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The Use Of Metaphor In Ernest Hemingway's Hills Like White Elephants

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A metaphor is a figure of speech in which an object or phrase is about something of a greater meaning. Ernest Hemingway, a former journalist and author, in his short story, “Hills Like White Elephants,” a young couple is on their way to Madrid, to receive an operation for the female character. Because there is no official ending to the story, many questions have aroused about the baby. The problem if Jig keeps the unborn child or not leads many people attempt to find the correct answer that Hemingway hides under all the details. Such details include the title, which can be expressed as a metaphor of an unwanted, unexpected, awkward situation. Multiple scholars and authors decide to make an effort to discover the story’s true meaning. For example, Stanley Renner, from Illinois State University, author of, “Moving to the Girl’s Side of ‘Hills Like White Elephants,’” discovers four specific movements of both characters. …show more content…

On the other hand, in, “Allusion, Word-Play, and the Central Conflict in Hemingway’s ‘Hills Like White Elephants,’” by Timothy O’Brien, from the United States Naval Academy, he sheds light on the wordplay and diction as proof for Jig not keeping the baby. Lastly, David Wyche, from North Carolina State University, in his essay, “Letting the Air into a Relationship: Metaphorical Abortion in ‘Hills Like White Elephants,’” determines the reader cannot know whether the characters have the abortion or not. Renner is correct because of the fact that Jig keeps the baby based on the diction, setting, and movements of the short

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