In class I heard about Ernest Hemingway's writing style as being short and dry. Although taken in isolation, the two characterization terms may have a neutral meaning, their mention in class was nevertheless compared to descriptions expressing feelings in contrast to the writing style seen in “Hills Like White Elephants.” A look at the linguistic patterns present in “Hills Like White Elephants” will be used to enable the interpretation of a writing style that creates points of emphasis, a development entitled “motivated prominence” by stylist MAK Halliday (Link, 66), in la story, rather than diminishing it, through the repetition of phrases and lexical sets. The most obvious example of repetition evolves from the title phrase, "like white elephants", which appears five times in the text, and which evolves, or perhaps even transforms, from a comparatively descriptive phrase used to place hills, to something inspired by the more generic quote of “coloring their skin through the trees”. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay This devolution of the sentence begins anchored in the hills and moves to a less specific image of a color seen through the trees. The phrase first takes on its role in the story when Jig, the girl at the American's side, looks out at the line of hills, "they look like white elephants," she says. Later, when the two talk after ordering two beers, Jig's remark signifies his attempt to "have fun"; “I was trying. I said the mountains look like white elephants. Wasn't he brilliant?" The difference in both cases of the phrase is not only why it is said, but also what it describes. In the first case, Jig is looking at the "hills", as framed by the narrator, while in the second, the descriptor "white elephants" is used to characterize "mountains". as "mountains", and later with other things, and expands the motivation of the story to establish a greater sense of meaning. A third usage, or rather a reference to, “the hills,” affirms the importance of the phrase and reveals yet another possibility for its meaning in the. story. “They are lovely hills,” says Jig. “They don't really look like white elephants. I simply mean the color of their skin through the trees.” of a previous comparison. Jig's expression marks an explicit change in the role of the repeated phrase and introduces, this time quite obviously, another possible direction in the development of the phrase, towards a more non-specific meaning that goes against the previous meaning of the phrase and adds to its meaning. scope and importance within the story. The repetition of the phrase, "hills like white elephants", and its variations in meaning, allow the phrase to populate an important pool of meanings that are revisited throughout history, and it is from that model it establishes as a comparative tool, that the The phrase contrasts by expanding not only the emphasis of the hills, but also its growing meaning within the text. The behavior of using repetition to establish a standard unit of meaning within the story, and then working against it, elicits yet another interpretive response; the natural substitution of things mentioned in the text for more generic variationsof the same. The substitution of words in the story is often made possible by the dialogue between the two main characters of the story, an American and the girl who is with him. As mentioned, it was through Jig's dialogue that the phrase "hills like white elephants" began to evolve in its meaning.meaning and its scope. Another linguistic unit that follows the progression from specific to non-specific is “it”. “It” is seen fifty-six times in “Hills Like White Elephants.” Its usage (anaphoric reference to "it") can be placed into three categories: as an environmental tool (as seen in "it was very hot and the espresso would arrive in forty minutes"), to refer to a general environment, such as one anaphoric tool, referring to the noun preceding its use (as seen in "He stopped at this intersection for two minutes and went to Madrid" to describe the behavior of the express) and finally, most importantly, repeated 24 times, as an exophoric reference situational, to refer to something neither immediately present nor explicitly named in the story (Link, 72). “It” as an exophoric situational reference takes possession of the story through the dialogue between the man and Jig. Unlike the use of "that's lovely", as said by Jig to complement the man's mention of "nice and fresh" beer, "it" is used by the man in the following line as a break from the current circumstances of drinking beer, and to introduce "it" as a new important topic of which there was no previous trace in history. “I know you wouldn't, Jig,” says the American. “It's really nothing. It's just to let the air in." With the replacement of "it" with reference to something new, the reader wonders, what is "it" or at least what variation of "it" are we talking about? This new usage is linked ambiguously to an operation, abortion. In its initial introduction, the word establishes a mystery and is as much a point of emphasis that drives the plot as it is an example of entertainment involvement, then the ambiguity and therefore the writing style of the piece begin to take on a character that is anything but short and dry and, in the same way, the story begins to claim a largely significant identity meaning of the story is accentuated by the repetition of the word "it", and its substitution which is welcomed towards the end of the story, where "it" becomes more than a simple operation and begins its changing association with the ever-widening possibility of unlimited happiness, or as a void of nothingness that can never be filled. From here on, the word “it” loosens its ties to abortion and begins to gravitate toward its next possible subject of meaning, the unborn child. An indicator of the evolution of the word comes when Jig responds to the American man. “It” takes on a declarative character when Jig says, “then I will. Because I don't care about me." This statement amplifies the desperation that Jig feels because of the American man. She submits to "it" the operation, and also to the persuasion of the American man. This submission adds substance to the story because , although it signifies a kind of surrender, the way it is stated is opposed to Jig's previous pleas, questions, and general dependence on the American man. The dialogue between the American man and Jig begins by taking in a vast landscape of glorified possession (Jig looks at the trees that protect the banks of the Ebro and sees the river through the trees, and says: "and we could have had all this... And we could have had it all..."), they soon move in a direction that denies the possibility of happiness. “It's ours,” says the American. Jig replies, “no, it's not. And once they take it back, they don't.