the elusive white elephant

And the award for obscurity goes to Mr. Ernest Hemingway and his "Hills Like White Elephants."

"What the heck was he talking about?"-- my thoughts after finishing the story the first time. Only two and a half pages, the language is straight-forward enough. The events are not out of the ordinary. But what in the world is that story about?

Here's a good lesson: A second, closer reading of the story can be quite therapeutic.

The story is told in an almost clinically objective manner, void of emotional or intellectual commentary, a type of perspective quite unfamiliar. Every phrase is dedicated to the facts-- what they say, what they do, what their surroundings look like. We have no idea what the girl is thinking, what the American is thinking. This attribute alone is what makes this story enormously elusive. In every line, it seems, the reader is forced to extract some hidden meaning, "reading between the lines," as they say. There is no other method to properly discover the emotion, the internal thoughts obscured by the thick veil of objectivity.

The revelation that the "simple operation" is really an abortion is actually not as important as it initially seemed. Granted, I can finally comprehend the specifics of their conversation, but the fact that the couple is arguing over an abortion is not the point that Hemingway is attempting to make. Even without knowing the taboo operation, we can still sense the presence of some burden complicating the couple's relationship. We can still understand the severe communicative problems, where one can hardly hear what the other is saying. We can still see that the girl and the man are clearly avoiding legitimate conversation about their deep troubles. Hemingway is commenting on the obscurity of their communication and thus their relationship-- not the topic itself. In fact, it is quite possible that Hemingway utilized objective obscurity as a demonstration of this vague territory of uncommunicative communication.   

Obscure, indeed.