Pragmatic analysis of Earnest Hemingway’s protagonists in his short story Hills Like White Elephants

  

Pragmatic analysis of Earnest Hemingway’s protagonists in his short story Hills Like White Elephants

 

The study of Pragmatics is a valuable perspective from which to analyse Earnest Hemingway’s work, which is frequently compared to an iceberg. Pragmatics is the study of “invisible” meaning, or how we recognize what is meant even when it is not actually said or written (Yule 2022). In his written acceptance speech for the 1954 Nobel Prize in literature, Earnest Hemingway clearly states his intent to “write and not speak” what he has to say (Robertson 2014). Driven by dialogue, his short story Hills Like White Elephants presents the relationship between a couple discussing abortion (although Hemmingway and his characters never explicitly say this) with uncooperative techniques that highlight issues and ultimately cognitive dissonance woven through their relationship and accentuated by the weaving river Ebro where the story is set. From my analysis I would expect to see these uncooperative techniques utilised in their discussion, with differences between the man and Jig’s usage.

 

Do they ultimately get the abortion, or not? Do they stay together, or not? With so little said pragmatics and the tools within it that I will use, including Grice’s maxims for analysing the Cooperative Principle, Leach’s maxims for the Politeness Principle, Brown and Levenson’s theory of Face Threatening Acts, and implicature and inference, help to understand Hemingway’s presentation of the situation his characters are in and how they go about discussing what they desire.

 

Analysts working in the Anglo-American tradition of stylistic research (e.g., Fowler 1977; Halliday 1971; Leech and Short 1981; Banfield 1982; Fludernik 1993; Toolan 2001) have sought to apply various types of linguistic analysis directly to narrative texts, viewing the language of fiction as just that - language (in use) (Herman 2010). Theorists of the short story must take into account the small scale (Lohafer 2010). Especially true in the case of Hemingway who “used highly charged images and actions to suggest an emotional subtext and an unstated narrative that the reader must infer, as one gauges the iceberg from its visible tip (Lohafer 2010).” Pragmatics, per its very definition, allows us to explore what is beneath the surface, that which Lohafer views as so important.

 

Grice’s Maxim’s allow us to evaluate how well conversational partners are conforming to the Cooperative principle by “how well they follow certain rules that make conversations work smoothly.” (Grice) (quoted Zhou 2022). His four Maxims are Quantity, Quality, Relation and Manner.

 

RQ: What ‘Pragmatic techniques’ do Hemmingway’s characters use, and what does he imply the reasons for their style and use in the conversation might be?

 

Condrat tells us “there is a certain discomfort” (Condrat 2009) in this stories dialogue. On just the 8th line of dialogue the girl (Jig) states ‘No, you wouldn’t have.’ To which the man immediately points out that he ‘might have.’ Hemingway underlines to the reader, with the man’s dialogue, that the girl has already broken Grice’s quality maxim – “that you should not say what you do not have adequate evidence for” (Yule 2022). Suggesting immediately that his characters are not in the most ‘co-operative’ of moods.

 

This charged atmosphere, the reason for which the first-time reader is not currently aware of, continues. The man rudely cuts short the girl's reflections in: 'Oh, cut it out'. (Condrat 2009) In a “remarkable counterpoint of clauses” (Kozikowski 1994) she replies, “you started it.” Initially we may think the reason for his sharp aposiopesis is because she breaks Grice’s quantity maxim, murmuring on. But Hemingway implies that the man may be annoyed by more than just the sound of her voice. ‘Absinthe,’ with its connotations of being an aphrodisiac, relates to pregnancy and abortion, and is therefore more relevant than the first-time reader may know. It is implied through the double entendre ‘cut it out’ that this is a connection the man’s mind immediately makes. Jig is more than a match for his use of language, reminding him that he ‘started it’.

 

Ultimately these lines both foreshadow and summarise their discussion. He wishes to persuade her around to his world view, but she seems, at least in this short insight into their fictional relationship, capable of standing up to the man, at the very least with her linguistic quickness.

 

Hemingway uses the form cataphora such that we hear Jig’s name for the first time over a page in. The use of the pronoun suggests the man is trying to seem more personal, friendly, ultimately reminding Jig that he knows her, and her name, and is therefore on her side.

 

The intensifiers, repeated through the text, as the man tells her how 'really' and 'awfully' and ‘perfectly simple’ the ‘operation’ is, suggest that the “primary” reason for much of “his discourse is… manipulative.” Condrat further states that psychologically, the participants try to impose their view upon the other as they see the issue of abortion differently. (Condrat 2009) I agree the man’s volume of repetitive language highlights his desire to persuade but, I would add to his point to say that part of the reason the man, in this story, does not get the agreement he desires is because his repetition gives his language a rehearsed, anti-personal tone; to a modern reader he is presented, with these statements, more like a robot than a human. Jig is so used to his declarative statements like ‘I don’t want you to do anything that you don’t want to do - ‘that she starts to finish them for him ‘Nor that isn’t good for me,’ … ‘I know.’

A robot is programmed, it cannot change. Leach’s 1983 take on the Politeness Principle suggests that for a conversation to work the actors within it have to be willing to “reduce inconsistency between their views and others” (Zhou 2022).  He is not, in being robotic, engaging in effectual conversation and Jig knows it, hence her own desire for him to ‘stop talking’.

 

In his attempts to persuade it is also highlighted who has the power in their dynamic. His repetitiveness and persuasion seem to have an undertone of desperation, we know that she holds to ultimate power, in making the decision whether to keep the child. Condrat tells us that “the one who holds the domineering position is bound to succeed.” (Condrat 2009) Hence why the man will later attempt to switch the “power playing field” to get what he wants. Reminding her of the power he also has - that he could leave her a single mother.

 

Meanwhile Jig has her own methods of persuasion.

 

The public face consists of The Negative face and the Positive face (Brown & Levinson, 1987).

Brown and Levinson’s (1987) model offers tools to describe the quality of social relationships; thus, it can serve as a discourse framework in the analysis of literary dialogue (Behnam 2014) They suggest a model for breaking down Face Threatening Acts, and enabling an analysis of their seriousness.

 

When Jig tells her partner ‘And afterwards they were all so happy.’ From his reaction ‘if you don’t want to you don’t have to,’ it is implied that she was being sarcastic. His response suggests he thinks that she ‘do(es)n’t want to’ implying that he believes she does not think that those she ‘knows’ were ‘so happy’ after their ‘operation’, which would make sense considering the context of her position through the rest of the text.

If we accept the fact that her statement was ironic then Jig openly disagrees with him when he says ‘I know we will’ (‘be alright and be happy’). This disagreement is a Face Threatening Act, but according to Brown and Levinson, not such an extreme one. The irony puts this into the category of ‘off record’ – it is less direct, however it also comes without any redressive action, it lacks apology, hedges or sweet language to lighten the blow.

 

Jig utilises more and more ‘un-cooperative’ methods to resolve, or simply end, the conversation. She states simply ‘I’ll do it.’ But hedges her statement with ‘Because I don’t care about me’ which I would argue breaks the Gricean Quality maxim again, the statement is not reflective of the character, who is in an argument because she does, in fact, care what she does to her body. Even if we took her for her word and imagined she may not care about herself, we could still infer that she alludes subtly to the third person in their dynamic the one that he states ‘I don’t want,’ but that she, by stating that she does not ‘care about me’ it could be argued, implies she has started to care about someone else (the baby).

 

Despite her uncooperating, the man continues to state how it’s “perfectly simple”.

Consequently, Hemingway makes Jig challenge him further. His negative face (the want of every “competent adult member” that his actions be unimpeded by others)(Behnam 2014) is challenged when he repeatedly states “We can,” to which she, imitating her partners repetitive nature, replies “No, we can’t” to every single one. Jig morphs his phrase from the most positive, with infinitive possibilities, to its antonym with the least added characters possible. His speech, his beliefs, are being contradicted. In the simplest way possible she is damaging his negative face, his want to be unimpeded, with an on-record face threatening act without any redressive action. From Brown and Levenson’s perspective this is an escalating of the level of her face threatening. Leach’s maxims state to “not be harmful to others.” (Zhou 2022) With this face threatening Jig underlines that she is willing to play non cooperative, non-polite games and harm his public face to get what she wants.

 

Despite the threat to his public face the man continues the discussion. It is clear to the reader (but apparently not clear enough to the man) that Jig wants to ‘stop talking’. Yet her strategies of challenge and non-compliance have not worked so far so she switches tack to ultimate politeness repeating ‘please’ 7 times. Why the number of repetitions? Jig, we have learnt, will try to use language to get what she wants. But has so far failed in achieving her wants. So, she utilises the most basic principle of turn taking, and a polite indirect speech act form, if only to buy herself more time away from the discussion. When this fails she resorts back to the ultimate act of face threatening ‘I’ll scream.’ Jig makes it clear that if this discussion does not end, she is willing to risk more than just mild embarrassment. A scream escalates the discussion outside of the realm of just ‘talk’ and to real definite public embarrassment.

 

Consequently, the man notes the other travellers inside ‘waiting reasonably’. Some may argue Hemingway presents Jig as the hysterical women, contrasting her with the reasonable people inside. I would disagree and also underline that he is no kinder to the man in the relationship, who repeats again and again even when it is clear Jig “know(s)” what he is going to say. The man underestimates the woman and is blind to how to actually change her opinion, if it was ever possible at all. Ironically the women fights with language for silence - so that he ‘stop(s) talking’. She, in this text, like Hemingway in life, does not want to hear repetitive arguments through speech.

 

The cognitive dissonance between the two is the obvious and ultimate problem in this story and has clearly lead to a breakdown in cooperative communication. He sees the matter as ‘perfectly simple’; he wants the easy escape the ‘beaded curtain’ represents whilst she, surrounded by the Ebro and ‘white’ ‘hills’ is reminded of the goodness, the sweet innocence of a baby, of “water not inert but agential,” (Khunwick 2019). Water in her conscious or subconscious reminding her both of sex and birth. It is clear that, for her, the matter is far from as ‘simple’ as black and ‘white.’ Ultimately what she needs is time, which she fights to get with increasingly “harmful” linguistic effect. Time to think not given to her by her partner who never ‘stop(s) talking’. Time not given to her by a story that uses 35 minutes in 4 pages. And time not given to her by her pregnancy, which, should she not think fast enough, will leave her with no choice at all.

 

 

Bibliography

Hemingway, Earnest 1927. Hills Like White Elephants. Available at https://faculty.weber.edu/jyoung/English%202500/Readings%20for%20English%202500/Hills%20Like%20White%20Elephants.pdf

 

Yule, George. The Study of Language (p. 156). Cambridge University Press. Kindle Edition.

 

Robertson, D.A., 2014. _Semantic congruence and simile construction in three Ernest Hemingway short stories, California State University, Dominguez Hills.

 

Khunwick, Ursula. Aquatic Matter: Water in Victorian fiction. Open Cultural Studies, Vol 3 pp 245-255, 2019

 

KOZIKOWSKI, S., 1994. Hemingway's Hills Like White Elephants. The Explicator pp. 107.

 

CONDRAT, V., 2009. CONVERSATION ANALYSIS IN "HILLS LIKE WHITE ELEPHANTS" BY ERNEST HEMINGWAY. Limbaj si Context, pp. 109-114.

 

HERMAN, D., 2010. _Linguistic Approaches to Narrative._London: Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group.

 

LOHAFER, S., 2010. _Short Story._ London: Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group.

 

ZHOU, Y., 2022. Analysis of Hemingway's Short Story "The Killers" From the Perspective of Cooperative Principle and Politeness Principle. _Theory and Practice in Language Studies, pp. 577-582.

 

BEHNAM, B., SEPIDEH, R.S. and NABIFAR, N., 2014. The Sociolinguistic Analysis of Harold Pinter’s “The Birthday Party” in terms of Brown and Levinson’s Politeness Theory. _International Journal of Applied Linguistics & English Literature,  pp. 80-87

 

EARNEST HEMINGWAY (1899-4961) HILLS LIKE WHITE ELEPHANTS

https://faculty.weber.edu/jyoung/English%202500/Readings%20for%20English%202500/Hills%20Like%20White%20Elephants.pdf

 

The hills across the valley of the Ebro' were long and white. On this side there was no shade and no trees and the station was between two lines of rails in the sun. Close against the side of the station there was the warm shadow of the building and a curtain, made of strings of bamboo beads, hung across the open door into the bar, to keep out flies. The American and the girl with him sat at a table in the shade, outside the building. It was very hot and the express from Barcelona would come in forty minutes. It stopped at this junction for two minutes and went on to Madrid. "What should we drink?" the girl asked. She had taken off her hat and put it on the table. "It's pretty hot," the man said. "Let's drink beer." "Dos cervezas," the man said into the curtain. "Big ones?" a woman asked from the doorway. "Yes. Two big ones." The woman brought two glasses of beer and two felt pads. She put the felt pads and the beer glasses on the table and looked at the man and the girl. The girl was looking off at the line of hills. They were white in the sun and the country was brown and dry. "They look like white elephants," she said. "I've never seen one," the man drank his beer. "No, you wouldn't have." "I might have," the man said. "Just because you say I wouldn't have doesn't prove anything." The girl looked at the bead curtain. "They've painted something on it," she said. "What does it say?" "Anis del Toro. It's a drink." "Could we try it?" The man called "Listen" through the curtain. The woman came out from the bar. "Four reales." "We want two Anis del Toro." "With water?" "Do you want it with water?" "I don't know," the girl said. "Is it good with water?" "It's all right." "You want them with water?" asked the woman. 1. River in the north of Spain. Ernest Hemingway 229 "Yes, with water." "It tastes like licorice," the girl said and put the glass down. "That's the way with everything." "Yes," said the girl. "Everything tastes of licorice. Especially all the things you've waited so long for, like absinthe." "Oh, cut it out." "You started it," the girl said. "I was being amused. I was having a fine time." "Well, let's try and have a fine time." "All right. I was trying. I said the mountains looked like white elephants. Wasn't that bright?" "That was bright." "I wanted to try this new drink. That's all we do, isn't it—look at things and try new drinks?" " I guess so." The girl looked across at the hills. "They're lovely hills," she said. "They don't really look like white elephants. I just meant the coloring of their skin through the trees." "Should we have another drink?" "All right." The warm wind blew the bead curtain against the table. "The beer's nice and cool," the man said. "It's lovely," the girl said. "It's really an awfully simple operation, Jig," the man said. "It's not really an operation at all." The girl looked at the ground the table legs rested on. " I know you wouldn't mind it, Jig. It's really not anything. It's just to let the air in." The girl did not say anything. "I'll go with you and I'll stay with you all the time. They just let the air in and then it's all perfectly natural." "Then what will we do afterward?" "We'll be fine afterward. Just like we were before." "What makes you think so?" "That's the only thing that bothers us. It's the only thing that's made us unhappy." The girl looked at the bead curtain, put her hand out and took hold of two of the strings of beads. "And you think then we'll be all right and be happy." "I know we will. You don't have to be afraid. I've known lots of people that have done it." "So have I," said the girl. "And afterward they were all so happy." "Well," the man said, "if you don't want to you don't have to. I wouldn't have you do it if you didn't want to. But I know it's perfectly simple." "And you really want to?" 230 Short Fiction " I think it's the best thing to do. But I don't want you to do it if you don't really want to." "And if I do it you'll be happy and things will be like they were and you'll love me?" "I love you now. You know I love you." "I know. But if I do it, then it will be nice again if I say things are like white elephants, and you'll like it?" "I'll love it. I love it now but I just can't think about it. You know how I get when I worry." "If I do it you won't ever worry?" " I won't worry about that because it's perfectly simple." "Then I'll do it. Because I don't care about me." "What do you mean?" " I don't care about me." "Well, I care about you." "Oh, yes. But I don't care about me. And I'll do it and then everything will be fine." " I don't want you to do it if you feel that way." The girl stood up and walked to the end of the station. Across, on the other side, were fields of grain and trees along the banks of the Ebro. Far away, beyond the river, were mountains. The shadow of a cloud moved across the field of grain and she saw the river through the trees. "And we could have all this," she said. "And we could have everything and every day we make it more impossible." "What did you say?" "I said we could have everything." "We can have everything." "No, we can't." "We can have the whole world." "No, we can't." "We can go everywhere." "No, we can't. It isn't ours any more." "It's ours." "No, it isn't. And once they take it away, you never get it back." "But they haven't taken it away." "We'll wait and see." "Come on back in the shade," he said. "You mustn't feel that way." "I don't feel any way," the girl said. "I just know things." " I don't want you to do anything that you don't want to do—" "Nor that isn't good for me," she said. "I know. Could we have another beer?" "All right. But you've got to realize—" "I realize," the girl said. "Can't we maybe stop talking?" They sat down at the table and the girl looked across at the hills on the dry side of the valley and the man looked at her and at the table. "You've got to realize," he said, "that I don't want you to do it if you Ernest Hemingway 231 don't want to. I'm perfectly willing to go through with it if it means any-thing to you." "Doesn't it mean anything to you? We could get along." "Of course it does. But I don't want anybody but you. I don't want any one else. And I know it's perfectly simple." "Yes, you know it's perfectly simple." "It's all right for you to say that, but I do know it." "Would you do something for me now?" "I'd do anything for you." "Would you please please please please please please please stop talking?" He did not say anything but looked at the bags against the wall of the station. There were labels on them from all the hotels where they had spent nights. "But I don't want you to," he said, "I don't care anything about it." "I'll scream," the girl said. The woman came out through the curtains with two glasses of beer and put them down on the damp felt pads. "The train comes in five minutes," she said. "What did she say?" asked the girl. "That the train is coming in five minutes." The girl smiled brightly at the woman, to thank her. "I'd better take the bags over to the other side of the station," the man said. She smiled at him. "All right. Then come back and we'll finish the beer." He picked up the two heavy bags and carried them around the station to the other tracks. He looked up the tracks but could not see the train. Coming back, he walked through the barroom, where people waiting for the train were drinking. He drank an Anis at the bar and looked at the people. They were all waiting reasonably for the train. He went out through the bead curtain. She was sitting at the table and smiled at him. "Do you feel better?" he asked. "I feel fine," she said. "There's nothing wrong with me. I feel fine."