In class, I learned about Ernest Hemingway's writing style which is characterized by being short and dry. Although isolated, the two terms of characterization can have a neutral meaning, their mention in class however was compared to descriptions which expressed a feeling at odds with the style of writing as 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 titled "motivated prominence" by stylistician MAK Halliday (Link , 66), in the story, rather than that which removes it, by the repetition of sentences and lexical sets. The most apparent example of repetition evolves from the titular phrase, "like white elephants", appearing five times in the text, and which evolves, or perhaps even derives, from a relatively descriptive phrase used to position the hills, to something inspired by the more generic quote of “the coloring of their skin through the trees”. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an original essay This devolution of the sentence begins anchored on 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 alongside the American, looks at the line of hills: “They look like white elephants,” she says. Later, when the two chat after ordering two beers, Jig's observation comes to signify his attempt to have a "good time"; “I was trying. I said the mountains look like white elephants. Wasn't that brilliant? The difference in the two cases of sentences lies not only in the motivations for them to be uttered, but also in what they describe. In the first case, Jig is interested in "hills", as defined by the narrator, while in the second, the descriptor "white elephants" is used to characterize "mountains". The change in usage, from a specific observation of the hills, to a demonstration of an attempt to "have a good time", invites the substitution of other words for "hills", such as "mountains", and later d other things, and expands the motivation of the story to establish greater meaning. A third usage, or rather a reference to "hills", affirms the importance of the expression and reveals yet another possibility of its meaning in history. “They’re beautiful hills,” Jig said. “They don’t really look like white elephants. I was just talking about the color of their skin through the trees. Jig's observation reveals an updated view of the hills as "beautiful" and a denial of a previous comparison. Jig's expression marks an explicit change in the role of the repeated phrase and introduces, in a somewhat more obvious manner this time, another possible direction in the development of the phrase, towards a more non-specific meaning which goes to the goes against the previous meaning of the sentence and adds to its meaning. carried as importance in history. The repetition of the expression "hills like white elephants" and its variations in meaning allow the expression to populate an important reservoir of meaning which is revisited throughout history, and it is from this model that it establishes as a tool for comparison that the The phrase helps to broaden not only the emphasis on the hills, but also its growing meaning in the text. The behavior of using repetition to establisha standard unity of meaning in history, and then working against it, elicits yet another interpretive response; the natural substitution of things cited in the text for more generic variations of them. The substitution of words in the story is most often made possible through the dialogue between the two main characters of the story, an American and the young girl who accompanies him. As mentioned, it was through Jig's dialogue that the phrase "hills like white elephants" began to evolve into its current meaning and scope. Another unit of language that follows the progression from specific to nonspecific is “that.” "He" is seen fifty-six times in "Hills Like White Elephants". Its use (anaphoric reference to "that") can be classified into three categories: as a mood tool (as seen in "it was very hot and the express would come in forty minutes"), to refer to a mood general, as an anaphoric tool, referring to the noun that precedes 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 last but not least , repeated 24 times, as a situationally exophoric reference, to refer to something that is neither immediately present nor explicitly named in the story (Link, 72). “It,” as a situationally exophoric reference, takes hold of the story through the dialogue between the man and Jig. Different from the usage in "it's lovely", as Jig says to complement the man's mention of the beer being "nice and fresh", "she" is used by the man in the next line as a break from current drinking circumstances. beer, and to introduce it as a new subject of importance which had no previous trace in history. “I know you wouldn’t, Jig,” said the American. “It’s really nothing. It's just to let the air in. With the substitution of “that” as referring to something new, the reader asks: what is “that,” or at least what variation of “that” is being discussed? This new usage is ambiguously linked 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. If one views the mystery as a subject of intriguing engagement, then the ambiguity and thus the writing style of the play begins to take on anything but short and dry character, and in the same way the story begins to claim an identity that is broadly meaningful. . The breadth of the story's evolving meaning is emphasized by the repetition of the word "that", and its substitution is welcomed towards the end of the story, where "that" becomes more than a simple operation and begins its association variable with the expanded possibility of limitless happiness, or like a void of nothingness that can never be filled. From there, the word “it” loosens its ties to abortion and begins to gravitate toward its next possible subject of meaning, the unborn baby. An indicator of the word's evolution occurs when Jig responds to the American. “That” takes on a declarative character when Jig says, “then I’ll do it.” Because I don't care about myself. This statement amplifies the despair Jig feels because of the American. She submits to “that” the operation, and also to the persuasion of the American. This submission adds to the substance of the story because, although it signifies a capitulation of sorts, the manner in which it is stated flies in the face of Jig's arguments, questions, and overall confidence in the American man. As the American and Jig begin a speech,.