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Hills Like White Elephant Symbolism Essay

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“I don't want you to do anything that you don't want to do," author Ernest Hemingway’s short story Hills like White Elephants, demonstrates a contradicting conversation a young couple has about “the white elephant.” In the short piece, two foreigners in Spain awaiting a train, drink continuously to avoid the actual feelings they have about an operation the woman is considering, "I wanted to try this new drink. That's all we do, isn't it—look at things and try new drinks?" The American and the girl hide from their reality by constantly traveling, enjoying the gastronomy, and its environment. Ernest Hemingway uses three symbols; the train, the white elephant, alcohol and imagery to play out the theme in this short selection. In the beginning of the selection, the young couple awaits the train from Barcelona to Madrid. From the very first moment they arrive at the station, they ordered “cervezas” beer, to avoid each other and their relationship problems. Alcohol is one of the symbols Hemingway uses in the story. The girl and the American drink to escape from the problems they are having, from their future that they await and the past that can no longer change. An example can be when the girl brought up the white elephant; instead of trying to discuss the …show more content…

The American on the other hand, only thinks about himself and has it all figured out or so he think he does. He tells the girl if she would to go through with the operation that everything else will fall back in place and they will be happy once again. “That's the only thing that bothers us. It's the only thing that's made us unhappy.” Jig, the girl, considered his offer only so the American can stop implying they will be happy once she does it, “"Would you please please please please please please please stop talking?” The Americans masculinity and possessiveness he has over her makes the situation harder for

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Literary Analysis #2 Hills Like White Elephants This short story by Ernest Hemmingway, is about a man and woman’s difference in opinion with one another. The couple is waiting on a train to arrive at the junction station to take them to Madrid, Spain so that the woman can have an operation. In this story, Hemmingway utilizes symbolism and clues to explain the plot of the story and the conflict the two characters are having.

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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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By definition a “White Elephant” in literature is a possession which its owner cannot dispose of and whose cost is out of proportion to its usefulness. In the following short story, the situation that the couple is in can be described as a “White Elephant”. Throughout the story a couple, a Spanish woman and an American man, are sitting at a train station waiting for their train. While there, they decide to talk about the issue at hand, a pregnancy. Jig, the Spanish woman, is eager to keep the unborn child as the American man who is the father is not.

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The conflict between the two characters is the issue of abortion and whether or not the girl will go through it. Hemingway does not tell us that the girl is pregnant but hints it throughout the story referring to “the operation” as having an abortion. From the start, you can take

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Important parts of the story are not discovered instantly. In the story, Hills Like White Elephants, symbolism is used to describe an unstable relationship between a man and women. Symbolism is portrayed in Hills Like White Elephants through the couple’s consumption of alcohol, the setting and mood of the story, the white elephant, the elephant in the room and the number two. When reading Hills Like White Elephants, it is obvious that drinking alcohol is a large part of their relationship. Alcohol is not portrayed as a good thing.

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If analyzed in a more generic view, the short story can be used to show how a male and female stereotypically understand a subject. The American speaks more literal and materialistic as Jig is seen to speak in a more figurative and abstract manner. Ernest Hemingway’s use of symbolism gives the reader a more visual effect to the conflict between the man and the girl as well as the idea of their inner thoughts. The white rounded hills, the beads on the curtain hanging from the bar’s doorframe, and the cool shade and blazing light all represent different aspects of the two choices that the American and the girl have to decide on, just like the railroad tracks on either side of the

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There is much more to a piece of literature than simply the characters and the plot, the setting a fundamental aspect of a story, especially in fiction this short without much dialogue. In Hills Like White Elephants, Ernest Hemingway uses the setting not only to give the readers a sense of time and place but also to allow them inside the characters’ lives and creates the world inside the story in which every action, every answer and every hill has a meaning. Fiction often tends to be rooted in a sense of place and the integral setting in Hills Like White Elephants allow the readers to get an in depth glimpse inside the characters’ heads, their thoughts and attitude towards the plot. It has influenced the characters’ actions and responses,

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If taken literally, Hemingway’s story is one in which very little happens. The story takes place in a train station in Spain where a couple argue about a vague event over drinks. From the very start of the short story, there is an overbearing uneasiness felt in the text as the unnamed male and the girl, Jig, hold what seems to be—on the surface—an innocent conversation. By using a limiting third person point of view that consists mostly of dialogue, Hemingway creates an obstacle in the way of understanding as there is no clear insight to what is going on inside of either party’s head. The conflict that the pair seem to be discussing is never named and it becomes the metaphorical elephant in the room much like the white elephants that Jig sees in the mountains.

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They walk in and sit at a bar in the shade of the station and start to talk about what they should drink while they wait for the next train. They orders two beers in Spanish from the waitress behind the bar. The man orders them because he can speak Spanish, while the girl doesn’t. Choice is shown here, signifying how alcohol has become their main way of avoidance of real communication, and them choosing to partake rather than address the issue of the abortion.

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The story titled, “Hills Like White Elephants,” by Ernest Hemingway is about a young American man and a woman, who is waiting at a railway station for a train that will take them to Madrid. They are drinking liquor as they wait and discusses what the American man says will be "a simple operation" for the girl. The man, while urging the girl to have the operation, says again and again that he really doesn 't want her to do it if she really doesn 't want to. However, he clearly is insisting that she do so. The girl is trying to decline to have the operation but the couple keeps arguing.

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Symbolism plays a fundamental role in Hemingway’s “Hills Like White Elephants”. The different symbols used throughout the story are capable of subtly conveying intricate concepts to the readers of this recognized literary work. It then becomes essential for them to detect all these symbols, and discern the deep meanings which they hold in order to truly grasp the story’s message which the author intended to transmit. Without this insight, many first-time readers may view the story as a simple and casual dialog between two people, a man and a woman, waiting for a train from Barcelona to Madrid. Thus, they become unaware of the intense conflict the two main characters are actually facing, haunted by the difficult decision of terminating a pregnancy

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In the short story "Hills Like White Elephants" by Ernest Hemingway the central idea is people sometimes don't appreciate something special when it's in front them. This story can put in the category of Drama because at the end the reader is left with a open ending unlike other dramas that have a closing. The story is about a couple who is waiting for a train at a railroad junction in Spain they decide to have a beer then have a conversation of whether to go through the abortion of their child. Next, the bartender tells the couple that the train arrives in 5 minutes so the American moves their bags onto the other side of the train station and gets a drink at the bar while Jig sits by herself. The theme of the story is people sometimes don't appreciate what's in front of them and is shown through characterization, point of view and symbolism.

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According to Smiley, “The dialogue contains the essence of the story's power; for to read Jig's and the American conversation is to recognize the powerless frustration of parallel interchanges” (2). The girl's character passes changes throughout the story. It appears that “Hemingway works out the story's conflict, which revolves around the development of his female character” (Renner 28). The girl gains power and frees herself from the following the American man. In the beginning of the story, the girl take the initiative to speak which leads to the discussion: “'what should we drink?'

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