Symbolism In Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?

In the short story “Where are you going, Where have you been?” Joyce Carol introduced her audience to the story of Connie, a teenager whose only priority was to look good for boys and be the center of attention. By using symbolism, Oates used Friend as Connie’s punishment from her actions. On ‘Hills like white elephant” Ernest Hemingway’s uses symbolism on a heel, alcohol and roads to represent their life and choices. Both of this stories use symbolism to represent their life and the choices they did or going to make in their life.
I think both of the authors use symbolism in way that readers can view and understand the story in different ways. Both of the stories use people or objects to help them get there point across u can see how this

“Everything tastes like licorice. Especially all the things you’ve waited so long for, like absinthe” (Hemingway). The readers can see how their relationship is full of problems and deciding to have the baby or not is just one of the many problems they seem to have. The readers can see how alcohol has become the perfect symbol of this story when the she mentioned “That’s all we do isn’t it – look at things and try new drinks” (Hemingway). Their relationship and way of living has become a routine to them to avoid problems the go and try new drinks the readers can see this because although they never said anything about abortion the Hemingway gives you clues that the conversation is about deciding to have the baby or not.
One of the most important symbol in this story is the hill or the white elephant. When she said they look like white elephants. The readers can see how the white elephants represent her pregnancy and life .This symbolizes their lives or their relationship and the choices they must now made. The white elephant is something that is both rare and sacred, as it is also essentially useless. It is a symbol of their lives spent traveling, something so cherished, but ultimately has only surface