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Hills Like White Elephant Symbolism Essay

875 Words4 Pages

Symbols in the "Hills Like White Elephants" by Ernest Hemingway
The short story "Hills Like White Elephants" by Ernest Hemingway features an American man and a girl by the name Jig. Two are sitting at a table and having an argumentative talk on whether the girl should opt for an abortion. The story has various themes and symbols which symbolizes various situations and portrays a particular message relating to the relationship between the two. The aim of the essay is to analyze the use of symbolism and explore the theme of the short story. I will explore symbolism as a symbol in the story and the theme of male dominance and discuss their significance in the story by Ernest Hemingway.
Symbolism has been extensively utilized in the story. For …show more content…

While the white elephant as referred to by the girl symbolizes the operation or rather the abortion that the man is persuading her to undertake. The two seem to disagree over their respective decisions. They must come up with a decision that will affect both their life and relationship. The guy does not have any value for the fetus and he does not mind if the girl terminates the pregnancy because he does not even feel like having any intimacy with the baby. This lack of concern on the part of the boyfriend is seen when he tells jig without fear of contradiction, "it's really not anything".
Another symbol that is depicted in the story is the curtain that was made of bamboo beads. The curtain in the story represents the separation and division that existed between the American man and Jig on the issue of abortion. The pregnancy is the "curtain" that separates Jig from the man because she wants the baby but the American man is against her idea of keeping the pregnancy till birth. The disagreement seems to be increasing throughout the story up to the end of the story where it even becomes more unclear because we cannot really tell what Jig decided to do with the

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