Writing styles changed drastically from the nineteenth to twentieth centuries. The nineteenth century had authorial intervention and authors wrote about things they had never experienced, where as the twentieth century had a lot of hidden symbols and images and writings were more generally based on events in which the authors had been a part of. Many people thought these "hard to understand writings would be a temporary phase of literature, but authors such as Ernest Hemingway wrote in such a branding way that this writing style has been a constant example of a powerful literary expression.
Hemingway was one of the best users of symbols and images. In the story Hills Like White Elephants, he has hidden symbols behind almost everything in the story. The main symbol in this story is the abortion. This is known in the story as the "simple operation." The whole story is about this couple that is considering an abortion. Each little part of the abortion is another symbol. The "white elephants" showed something they didn't want, in this case the baby. Even the smallest things, like the alcohol, symbolized old ways (beer) and something new (Anes del Toro) in the two peoples relationship. .
This story also gives you images of the happenings going on in the story. "The station between two lines of rails" gave you the image of a choice of which track or option in life they were going to take. Were they going to go the one direction and get the abortion (as planned) or were they going to choose the other track, keep the baby and go home. Hemingway also uses images to tell you the choice they make. When it says "he picked up the two heavy bags and carried them around the station to the other tracks" it is telling you that they changed their minds, chose the different path, and decided not to get the abortion. There are also some not so hidden images. When he describes the scenery Hemingway is just trying to give you an idea of the type of environment they are in.