write a literary critical analysis essay on the following topic: Hills like white elephants
Department of English and Modern Languages
English 102 Spring 2017
ESSAY #4—LITERARY CRITICAL ANALYSIS
Genre/Medium: Literary Critical Analysis/Typed essay
Purpose: The writer of a literary critical analysis describes the content, structure, and functions of the messages and meaning contained in the text .
Format: Your five-paragraph essay must contain a concrete closed thesis statement at the end of the first paragraph and follow the MLA guidelines.
Audience: This essay will target a scholarly audience. Therefore, your language and style should meet the intellectual needs of individuals who read on a collegiate level. Are you writing to an audience that consists of classmates and the professor who have experienced similar obstacles in life towards becoming literate scholars? As you think about your audience, write to pique the interest of your audience by considering what your readers already know and what they need to know.
Stance: What attitude will you convey through your analysis? How can you see your subject through interested, curious eyes – and then step back in order to see what your observations might mean?
Topics: Write a five-paragraph essay on one of the topics below:
1) In “Hills Like White Elephants”, the characters argue over the possibility of a young girl having an
abortion. Hemingway wrote this story in a time when abortion was illegal, premarital sex was highly
stigmatized, and a girl traveling with a man who was not her husband would have been looked down upon by the public.
Write an essay discussing the implications of this subject matter. Consider how the transgressive nature of the couple’s situation informs the plot, and how the time period impacts the storyline. You might also want to explore the characters themselves, in terms of what we as readers can learn about them through their subversion of societal expectations. Be sure to use outside sources to support your claims.
