rds show that there is tension but it is the staccato style truly formulates the lonely emotion. These two are not only angry at each other, they are lonely and tired. Later on she tries to ease things by explaining why she said the hills looked like white elephants – and it seems like -a forced attempt - -but his response is only "Should we have another drink?". The two characters are actually drifting apart while they are attempting to reconcile…to show this more thoroughly, Hemingway begins to shorten their speech near the end to the man replying to the desperate woman's dreams with only a weak "no, we cant" several times. Again it is not so much what she is requesting but what the pace of the reading is that alienates the reader. In the end the girl wises up to the fact that the talking is getting them nowhere and she asks him to stop…Also, several simple words are constantly repeated…for example, the words happy and unhappy are repeated several times as well as the phrase "perfectly natural" or "simple." The man says, "...It's all perfectly natural" and later repeats, "And I know it's perfectly simple". The man's failed attempt at reassurance through repetition clues you in that the operation may not be “perfectly simple” and that the couple may never be happy again…...
