renner hills like white elephants outline

Especially all the things you’ve waited so long for, like absinthe” (Hemingway 636). To this Jib responds: “Everything tastes of licorice. She states that “It tastes like licorice” (Hemingway 636) which in turn the man retorts with “That’s the way with everything” (Hemingway 636). In this line, Jib has just tasted a drink called Anis del Toro which has anise in it, which has a licorice taste to it. One line of the story in particular stands out more than the others in tying in the connection between the alcohol and the characters.

It is only until the beer is put in front of the two that the conversation begins to flow, seeming to make the booze the barrier that the couple needs to put in between them, both physically and mentally, to feel comfortable.Ībsinthe plays a very large symbolic role in the story, although it is only ever actually mentioned once in the story. The couple seems rigid and uncomfortable with each other, only exchanging words with each other about the alcohol that they are about to order and the weather. The conversation between the woman, Jib, and the American man does not even begin until they both have a beer sitting in front of each of them. The very first line that is spoken in the story is about alcohol and states “‘What should we drink’ the girl asked” (Hemingway 635). While Hemingway’s “Hills Like White Elephants” has major themes of abortion and the relationship between the couple, it has major underlying themes of alcohol consumption that greatly affected the story in its entirety. His problems in his relationships and his heavy drinking problem did not hide themselves in his story “Hills Like White Elephants” that features a couple heavily intoxicated, contemplating abortion, and most likely on the verge of ending the relationship, although it never clearly states it in the story. Hemingway was married and divorced multiple times through his life and alcohol played a role in the divorces many times, such as the times when his wife Martha found empty liquor bottles underneath his hospital bed after he had been in a drunk driving accident and suffered a concussion, which for her “the death knell sounded for his third marriage” (Martin 355). Martin comments that “Hemingway's writing can be seen as an adaptive defensive strategy for dealing with painful moods and suicidal impulses” (Martin 359) and that “ may have told certain stories in order to ease the aches that life started inside him” (Martin 359).

Many of the traumas in Hemingway’s life seeped through into his many works, especially in that the characters in his stories always seem to have a drink in their hand. Ernest Hemingway was a very complex and at times troubled man: “his personal and public writings reveal evidence suggesting the presence of the following conditions during his lifetime: bipolar disorder, alcohol dependence, traumatic brain injury, and probable borderline and narcissistic personality traits” (Martin 352).

Renner hills like white elephants outline