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Consequences By Choice In Ernest Hemingway's Hills Like White Elephants

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Consequences by Choice A white elephant is a metaphor for an unwanted possession that causes a financial burden. "Hills Like White Elephants" was written by Ernest Hemingway an American writer and journalist. The story is about a couple with a complex relationship, who become desponded by the woman's unpremeditated pregnancy. In the story the unborn child is compared to a white elephant because of the burden it would bring to the couple, yet the color white symbolized the innocence and purity of the child. Throughout, the story it becomes visible that the man and woman struggle to concur whether an abortion is the right idea they should take. The story illustrates the vulnerability, psychological void that pivots their bond that is being jeopardized by the intervention of an unborn child. The story's center of attention goes to Jigs. Jigs is the woman who happens to be pregnant. The subject matter of the story is whether she goes through having an abortion. With observation Jig reveals her …show more content…

There are two divergent train tracks that symbolizes Jig's unborn child's fate. When Jigs looked at one direction off the line of hills, she saw them “white in the sun and the country was brown and dry.” (8) This observation becomes obvious as it represents the passage of death. Proceeding this direction would destroy the chances of the unborn child to exist, the brown dryness of the country represents death, emptiness and sadness as innocence gets stripped away from existence. On the other side, Jigs was able to see the train tracks as it traveled through “fields of grain and trees along the banks of the Ebro.” She was able to see the mountains and how the river shined through the trees. Scrutinizing this direction shows how life is represented by the beauty of nature. Pursuing this path wouldn't just save the child's existence, it would give Jigs the opportunity and better understanding of becoming a

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Christian Carasa English Composition 28 April 2016 Research Paper In the short story, “The Hills Like White Elephants,” an assortment of symbolic and scenic settings are integrated into the story by Hemingway. Hemingway uses symbols to teach the reader situations people could come across throughout life. The use of symbols in “Hills Like White Elephants” is very important to the plot line and to the fundamental meaning of the story. Through this use of symbolism, the reader can begin to reveal the concealed themes in this short story.

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Throughout the short story (1), “Hills Like White Elephants,” Ernest Hemingway is speaking about a seemingly unwanted pregnancy and a woman’s uneasiness with going through an abortion. However, Hemingway never explicitly says in this work of fiction (2) that it is about abortion or that the woman, Jig, is uncomfortable with it, but uses symbolism (3) to present this to the audience. At the time “Hills like White Elephants” was published, in 1927, abortion was illegal in most places and a very taboo subject that wasn’t to be openly discussed in public. Thus, Hemingway relied greatly upon the use of symbolism to get his message across for this reason as well as the third person narrator (4) that did not give insight into the character’s thoughts within this piece of literature (5) . He uses symbols such as the train station, white hills, the baggage, and the drinks to point towards the underlying internal conflict (6) of Jig’s decision that is being heavily influenced by the American man, who wants Jig to get the abortion.

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