Ernest Hemingway: Hills Like White

Elephants’s Integration in Language

Teaching

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Dudás Ágnes
Rácz István
Teaching Literature
7th January, 2018
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Nowadays, language learning is very important for education, business, or simply for

communication with others whose languages are different than ours. There are a lot of areas

in which people can develop their language skills, for example when they watch movies,

reading books or talking with native speakers. In education, the teacher has also a lot of

variations related to the methods, the tools and the curriculums that he wants to involve in the

lesson. In the Teaching Literature lesson, we received very useful and creative advices for

how we should involve literary texts in a lesson-plan. If the teacher want to use great poems

in teaching for example, he should take into consideration that these poems are mainly fit in

an intermediate-level group, where the students can elaborate the meaning for example.

However, a frequent complaint from students, as they enter intermediate level is that at lower-

levels they could talk about themselves, their daily lives, and topics which they are interested

about, but at intermediate levels they have to read literary texts as well, and they have nothing

to say. Beside that the whole process need considerations about for example the level of the

students and their age-group, the teacher really need to plan how he is going to motivate the

students. That is why I think that motivation has to be the first element when a teacher want to

teach his students, that is why I want mainly focus on how I should motivate my “students”,

because if motivation can be born, there will be a much greater chance to language acquisition

as well.

I firmly believe that using literary texts in an ESL classroom can have a lot of positive

effect on language acquisition. They provide opportunities for classroom experiences and can

appeal to learners with different learning styles. They can offer a rich source of linguistic

input and can help learners to practice the speaking, listening, reading and writing skills- in

addition to exemplifying grammatical structures and presenting new vocabulary. Literature

can help learners to develop their understanding of other cultures, awareness of ‘difference'
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and to develop tolerance, empathy and understanding. However, there are a lot of rule that the

teacher has to take into consideration. Literary texts can present teachers and learners with a

number of difficulties. Firstly, the selection of the texts: it has to have relevance and interest

to the learners. Secondly, linguistic difficulty: the text needs to be appropriate to the level of

the students' comprehension. Thirdly, it is important to take into the length of the text into

consideration, for shorter texts may be easier to use within the class time available, but longer

texts provide more contextual details, and development of character and plot.

I chose Ernest Hemingway’s Hills Like White Elephant for my lesson plan. Why I

chose this novel? One of my reasons is that my high school teacher made it compulsory for us

to read this novel, and actually, I liked it, and it has got a big inspirational effect on me.

Beside this, I firmly believe that this novel is not really hard to understand, as for the language

itself. It uses everyday English, and it has got very useful phrases, for example: "It's pretty

hot'. The grammar is also simple and very useful. Almost the whole novel is about questions

and answers. It focuses on grammatical order for example in questions, and it also makes

clear difference for example between present continuous and present perfect.

This novel is definitely emotional if we have succeeded in finding the deep meaning,

and I think that because of this emotional side, it can be really effective on language learning

as well, because I believe that emotions has got an effect on learning. Another reason why I

would chose this novel for teaching is that it is not too long, and as I have mentioned before, it

is easy to read, so students won't be scared if they look at the page numbers. What is also very

important, that this novel makes students think, because the real meaning is not obvious, they

have to think about it, reinterpret it, summarize it, and search for it, so it can be really a good

and enjoying discovery for them. And last, but not least, I also believe that students-

especially in secondary school- has to be aware of certain issues of life, like abortion, and it is

not a good strategy if they just pass on these topics easily.

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Before I start the analysis of my lesson-plan I would like to analyse the novel itself. In

order to get across the real meaning of the novel, the reader has an advantage if he knows

some important fact about the writer himself and his writing style. Ernest Hemingway

demonstrated a clear talent for writing from a young age. He wove his lifelong difficulty

building meaningful relationship into his stories, and the Hills Like White Elephants’s style is

also typical of Hemingway's writing. He called his writing style as ‘The Iceberg Theory.

When he became a writer of short stories, he followed a minimalistic style, focusing on

surface elements without explicitly discussing underlying themes. Hemingway believed the

deeper meaning of a story should not be evident on the surface, but should shine through

implicitly. The more a writer strips away, the more powerful the iceberg or the story,

becomes. For Many people who read this short-story at the first-time, they tend to think that

this is nothing more than a casual conversation between two people waiting for a train and

therefore miss the unstated real meaning of it.

Published in 1927 both independently and as part of Hemingway's anthology, Men

Without Women, 'Hills Like White Elephants' opens on a traveling couple taking a stop at a

railroad junction between Barcelona and Madrid. The story opens with a long description of

the setting which is a train station surrounded by hills and trees in a valley in Spain. A man-

who has no actual name, - just referred to him as the American- and his girlfriend, whom he

calls Jig sit at a table and waiting for a train to Madrid. As they sit down with their beers, it

seems that the story is going to be about a pleasant, romantic afternoon after a joyful trip. But,

once the girl begins to reflect on the landscape, -remarking that the hills look like white

elephants- the conversation quickly turns uncomfortable. Then, they order drinks, and started

to talk about the taste of the alcohol. After the girl comments on the bitterness of their last

drink, the American interrupts that 'It's really an awfully simple operation.' Through the

context of their dialogue and the thematic elements Hemingway includes, it eventually
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becomes clear that the American and the girl are talking about the prospect of an abortion.

The girl does not seem to insist on that she won't have the operation, rather she asks what will

happen after. The girl seems a little disappointed, and the American weakly says that she

should not have the operation if that is really the way she feels. The American, who pretends

to be supportive, continues to push the issue of abortion until the girl begs him to stop talking.

Then the bartender tells them that the train is coming in five minutes, and the girl says that she

feels fine. Then, American carries their bags to the platform in preparation for the train soon

on its way.

One main theme in this novel is language and communication that is why I would

choose this for teaching. Almost the whole novel is a dialogue between the couple, however,

real communication is not found. Intense, focused, and concentrated, the story depicts a

couple at a crisis point in their relationship. Their communication takes place under the

surface, behind their words. Still, it raises the question who are the better communicator?

What they communicate to the readers? Because the story ends without clear resolution, we'll

never know how or if they manage to find common ground.

The couple faces a difficult situation in the story. The couple in Ernest Hemingway’s

"Hills Like White Elephants" faces a difficult situation – how to deal with an unplanned

pregnancy. The story is mostly about what choices they explore, (or what they do not explore)

even though we do not learn what the characters actually has decided. Some question can be

asked like what options they have, why do we feel that the girl want to keep the baby, would

the man accept Jig’s decision about keeping the baby.

Alcohol is more than just an element in this novel, rather it seems to be a major part,

through it is not clear what effect the alcohol is having on their conversation. Both the

American and the girl drink alcohol throughout their conversation, maybe to avoid real

feelings and the problems with their relationship. Although they drink primarily to avoid
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thinking about the pregnancy, readers still sense that deeper problems exist. In fact, the girl

herself implies this when she remarks that she and the American man never do anything

together except try new drinks.

Before I start, it has to be stated that every teacher should be very careful about how

they will handle certain topics and issues like abortion which is the central theme in this short-

story. Teachers may have complex feelings which can surround the subject of abortion and

the difficulty some of them may experience in trying to reconcile their personal beliefs with

their professional responsibilities. However, as I noted above, it is very important to talk

about these kinds of topics with the students in high school. In my opinion abortion is one of

the most important topic to be taught in secondary schools, because, unfortunately, a lot of

high-school students can be already concerned in this issue. Moreover, after reading the story,

the teacher has to remind students that alcohol consumption during pregnancy was not widely

known to be harmful at the time that Hemingway wrote this story.

At this point, I would like to write down my strategies about how I would put this

lesson plan into practice. But first, as for the basic information, I planned this lesson for B2

level students, around the age of 15-16. I would ask them to read this short-story in advance at

home, just to get familiar with the text. My aim would be to draw inferences from the text,

with analyzing the novel and also the characters, so while the students discover the meaning,

their vocabulary and language skills can also develop.

As a warm up, I would show them some pictures of popular Spanish places and

pictures of Madrid, or train stations, then ask some questions, for example have they ever

been to Spanish or do they know something about Spanish culture? This would be a great

practice of new words, and also a great practice of speaking. This part would take 5 minutes,

and it would be a group-discussion where students can express their opinions freely. I would

ask them what they could do if they missed a train and they have to wait for the next one.
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After that we can discuss what the setting of the story is and why it can be important later. It

would be important to analyze that Hemingway sets this novel at a train station to highlight

the fact that the relationship between the American man and the girl is at a crossroads.

Then we can discuss the features of the characters. I would ask them to write some

characteristics of the American and also of the girl. With this task they can practice the use of

adjectives and they can broaden their vocabulary. Beside this, I would be also interested in the

subjectivity and objectivity of their characterizations. Questions like “What do these two

character represent?” also can be asked. It can be also discussed how are the motives between

the two characters different or how does the landscape relate to the girl's hopes. Hemingway

uses very little description and very few dialogue markers during the conversation in the story

to create tension and focus on the problem for the man and the girl. That is why this short-

story makes students think deeply, because there is more of what the characters do not say

than what they do say .They could analyze what the text says explicitly as well as find

inferences. Then, they would be asked who the better communicator is, or who tells “more” to

the reader? Which is more expressive: the man’s words or the girl’s emotions under the

surface? Then, in group work, they would have to rewrite the character’s dialogue in a way in

which there is no unspoken words, just the real, unhidden truth. So their task would be to

imagine that Hemingway did not want to use his iceberg-theory method.

.As a part of the lesson, I would also ask them to try to explain the different symbols,

images and allegories of the text, for example white elephants, the bamboo bead curtain, the

train station and the luggage. This part would be teacher-controlled, in order to help them with

abstract ideas, but the main aim would be to set their imagination free. This part would also be

group-work, each group would get one symbol and they have to explain why it is important

and what can it convey to the reader. By teacher-control I mean that the teacher monitors each

of the groups and she gives a start if the students cannot start the task with their own ideas. At
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the end of this task, each group share their solutions and ideas to the others, while the others

has to write these in their notebooks.

At the end of the lesson, I would give them a quiz with some easier and shorter

questions, or start a class discussion about the novel which can check their comprehension. I

believe that if students can connect their learning material with their feelings, it can be easier

for them to acquire it and remember it for a longer time. That is why I definitely ask them to

express or write down how they can apply this novel to their life. They do not have to think

about hard decisions like abortion, but questions like „Have you ever been pressured to do

something?” can be asked. We can discuss that we receive hundreds of messages per day

about movies, music, and books, and from different forms of media that tell us how to think,

speak, act, dress, and dictate what kind of lifestyle choices we make. Like the girl in the story,

we need to stop for a moment and decide for ourselves what the best decision to make is.

Students could examine their daily actions and ask themselves how these actions affect other

people. This can be a homework, because these are deep and emotional questions, and it may

happen that they do not want to tell these thoughts in front of others. As a final step it can be

also discussed that what they think will happen after the couple leaves the train and why they

think that. If the time allows, it can be also a public discussion. For another homework, I

would give them a task to write down their own ending of the story, how would they imagine

it.

Teaching Hills Like White Elephants in a classroom has lots of advantages in

language learning and it also can be connected with moral education as well. Students can set

their creativity, their own thoughts. Subjectivity can be compared to objectivity, and with the

help of thinking and analyzing, they can get closer to language acquisition as well.
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Works Cited and Consulted

Hemingway, Ernest. Men Without Women. New York City: Scribner , 2004.

Carter, R. Look both Ways Before Crossing: Developments in the Language and

Literature Classroom. Carter and McRae, 1-7, 7-15.

Kramsch, C. (1993.) Context and Culture in Language Teaching. Oxford: OUP,

131- 133.

Wimmer, Joshua. Hills Like White Elephants: Summary, Characters & Setting.

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