research paper

“Hills Like White Elephants” was written in 1927 by one of America’s most famous writers, Ernest Hemingway. It was published in a larger work called “Men Without Women.”

Synopsis. The story focuses on a conversation between an American man and a girl at a Spanish train station while waiting for a train to Madrid. The girl compares the nearby hills to white elephants. The pair obliquely discuss an "operation" that the man wants the woman to have, which is implied to be an abortion.

Essay Directions:

You will write a research paper that includes quoted material from four (4) research sources AND the text itself. ONLY database material may be used. Please use Bloom’s Literary database. Any research obtained from online sources will not count towards this required element.

Your paper can focus on any topic related to the story that you wish. Some suggestions include:

• the characters
• their methods of conversing
• their problem and how it influences their view of things around them
• symbolic objects
• Realism in the story
• communication between the sexes

Once you’ve decided on a topic, you should then REREAD the story and annotate it. Highlight those areas that you want to use as evidence to support your thesis. Remember that you must also quote from the story itself, as well as from the other four research sources.

Required Elements

• MLA heading
• 5-page minimum
• At least eight (8) quotes to support your essay’s claims. These must be drawn from ALL of the research articles that you choose.
• At least four (4) quotes to support your claims from the text, “Hills Like White Elephants.”
• Works Cited page (note that any article in Bloom’s Literary database includes the works cited information at the bottom of the article.) “Hills Like White Elephants” will be cited as follows:

o Hemingway, Ernest. “Hills Like White Elephants.” Ernest Hemingway – Hills Like 

White Elephants, liternet.bg/publish24/e_hemingway/hills.htm