“Hills Like White Elephants”, a short story written by American author and journalist Ernest Hemingway, is about a couple facing some sort of crisis in their relationship. The story continues with a woman and a man named Jig, who have a conversation about something very important, but can never really figure out what they mean. For a story to progress in this way, and for readers to understand it, there must be a clear understanding of the genres of the story. A genre is a type of writing that has special characteristics that distinguish it from other types of writing (“Learning about genre”). In other words, a genre is a guide to understanding what the story is actually trying to portray. In “Hills Like White Elephants,” Hemmingway's writing style falls into these two genres: minimalism and iceberg principles. “Less is more”, said by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, is the most important part of the minimalism genre. In a story with the genre of minimalism, minimalist writers allow the context of the story to dictate the meanings. One of the first signs of minimal context is when the girl wanted to try a drink called Anis del toro. The alcoholic drink Anis del toro has a very high alcohol content per volume, so just a few sips could lead to death. Hemingway mentions this very alcoholic drink, it is a way to introduce the setting of the story. The drink is very well known in Spain. As the story develops, you come to the point of realizing that Ernest Hemingway never told the readers the ages of the characters nor their actual relationship. All readers know is that it was an American man and a girl. Lines like "I love you" and "I care about you" suggest that the two people could very well be a couple. Regarding their age, we... halfway through the document... the workers quoted "A FEW WORDS ABOUT MINIMALISM". The New York Times. Np, nd Web. April 19, 2014."Anis Del Toro." The dispersion. Np, 10 January 2011. Web. 19 April 2014. "Genre fiction". Albemarle County Public Schools. Albemarle County Public Schools, n.d. Web. April 19, 2014. “Learning About Gender.” Learning to know Genere@WhereWritersLearn.com. Np, nd Web. 19 April 2014. Littleton, Trento. "Ernest Hemingway's "Hills Like White Elephants": A Critical Analysis." YahooContributor Network. Yahoo, August 30, 2011. Web. April 19, 2014."Minimalism." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation and Web. April 19, 2014."READING." Ernest Hemingway's writing style. Np, nd Web. April 19, 2014. “The Iceberg Principle (Ernest Hemingway).” Literautas If you like writing RSS. Np, nd Web. April 19, 2014."White Elephant." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 18 April 2014. Web. 19 April. 2014.