The Analysis of Characters’ Speech Acts in Hills Like White Elephants

任佳宏

【Abstract】This article will analyze Hemingways short novel Hills Like White Elephants from speech act theory perspective. Thus we will have a better understanding about the characters relationship in the novel and the authors purposes in writing this novel. And the authors writing features will be reproduced， as well as the topic of the novel， the way of the language expressions and the relation of the significance. The analysis of the speech acts of the characters in Hills Like White Elephants can not only help people understand this novel but also provide materials to study this classical novel in new field. It is also hoped that the analysis of Hills Like White Elephants will arouse an important way to the appreciation of other classical novels.

【Key words】Speech Act Theory； Speech Acts； Hills Like White Elephants； Utterance analysis

Hills Like White Elephants is a famous classic novel written by Ernest Miller Hemingway in 1927. The novel is extremely short， only 1455 words. The most important character of the novel is that the short story reveals figures spirits in the form of daily dialogues. Speech Act Theory is an important theory in the study field of pragmatics， which was proposed by Austin in 1955 and then was developed by Searle. Therefore， this article intends to study the conversations and behaviors from the perspective of Speech Act Theory to explore how the writer portrayed the two typical characters.

1. The Analysis of the Characters Speech and Acts

The dialogue was firstly proposed by the girl. She asked the American what to drink. The man just commented on the weather and did not give the answer. The mans Spanish words “Dos cervezas” showed impatience .

May just because of her expectation to fetus， she looked the hills as white elephants. Here the hills implied the shape of the big belly of the pregnant. “white elephant” symbolized beauty， expensiveness， rareness and happiness in west. However the man said he had never seen one which showed he was complained. In the mans eyes， all of these were meaningless and the white elephant was something useless but expensive. The white elephant was just a heavy burden to the man. The existence of the baby signified more responsibility and obligation， which could not bring him happiness and enjoyment but endless suffering and torment. He wanted the freedom and enjoyment. In fact， in that age， the image of rugged man was just a hopeless pursuit.

The man said the operation was simple， however， as we all known， the abortion could make the girl suffer a lot and even in danger. The man cheated the girl but the girl just kept quiet， which exactly showed the man was very vainglorious and hypocritical. The girl knew the man did not care about her at all， so she used bitter sarcasm to relieve herself.

Besides， the girls name was Jig. The name was not just a symbol. At first， “Jig” was a kind of dance， which implied the image of the girl. And the word “Jig” always occurred in the phrase “Jig is up”， which was the meaning of that the game was over. So here we may guess whether their relationship would end because the girl was pregnant or not. Another explanation of the word “Jig” was that it was a special behavior changing according to the change of the environment， which could be proved in the latter passage.

From the mans word the readers could see there was an indirect threat to the girl. That means， if the girl was unwilling have to have the abortion， their relationship would be influenced and might be separated from each other or even became stranger. In order to persuade the girl， he said he loved the girl and the baby. That is， if the girl had the operation， he would love the girl still， or he would not. The man wanted to show us that as if the operation was the girls idea or willing and there was no relation with the his threat. However， his words precisely exposed his bad intention.

It can be seen from the words that they could have everything but now all things was so far from them and became impossible. The girl could not stand this any more. And the four “No” means Jig had her own family values and love concept. Jig believed insistently that family was combination and end-results of the two people who loved each other， as well as the baby was a basis contributed to the stable happiness of the family. There was no doubt that their love would be on the brink of collapse if they did not have a baby. In brief， Jig was very clearly that if she had the abortion， their relationship would change， not to mention family and happiness.

Although he said he would not ask the girl to do what she was not willing to do， he encouraged the girl have the abortion all the time. And he said what he cared about only was the girl， but it exactly showed what the man cared about was just to have a happy life with the girl rather than undertook any responsibility. As a result， at last the girl saw clearly the mans bad behavior and made her own decision. And here the seven “please” demonstrated the girls pain and suffering and showed the girls maximum tolerance . And how she hated the man just like the volcanic eruption. The dialogue obviously demonstrated their relationship could not be remedied.

The reader could see clearly that the word “smiled” was opposite with the girls true feeling， which showed the girl had made her own decision. When the girl said she felt fine calmly and quietly， the readers could get the man had hurt the girl deeply. So the reader could make a conclusion that “I feel fine” meant what Jig cared about was her own health but what the man really cared about was whether the girl had the operation. The girl said the words repeatedly in order to prevent the man talking about this topic again. And the repeated words also demonstrated she could not show her thoughts clearly to the man. Because of the misunderstanding， she could not express. She did not want to live as they had been in the past. She wanted to have a change. Jig was a girl who had independent thoughts rather than blindly obedient his boyfriend. She knew she should stand up to be a strong-willed woman. Maybe it was a wise action to leave the man.

2. Conclusion

The novel is an intriguing short novel and the simple language creates the story successfully. The biggest character of the novel is the white elephant， which symbolizes the baby， as well as the white elephant also implies the lovers attitude and solution to the problem. For the man， the baby is a big burden and his finally choice is only to enjoy life and to escape from his responsibility which fully tells some characteristics of the lost generation and the influence of the war to people. In the view of the concept of the story， the author tells the story in a direct way， which is showed truly to the reader and leaves more space for the reader to imagine and think deeply. And the author does not comment on the story at all， which attracts more attention of the reader to analyze the novel. Besides， the readers can see easily that in each of his work only one-eighth is on the surface of the water， that is the reader can get the message from the concept directly or easily， while the rest seven-eighths is implicit which means it needs to be understood， that is “Iceberg Principle”. Above all， the analysis will contribute us to have a better understanding of their psychological changes.

Obviously， the novel can be said that it is made up by “sound”. And from the conversation we can know the illocutionary meaning of the words. That is， their relationship is in an embarrassed period. There are complaining and suffering hidden in their talking and their talk starts from the hills and the drink in the novel. Hemingway uses the unique structure and language to make the content of the story obvious and he just makes the reader feel， guess and imagine the content. Just as the operation， there is no any obvious clue to confirm.

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