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Male Dominance In Ernest Hemingway's Hills Like White Elephants

1034 Words5 Pages

Throughout literature, author’s use of items to represent a bigger picture help the reader grasp the broader idea the author is inferring. In the short story “Hills Like White Elephants”, a young girl (named Jig) and a man (whose name is not given) wait for a train at a station in Spain, drinking, and observing the view. They talk back and forth on whether or not Jig will get an abortion. At the end, the man has vexed her so much about the abortion that she tells him to stop talking. Ernest Hemingway’s “Hills Like White Elephants” certainly refutes the idea of male dominance and conveys the potential destructiveness of absinthe; however, Hemingway most effectively presents symbolism throughout the whole story. Hemingway does create the idea …show more content…

As seen through the title, the author’s use of symbolism helps the reader grasp the bigger picture he is attempting to make. As the couple is sitting, drinking, and taking in the view, Jig claims that the hills, “...look like white elephants” (Hemingway 1). Comparing the hills to white elephants, this is the first we see of symbolism in Hemingway’s short story. Although not clear at first, one can understand that Jig wants create a stable relationship with the man and bide in motion. One can compare this to being like a white elephant, running wild and free through her relationship with the man. After already having a drink, Jig states, “We want two Anis Del Toro” (Hemingway 2). One can understand through prior dialogue that after a little bickering between the couple, Jig orders more alcohol because she believes it is helping them. The symbolism of absinthe helps the reader understand that the couple is trying to drink their way out of their problems instead of happily resolving them. To aid the interpretation of symbolism in the short story, Lewis E. Weeks (an analyst of the short story) states that “... we learn that the story’s conflict reaches around an unwanted pregnancy is probably that associated with the ubiquitous white elephant sale” (Weeks 170). The proposition that abortion is related to the white elephant symbol represents a broader picture of something no one wants. Weeks adds a new idea to what the white elephant symbol means in that being the story is all about whether or not Jig will get the abortion, no one “wants” to get an abortion just like if you were to get something you did not want at a white elephant Christmas party. Hemingway effectively utilizes symbolism throughout his short story to present broader ideas and subjects left for the reader to

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