Hills Like White Elephants by Ernest Hemingway

So my exam is going to be partly based on this story. The problem is that my teacher is not telling us which type of essay we need to write! Its either anaylitical or argumentive and we only have 45 minutes to wrtie a 5 paragraph essay!!

Will your teacher be asking a specific question that you will have 45 minutes to answer? Or will your teacher just say "analytical" or "argumentative" and then expect you to come up with your own topic related to the story?

If the latter, then the thing to do is come up with a couple of topics in advance. If the former, just re-read the story very carefully, thinking about characters and themes.

Also, just FYI, this distinction between analytical and argumentative exists primarily in your teacher's mind. Most literary criticism is both.

Yes, well, I'm thinking its going to be argumentative since the other two books he could choose are Othello and 1984. I don't know any details but the story is fairly hard to interpret and he said watch out for symbolism. We have to write two essays one on this story then another one on 1984 or Othello.

If the question involves the story "Hills Like White Elephants" and symbolism, start by making sure you know all the meanings and etymologies of the phrase "white elephant."