Symbolism In Hills Like White Elephants

In the short story “Hills Like White Elephants,” by Ernest Hemingway, there is a relationship unfolding, a complex relationship difficult to understand. The relationship is revealed by a conversation between a man and a woman, a topic of conversation that people rarely discussed in the period that the story was set. After researching interpretations, it is consistently said “She is pregnant, and he wants her to have an abortion” (Weeks 76), to which I agree that this conversation is about abortion. With the man seemingly pushing the topic and the girl hesitant and questionable, it is unsure as to the result of their conversation. However, it is my belief that she chose to follow her heart and not get the abortion.

Literary Analysis: Hills Like White Elephants The “Hills Like White Elephants”, written by Ernest Hemingway, is a story about a couple who have a decision to make. Though it is never said anywhere throughout the story, the couple is faced with an unwanted pregnancy. The characters have a tough decision to make nd they have different opinions on what the right choice is.

Relationships are the core of everything we do in life. We love someone, so we do something for them; we value someone 's opinion, so we respect them; we dislike someone, so we avoid them. Relationships cause people to act on their emotions which impact how and why they do the things they do. Ernest Hemingway’s short story “Hills Like White Elephants” is about a couple trying to come to a conclusion on a delicate matter. While the man strongly promotes his opinion the girl is hesitant but wants to do whatever will make him happy. The struggles presented between these two characters bring to light issues in human relationships that weigh into everyday life. Hemingway’s short story reveals to readers how relationships affect communication, decision

Ernest Hemingway, a world-renowned classical American author, leaves much to the reader’s imagination and interpretation in his stories. One example of this is his short story, Hills Like White Elephants, in which an unnamed man and a woman, Jig, are deciding whether or not to proceed with an “operation” (referring to an abortion) and may end up going their separate ways in the end. The overwhelming amount of symbolism in this story can be confusing at first, but after a closer look, Hemingway's tale seems to be one of genius.

In the short story, “Hills Like White Elephants” by Ernest Hemingway, Hemingway from the start makes us draw out our own conclusions and does not give us a great deal of information. For example, we are only told about two characters, an American man and a girl who are waiting for their train to arrive. Other than this, we are not told what relationship the characters share together or where their final destination is. The protagonist who is referred to as “the girl” is in the middle of a tragic situation which can take a turn for the best or the worst and her partner, the “American man” is not helping but making the situation more heated.

Hills Like White Elephants “Hills Like White Elephants” is a dialog between a man a woman. They are talking, but they are not listening to each other. The both realize the relationship is over. The conversation is about making the choice of having an abortion or marriage. Both of these choices are extremes measurements that the man is not willing to take it.

Oftentimes in stories, authors disguise deep thoughts and details into broader topics. They try to get the reader to actually think about what they are reading, and ponder upon the deeper, more sensitive things of life. Certain authors have a way of working deep thoughts and ideas into simple stories. This idea is known as symbolism. Symbolism is defined as “the use of symbols to represent ideas or qualities.” So many times, one reads a story, and only sees what is right in front of them, but other times, they notice much more depth to what they are reading. This is most often used in short stories, and every single small detail is crucial. In Ernest Hemingway’s, Hills Like White Elephants, there are many secrets and deep details hidden into this story that all point to the very sensitive subject of abortion: this subject is disguised in the elephants, the characters’ drinking habits, and the landscape.

For this assignment, I chose to do a compare and contrast paper based on the two short stories I 've selected, “The Jewelry” and “Hills Like White Elephants”. The two stories share some similarities as well as being complete opposites when it comes to certain matters. First off here 's a short summary for “The Jewelry”. The story is about the main character, Mr. Lantin, is a widower who reminisce about the times he had with his late wife who passed away due to pneumonia. Due to being unable to live comfortably and being in debt, Mr. Lantin has no other choice but to sell his wife 's jewelry. But the twist in the story is that it seems as if Madam Lantin was living a double life as Mr. Lantin finds out later on. Satisfied with this great fortune he received from selling his former wife 's jewelry, Mr. Lantin gets remarried for a second time but this time it is said that Mr. Lantin 's current wife is the total opposite of the first wife which many can come to the conclusion that money can 't buy you happiness and if being happy by dishonest values is worth the financial gains or if the unhappiness from honest values is worth the pain.

The characters of Hills Like White Elephants Hemingway’s Hills Like White Elephants short story takes place in a train station in Spain around the 1920s. The two main characters of his story are that of a man and girl waiting for train while drinking and the story is almost entirely told through a conversational dialogue of the characters with a few small descriptive paragraphs of the surrounding scenery of the train station in between. Additionally, Hemingway doesn’t give any characterisation of the mood or theme of the conversation, it is written in a completely neutral manner as if he were only reporting the conversation. He also doesn’t give any context to this conversation leaving the reader for the most part in the dark in regards to the subject matter of the dialogue of the main characters. This can lead many readers to view the story and characters essentially without any actual character or plot making the story pointless.

Throughout the short story (1), “Hills Like White Elephants,” Ernest Hemingway is speaking about a seemingly unwanted pregnancy and a woman’s uneasiness with going through an abortion. However, Hemingway never explicitly says in this work of fiction (2) that it is about abortion or that the woman, Jig, is uncomfortable with it, but uses symbolism (3) to present this to the audience. At the time “Hills like White Elephants” was published, in 1927, abortion was illegal in most places and a very taboo subject that wasn’t to be openly discussed in public. Thus, Hemingway relied greatly upon the use of symbolism to get his message across for this reason as well as the third person narrator (4) that did not give insight into the character’s thoughts within this piece of literature (5) . He uses symbols such as the train station, white hills, the baggage, and the drinks to point towards the underlying internal conflict (6) of Jig’s decision that is being heavily influenced by the American man, who wants Jig to get the abortion.

Symbols are often placed in the surrounding scenery of a story to give it more than just a visual effect but also an indirect reference to a deeper meaning that can be interpreted. As seen in the title, symbolism is used throughout the short story, “Hills like White Elephants”. Ernest Hemingway’s use of symbolism along with the description of the setting helps to give a visual representation of the conflict between the American and the girl as their conversation continues on the subject of abortion.

In ‘‘Hills Like White Elephants’’ two characters are disputing over an obstacle in which the author seems to imply as an abortion. In this short story, Ernest Hemingway uses a number of poetic devices to decept the reader's thoughts and ethnic beliefs. Ernest takes the soft and delicate subject of abortion and uses it to convey a message to readers.

In the story Hemingway uses the two sides of the railroad to represent how life would be if the couple choses abortion or if they didn’t. He also uses the railroad to show the two different sides of the couple. The “trees, fields, river, and grain” on one side of the tracks represents the choice of life, keeping the baby. This side shows a sign of life and what it would be like if they chose to keep the baby.

Hemmingway’s “Hills Like White Elephants” takes place at a train station between two cities, accentuating the indecisiveness of the girl. While the station represents a physical crossroad, the girl is at a decisional crossroad. Fields of grain and trees sharply contrast the depiction of a dry, barren valley, both settings correlate with her decision.

The operation, black licorice, and barren White Elephants left off in the distance? What if this was all life was about, all there was to ever know left a bad taste behind. In the short story “Hills Like White Elephants” tension in relationships is revealed through the strong symbols like the “operations”, “station tracks”, and the ever so upbeat “jig”. White elephants are “possessions that are useless or troublesome, especially difficult to dispose of”, this symbol is referred to again and again in the short story through the heartbreaking dialogue. In Hemingway's short story "Hills Like White Elephants,” an insidiously subdued tone is created through the lack of description among the characters, Hemingway's structure of theory of omission, and an array of literary elements.