Hemingway

Overall, I am usually a big fan of Ernest Hemingway and his writing, with a few criticisms of course! Hills Like White Elephants was not one of my favorite stories by him. I know we talked about it in class so I'd just like to reinforce how frustrating it can be to read Hemingway when he literally gives you almost nothing to work with when it comes to dialogue. Nine out of ten times I have no idea how a statement or question should be said or asked. Sometimes I am able to infer from surrounding context, but not all the time, or most of the time for that matter. He never adds "she said sarcastically," or "he asked in a teasing tone," and after a while it gets rather annoying. Hills Like White Elephants was no different; the part where the man and woman are going back and forth about having the entire world to themselves and everything, I had no idea how to read. Was it serious? Was it sarcastic? I truly do not know.
Another thing that I didn't like about Hemingway's piece was at first the woman says the hills in the distance look like white elephants; shortly after that, though, she makes the statement that they don't really look like elephants, just their coloring does. Honestly the only thing going through my mind then was, What are you even talking about? Hemingway doesn't provide a lot of extraneous details about his stories and characters, something that isn't always the best thing for a piece of literature.