In "Hills Like White Elephants," how can Hemingways writing be considered masculine and as presenting "just the tip of the iceberg"? What is the...

1. Writing style
is not something that is based on gender, so to consider Hemingways prose masculine is
problematic. However, he has popularly been portrayed as a mans man, someone who hunted, got
in bar fights, and was popular with the ladies. Likely for this reason, some may consider his
spare writing style an extension of his masculine persona. In this story, Hemingway uses a
third-person objective point of view that reveals just the tip of the iceberg. This
fly-on-the-wall narrative technique makes the reader feel like they are watching the events
unfold through a camera without knowing what the characters are thinking.

2.
The reader can infer that the couple in the story is discussing the woman's getting an
abortion.

3. The setting of this story is a train station in northern Spain
on a hot day. The title comes from the long white hills the couple can see as they talk,
waiting for their train. When the woman says the hills look to her like white elephants, this
description has a deeper significance. The couple avoids directly saying what procedure the
woman will have. The topic is the proverbial elephant in the room. Additionally, white hills can
conjure the image of a womans pregnant belly. The train-trackmay signify the tracks the couple
will soon follow. Just as they are physically stuck at the train station, the couple is stuck
in not being able to explicitly communicate about their relationship and pregnancy and stuck
in not yet having had the abortion they talk in circles around.