An Outsider

There was extremely little insight into the characters of "Hills Like White Elephants." The names were relatively unknown, and the topic of the conversation was vague and confusing to deconstruct. I felt like I was eavesdropping on a couple talking about very personal matters (and indeed they were). This style of portraying a conversation left the reader uncomfortable with the story: it didn't seem right to continue to listen. I'll admit that I was bored in the beginning- a story with no known subject was like a book without its binding. It was loose and there wasn't anything to hook the reader in other than sheer confusion. To add on to the objective point of view, quotation marks were completely left out. This choice was most likely done to mask further the identity of the characters. It was difficult to pull apart who was speaking and I had to infer that the dialogue was going back and forth between the couple. Usually when dialogue is included in a story, the indication of the characters talking and the quotation marks give clues to the readers that they are listening to the conversation on a more personal level. Leaving out these cues distanced the readers and made the readers feel out of focus. For me, it felt like viewing the world half-blind.