Justin Matthews Mrs. Martens IB English III 20 November 2014 Nature as a Motif in Literature Nature plays a large role in literature, often symbolically or literally. The use of nature depends often on the literary time period in which it was written. In the modernist poem, “Out, Out-“, by Robert Frost, as well as the modernist short story “Hills like White Elephants” by Ernest Hemingway, nature plays a similar role. Aspects of the natural world play as a significant motif, mirroring what happens in the less natural human world, in order to convey senses of events that are not gotten from the description of human actions and interactions alone. “Hills like White Elephants” makes use of the natural world, particularly that which is thought of as nature itself, to depict the relationship between a “girl” who is called Jig, and the unnamed American man, as well as the decision that has to be made (that is never specifically stated) of abortion. Though the image of train tracks that is used is not necessarily an aspect of the natural world in itself, the descriptions of the land on either side reveal the use of nature to depict …show more content…
As a boy works with a buzz saw, just before he accidentally hurts himself with it and dies, he works diligently just before supper. The visual imagery of the “sunset far into Vermont” conveys a sense of finality, or of something coming to a close (Frost 6). This is because the sunset is the end of a day, representing the end of something, before everyone goes to sleep. In this case, it represents the end of the boy’s life. This is a parallel to the boy’s own life, as was stated. Thus the motif of the passage of time, shown by the sunset, serves to mirror that which occurs in the human