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Symbolic meaning in Hills like white elephants
Hills like white elephants symbolism and themes
Symbolic meaning in Hills like white elephants
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White elephants are rare animals and a small amount of people have ever seen a white elephant. The elephant symbolizes that the operation that the woman is going to get is an operation that not everyone gets, only the privileged people. She also makes statements about not caring about herself in attempt to get the American to change his mind about the operation. The American states that this pregnancy is what is causing turmoil in their relationship and causing the couple unhappiness.
jig and the American begin to argue back-and-forth about an abortion he is proposing. But the setting plays a very important part as well. They are sitting in between two different landscapes. Representing both characters in the middle of a life changing decision This is significantly showing symbolism comparing life to both types of environmental scenes. One side of the landscape is dry and barren and unsuitable for life which is closely connected to what her life would be if she goes with the operation.
So he sketched out a scene titled "Hills Like White Elephants." Throughout the story, the American behaves according to Hemingway’s rigid conception of masculinity. Hemingway portrays the American as a rugged man’s man—knowledgeable, worldly, and always in control of himself and the situation at hand. Even when vexed or confused, he maintains his cool and feigns indifference, such as when he tells the girl he doesn’t care whether she has the operation. He initially avoids discussion of their problems, but when pressured, he tackles them head on by oversimplifying the operation and relentlessly pushing her to have it.
Ernest Hemingway’s “Hills Like White Elephants” contains hidden, deeper meanings which are full of conscious and unconscious psychological processes. Hemingway represents in this piece, by explicating the text to explore the domineering ways of relationships, setting, imagery within the piece, and essentially abortion. In “Hills Like White Elephants” the American displays the manipulative and domineering side of relationships illuminating that the “couple” within neglect to realize the majestic gift; instead, they have childlike arguments about the “White Elephant” in the room. In “Hills Like White Elephants” the couple tends to use factors of manipulation to get what they both want.
Besides the literal similarities meanings of the stories, both also have a symbolic meaning. Throughout “Hills like White Elephants” Jig have some moments where she expresses symbolic objects that influence her attitudes. Jig’s imagination is key for the story, for example in the beginning of the story she states, “They look like white elephants” (Hemingway 475). According to the dictionary, a white elephant is “a possession that is useless or troublesome, especially one that is expensive to maintain or difficult to dispose of.” After this definition it is important to bring the response the American man about jig reference he says, “I’ve never seen one” to which Jig responses with, “No, you wouldn’t have” (Hemingway 475).
"Hills Like White Elephants" is a short story written by Ernest Hemingway that was published in 1927. The story takes place in a train station in Spain. There are two central characters, the American and Jig. They are having a very serious conversation about a pivotal point in their relationship. They are discussing about a certain operation that is not specifically explained in the story, but it is implied to be an abortion.
Ernest Hemingway’s short story “Hills Like White Elephants” is about this couple at a train station in Spain needing to make a decision about an abortion. In this short story, there are a number of symbols to look at, like the setting, the drinks, the train, and the white elephant. This story takes place at a train station in Spain. The train station is in the middle of two fields. The field on the right “were fields of grain and trees. . .
Consequences by Choice A white elephant is a metaphor for an unwanted possession that causes a financial burden. " Hills Like White Elephants" was written by Ernest Hemingway an American writer and journalist. The story is about a couple with a complex relationship, who become desponded by the woman's unpremeditated pregnancy. In the story the unborn child is compared to a white elephant because of the burden it would bring to the couple, yet the color white symbolized the innocence and purity of the child. Throughout, the story it becomes visible that the man and woman struggle to concur whether an abortion is the right idea they should take.
The vagueness of the name implies that the characterization of the American man can be applied to most if not all American men. The American man is depicted as a manipulative person because he attempts to persuade Jig to undergo an abortion so that he can avoid the responsibilities of being a father without feeling guilt for going back to the United States of America instead of fathering his child. An example of the American man’s manipulative nature is expressed on page one when he says to Jig, “it’s really an awfully simple operation.” The description of “awfully simple” is an oxymoron used by the American man to minimize the serious and complex nature of getting an abortion so that the idea of getting an abortion appeals to Jig. Similarly, the American man attempts to give Jig the impression that he cares for her well being when he says, “well, I care about you” after Jig made up her mind to get the abortion.
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.
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
They begin to not understand what it is that they both want to do. During that part of the conversation it is very clear that the American man wants the girl to have this operation, which is an abortion “’I think it’s the best thing to do. But I don’t want you to do it if you don’t really want to’” (Hemingway p.402). The man clearly wants to do what is in his best interest and not the girl’s and the life forming inside of
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.
A white elephant symbolizes something no one wants---in this case, the woman’s unborn child. The woman’s comment in the beginning of the story that the surrounding hills look like white elephants initially seems to be a casual, offhand remark, but it actually serves as a transition for her and the American man to discuss their baby and the possibility of having an abortion. The woman later in the story hints that the hill don’t really look like white elephants, a very subtle hint that perhaps means that she wants to keep the baby after all. The man misses this hint and the situation doesn’t get solved. “They’re lovely hills,” she said.
The dialog between the American and the girl, as she is referred to by the narrator, occurs at the bar near the station. It begins by the man saying “It’s pretty hot.”, and the girl replies to him with a simple suggestion: “Let’s drink beer” (Mays, 2014, p.115). This reference to the high temperature and the hot sun at the beginning of the story supports the idea of extreme tension between the two characters. Heat and hot climates are symbolic of tension and adversity. But the gist of the idea here is how her suggestion of drinking beer contradicts and cools down the sense of tension brought by the man’s complaint of the heat with cold alcoholic drinks, which symbolize the need to temporarily avoid a problem.
