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Hills Like White Elephant Symbolism

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Symbols within “Hills Like White Elephants”

When readers first glance at the short story, “Hills Like White Elephants” they only acknowledge it as a conversation between two people who are waiting for a train, not as the hidden meaning of the two talking about having an abortion. This story was written by Ernest Hemingway, and starts with a description of the setting where this couple are standing. Jig and the man both realize that they have a decision to make that will affect their future. However, it is shown by comments that Jig wants to keep the baby, while the man is persistent in telling her that an abortion is the only thing that will make them happy. The hidden meaning behind the white elephant, the dramatic symbol of the train crossroad, and the landscape that they are …show more content…

They talk together about the situation while sitting at a train station. Hemingway writes that Jig is looking off at the line of the hills when she states, “They look like white elephants” (Hemingway 475). This is the main symbol that was brought up during their conversation. A white elephant is a possession of which its owner cannot dispose of. This not only is a symbol to the way a pregnant woman’s belly protrudes but also to an “unwanted gift.” In his scholarly article, Jr. Weeks states:
The richness, complexity, and irony of the white elephant symbol increases as we see the conflict over the unborn child develop and as we recall that the actual white elephant is a rarity in nature, it is considered sacred and precious, and is revered and protected. (Weeks)
The connection made between the unwanted gift (the baby) and the hills is very significant to the story, and is often overlooked by many readers. The baby in Jig’s belly is related to the white elephant because of how precious the gift is, and also how expensive it will be to keep. Both Jig and the man know that this decision has to be faced

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Hills Like White Elephants Literary Analysis

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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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Religion In Ernest Hemingway's Hills Like White Elephants

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In the story Hills Like White Elephants by Ernest Hemingway, Jig turns to religion when making a life changing decision. Jig, a women, and an American man are at a Spanish train station while waiting for a train to Madrid. The women compares the hills nearby to white elephants, a symbol of overcoming obstacles and connected to fertility and knowledge. In document d, Jig is believed to be making a decision on whether to have an abortion or not.

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They each bring up different points as to why throughout the story. In Earnest Hemingway’s short story Hills like White Elephants written in 1927 he uses the hills themselves, the scenery that the couple is surrounded by, and the beaded curtain as symbols to describe the situation that the couple faces. In this short story, the hills that the train station overlook are compared to white elephants. This is because the conversation Jig is wanting to have with the American consists of whether or not to keep the

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Hills Like White Elephants Jig Character Analysis

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The American’s immediate fear is him having to marry Jig to “make an honest woman of her”, if she has the baby (Hannum). So the American starts talking about his love for Jig and claiming that the abortion is “perfectly simple,” just “to let the air in.” But Jig

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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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The Dialogue In Hemingway's Hills Like White Elephants

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The dialogue in Hemingway’s “Hills Like White Elephants” reveals a man’s and a woman’s incongruent conflict on abortion, and the author’s fundamentally feminist position is visible in the portrayal of the woman’s independent choice of whether or not to keep the baby she is carrying. The plot is very simple in the story which is less than 1500 words long. A woman and a man spend less than an hour on a hot summers day at a Spanish train station in the valley of Ebro as they are waiting for a train heading for Madrid. Their dialogue takes up most of the space and only few major actions take place.

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Hills Like White Elephant is a short story by Earnest Hemingway from 1927. The story is talking about a failing relationship between an American man and his girlfriend. This couple is at a critical point on their lives. At the bar in a train station in Spain, the girl, Jig, does not want to end up her pregnancy, but she is going to sacrifice the baby to satisfied him. Because he is critical of the exploitation of his girl’s feelings concerning the continuation of unbalanced relationship.

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Hills Like White Elephants Point Of View Analysis

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