| "Hills Like White Elephants" is a short story written by Ernest Hemingway. The story is told nearly in its entirety through a dialogue, a conversation between a young woman and a man waiting for a train in Spain. Dialogues play important roles in this short story. The thesis tries to employ discourse analysis approach to the analysis of the dialogues in "Hills Like White Elephants". The analysis of the dialogues helps us understand the story thoroughly. The thorough understanding helps us find out the profound theme of the story and appreciate the story well.Discourse analysis is a new branch in linguistics. It analyzes the language in use. It concerns with language use beyond the boundaries of an utterance and concerns with the interrelationships between language and situation. After decades of research, many philosophers and linguists have established their own theories and methodologies of discourse analysis. The thesis chooses these theories as its theoretic framework: the theory of discourse features, the theory of spoken discourse features, Paul Grice's cooperative principle, Geoffrey Leech's politeness principle, Levinson's theory of implicature.In order to make the analysis easier, the writer divides the dialogues into 10parts according to the different topics, the turn taking between the two participantsand the setting description. After analyzing the discourse features and the spokendiscourse features of the dialogues, we find out Hemingway's great writing abilityand his natural writing style. Then, the writer analyzes the 10 dialogues one by onewith the theory of cooperative principle, politeness principle and implicature. Thedetail analysis tells us the implicatures of the two main characters when they breaksome maxims in cooperative principle or politeness principle. We know what theyhave said, and we even know what they have not said. This short story is like theone-eighth part of the iceberg above the sea. We cannot find time, plot,introductions of main characters. We only know there are two persons waiting forthe express from Barcelona, one is an American man, and the other is a girl. Theirappearance, relationship are hidden. The man even has no name. By analyzing theirdialogues, we can see the other seven-eighth part of the iceberg. We know the twomain characters are lovers, and they have spent numerous nights together indifferent hotels in different places. Now, the girl.is pregnant. The man wants her to have an abortion. But the girl is reluctant to do so. After analyzing the dialogues, the personalities of the two main characters are clear to us. The girl has the characteristics of the traditional Hemingway hero who has courage, honor, and the ability to cope with pain and suffering in the most difficult situations. The man is a representative of the "Lost Generation". Being selfish and self-centered, he cannot face up the change and challenge the life brings them. The apparent theme of the story is the conflict between a man and a pregnant woman who have different opinions about how to deal with the unborn baby. After analyzing the dialogues, we find that the profound theme of it is the conflict between two values: the values of the "Lost Generation" and the traditional values. Hemingway uses a sterile landscape to symbolize the former, but a fertile landscape to symbolize the latter. He portrays the man as a hypocritical coward but the girl as a courageous hero. From the comparison we can tell Hemingway's choice between the two values. In fact, the traditional harmonic life is a dream to Hemingway and his "Lost Generation". But because of World War I, they are unable to fulfill the dream.The analysis of the dialogues-in "Hills Like White Elephants" helps us to understand and appreciate it well. The successful experience of analysis tells us the discourse analysis approach is useful in analyzing literary works. It makes readers focus their attention upon the social nature and contextual aspects of the literary works. It opens anot... |
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