The dialogue in Hemingway's Hills Like White Elephants is not captivating, exactly. It is real. Looking back through the story after reading it a first time, I really can't find any concrete details about what the couple has experienced. I'm not transported to an exotic locale for this conversation between two extremely specific characters. Instead, through their general, ambiguous, frustrated back-and-forth, I can easily identify with their plight. It's everyday, as am I, the reader.
And even though I don't know the couple, I experience them through this small scene. I can sense the pained love and stress--neither of them becomes extremely rude or loud. They clip thoughts and ideas instead:
"I said we could have everything."
"We can have everything."
"No, we can't."
"We can have the whole world."
"No, we can't."
"We can go everywhere."
"No, we can't. It isn't ours anymore."
I also love the manifestation of the girl's tiredness through the plea "would you please please please please please please please stop talking?". This is no all-out screaming match. She doesn't have the energy for that. On the other hand, the man can put the effort forward to continue making my own ideas known--the never-ending "lemme just get this one more sentence out, then I'll have explained myself" mental tape loop. Immediately after the girls asks for him to be quiet, the man comments "but I don't want you to. I don't care anything about it". This back-and-forth rings so true because both characters reflect different stages of my own frustrations.
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