The Influence of Alcohol: Hills Like White Elephants Anonymous College

In Ernest Hemingway passage, “Hills Like White Elephants”, the presence of alcohol plays a fundamental role in guiding the themes and perspectives within the narrative. Hemingway uses the presence of alcohol in many of his stories in order to use it as a lubricant between the two character's conversations and a point of comparison to the relationship between them. As a result, the characters decisions and reactions to one another are not completely true to what they are actually feeling and thinking, which causes the story’s outcome to be very different than what it could have been if the characters had been sober.

Furthermore, the author, Ernest Hemingway, was a very troubled and complex man. In his lifetime, Hemingway struggled with bipolar disorder, alcohol dependence, traumatic brain injury, and borderline narcissistic personality traits. The trauma in his life reflects back to his work by having almost every character in his stories carry a drink in their hand. Writing can sometimes be seen as an adaptive defensive strategy especially for dealing with painful moods and possible suicidal impulses. It is obvious that Hemingway may have told certain stories in order to ease the aches that life had put him through. For...