. Norton & Company, 2014. Pp. 201-206