Believe it or not, you now have the building blocks for a literary interpretation of “Hills Like White Elephants”! You just need to fit those pieces together. To that end, review the features and contexts that you identified in the Paraphrase and Observe steps as making potentially significant contributions to the passage’s meaning, purpose, or effect. Then, select at least four of these textual elements and/or contextual frames and explain how each is in fact significant. These analyses should state clearly and forcefully what each item contributes to your understanding of “Hills Like White Elephants.” Respond to this prompt in one to two sentences per feature or context. Each analysis should include the phrase: ” … is significant because … ”
In all likelihood, you have produced far more interpretive material in the previous steps than you can use; now is the time to cull your various insights and begin making some claimsthat is, assertions of truth that are open to debateabout their significance. Please note that you are no longer saying that something is potentially significant to the passage’s meaning, purpose, or effect; you now need to articulate how it is significant. Also, please note that these analyses will need to come together in Step 5, where you will argue for a unified interpretation of the passage as a whole. So, be thinking about how your analyses connect to one another.
