The Inevitable
All human beings go through rough times in their life, whether it is a simple choice or a life-changing decision, it is inevitable. There will also always be people who support and uplift you, while others debase and degrade you for their own selfish motives. The later parts of these impactful types of scenarios mixed together and shoved into the middle of a relationship do not benefit anyone, though it can cause major issues and tear them apart. This idea that Ernest Hemingway expresses, focusing on a significant point-of-view and rhetorical application, expresses the theme throughout his story. Although, the short story has complex and easy to misinterpret dialogue, the characters and setting assist to complete the moral
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These two people have an interesting way of beating around the bush when it comes to the decision to keep the baby or not. The girl is very unsure as to what the right decision is and what the consequences of keeping or getting rid of the unborn baby are, but the man is so focused and determined to deter her from keeping the baby that he makes the potential of abortion seem as if it is nothing. In Paul Rankin’s article, Hemingway’s Hills Like White Elephants, he …show more content…
Throughout and behind the story, there are a lot of symbolic meanings, which are perceived in the conversations, and the details of the setting where the scenario takes place. In Hills Like White Elephants, Ernest Hemingway quotes, “Everything tastes of licorice, and especially all the things you’ve waited so long for, like absinthe” (Hemingway 274). This quote is explained in Lewis E. Weeks Jr.’s article, Hemingway Hills: Symbolism in “Hills Like White Elephants” he mentions, “The implication as to the casualness and triviality of their lives, in which drinks are of such importance, and the further ironic implication in the bitterness of absinthe” and “color symbolism involving the blackness of licorice and the whiteness of the hills contrast the sorrow and joy” (Weeks). The symbolism from the girls’ quotes, and explained in Lewis Weeks’ article, demonstrates the ideas hidden behind what Jig had said about licorice and absinthe. He uses the examples of the bitterness of the absinthe in the rhetorical sense and life situation, and then comments about the color of licorice as the details of the story’s’ setting. The most significant symbolic reference is the hills, as well as the title pertaining to the hills. They are meant to symbolize the unborn baby and the decision for the situation with the baby. Weeks explains the significance and meaning behind
John McPhee used similes throughout his essay “Under the Snow”. One of his similes was him describing how a researcher put the bear in a doughnut shape. It was to explain to the audience that the bear was wrapped around with room between her legs for the bear cubs to lay when they are in hibernation. He describes the movement of the bears and the bear cubs like clowns coming out of a compact car. The similes help the audience see how the moved and how they were placed after the researcher moved them.
Jonathan Kozol revealed the early period’s situation of education in American schools in his article Savage Inequalities. It seems like during that period, the inequality existed everywhere and no one had the ability to change it; however, Kozol tried his best to turn around this situation and keep track of all he saw. In the article, he used rhetorical strategies effectively to describe what he saw in that situation, such as pathos, logos and ethos.
Media such as movies, video games and television, in general, are all created to support some form of social context. This helps with generating popularity because people are able to relate to the form of media. In Greg Smith’s book What Media Classes Really Want to Discuss, he describes 6 different representational strategies that justifies people’s way of thinking. The trope that I will be amplifying is the white savior tactic. In addition, I will connect this strategy to the movie The Blind Side. There are clear examples throughout the film where racism and low-income cultures exist in which the white family is there to help. The Tuohy family from the movie “The Blind Side” serves as the white savior for the progression of Michael
Anticipation is prevalent throughout The Road, which is set by the narrative pace, creating a tense and suspenseful feeling and tone.
In the book Into the Wild, Jon Krakauer wrote about Christopher McCandless, a nature lover in search for independence, in a mysterious and hopeful experience. Even though Krakauer tells us McCandless was going to die from the beginning, he still gave him a chance for survival. As a reader I wanted McCandless to survive. In Into the Wild, Krakauer gave McCandless a unique perspective. He was a smart and unique person that wanted to be completely free from society. Krakauer included comments from people that said McCandless was crazy, and his death was his own mistake. However, Krakauer is able to make him seem like a brave person. The connections between other hikers and himself helped in the explanation of McCandless’s rational actions. Krakauer is able to make McCandless look like a normal person, but unique from this generation. In order for Krakauer to make Christopher McCandless not look like a crazy person, but a special person, I will analyze the persuading style that Krakauer used in Into the Wild that made us believe McCandless was a regular young adult.
Pollan’s article provides a solid base to the conversation, defining what to do in order to eat healthy. Holding this concept of eating healthy, Joe Pinsker in “Why So Many Rich Kids Come to Enjoy the Taste of Healthier Foods” enters into the conversation and questions the connection of difference in families’ income and how healthy children eat (129-132). He argues that how much families earn largely affect how healthy children eat — income is one of the most important factors preventing people from eating healthy (129-132). In his article, Pinsker utilizes a study done by Caitlin Daniel to illustrate that level of income does affect children’s diet (130). In Daniel’s research, among 75 Boston-area parents, those rich families value children’s healthy diet more than food wasted when children refused to accept those healthier but
Hemingway also uses immorality as the central idea. The American is trying to convince the girl to abort: ‘“I have known lots of people that have done it…. ‘But if I do it, then it will be nice again if I say things are like white elephants…‘I’ll love it” I just cannot think about it” (596,597). Here one sees how the man manipulates the girl.
winded conversation between an American man and a woman as they drink beer and wait for a
In life we have to make compromises but that doesn’t mean that we have to compromise our thoughts, beliefs, or aspirations to please another. I think that’s what Hemingway was trying to get through. He wrote a piece that was very subtle but packed a lot of meaning and touches on what people really go through in life. When you sit here and dissect the story your imagination takes over and really makes you take your personal experiences and tie them into the story. Your personal experiences can ultimately leave you with a story you can understand thoroughly and understand the emotions coming off of the characters.
He states that the first time the hills are mentioned they are literally mentioned as being “long and white”, but the second time around they are compared to the country side which is “brown and dry”, which symbolisms the limitations and aridity of the couple’s relationship (Weeks, pg. 75). A surprising fact that he put together was color symbolism which included the drink tasting of (black) licorice and the white elephant, contrasting the difference between sorrow and joy with the colors used. This again related back to the brown and dry countryside and how up and down the relationship between the couple is. Weeks also compared the white elephant to something that is unwanted or given away, because this is how the male sees the child, but Jig sees the child in comparison to Buddha’s mothers dream where she envisioned a beautiful white silvery elephant. This is all significant because it shows that the male sees things that are dark such as the drink as a positive rather than the beautiful hills and the meaning of the white elephant. The reader gets a sense of how much the male does not want Jig to keep the child and how awful their communication with each other seems to be. Referring back to the color symbolism having a purpose of showing the reader the “good side” and “bad side” of every reference and color selection made, suggests that Jig stating “wasn’t that bright” fits into this data collation because the purpose of the word bright to show lightness and joy which is what Jig feels about being pregnant even though it is not directly stated. It is important to see that Jig is the one trying to remain hopeful, despite the manipulation she is receiving from her
The material objects that Hemingway uses to convey the theme are beer, the good and bad hillsides, and a railroad station between two tracks. The beer represents the couple’s, “the American” and “the girl’s”, usual routine activity they do together. This bothers the girl because “that’s all [they] do … look at things and try new drinks.” This shows that the girl is tired of doing the same thing and wants to do something different, like having a baby and a family, instead of fooling around all the time. She wants to stop being a girl and become a woman. Hemingway then presents the reader with two contrasting hills. One hill on one side of the station is dull, desolate, and barren; “it had no shade and no trees”, very desert like. However, the other hill on the other side of the station is beautiful, plentiful in nature, and had “fields of grain and tress along the banks of the Ebro River.” Also on each side of the station where each hill is, there is a train track. These objects are symbolic devices prepare the reader in realizing that the characters are in a place of decision. The railroad station is a place of decision where one must decide to go one way or the other. The t...
When I read this story the first time, I was completely lost in finding a meaning or even making sense of it. Upon reading a second and third time, I found the story to be a story within a story, and that in order to understand it; one has to understand the symbolism in it. Hemingway used a story to tell an entirely different story. It was rather fascinating to discover some of the hidden meanings, considering the story is absolutely full of them. It takes a great writer to send the reader on such a journey of discovery, and Hemingway did just that.
Hemingway has created a situation where she is forced to depend on him because she is a young, immature, girl in an adult situation. It is when the American tells jig that “we will be fine afterward. Just like we were before, it is the only thing that bothers us. It’s the only thing that’s made us unhappy” that she realizes nothing will ever be the same no matter what he says. During one discussion she says “we could have everything” the man agrees, then she says “no we can’t it isn’t ours anymore and once they take it away, you can never get it back.” He says “But they haven’t taken it away” and her response is “we’ll wait and see.” The American doesn’t realize that at this point she has discovered that if he cannot love her and be happy while she is pregnant how he will ever truly love her as much as she loves him. According to Robert Barron many critics believe that the couple’s relationship has a bleak and ultimately poor ending (Barron). The older waiter in “A clean, Well-Lighted Place” is dealing with a similar situation when a wealthy old man who is a regular at the café he works at comes in after a failed suicide
When a woman gets pregnant, she and her partner make a serious decision whether they should give birth to the unborn child or abort it. However, sometimes every couple can have a different outlook about giving birth or aborting because every male and female has his or her ways of thinking. In “Hills Like White Elephants,” the author, Ernest Hemingway tells a story of an American man and his girlfriend, Jig, who have a disagreement in the train station on the subject of whether to keep the unborn child or to abort. However, the author uses binary opposition of life and death to portray the polemic argument a couple encounters regarding abortion. As a symbol for the binary opposition of life and death, he represents the couple’s expressions, feelings, and the description of nature.
Stukas, Jake. "Literary analysis: Hills Like White Elephants, by Ernest Hemingway." Helium.com. Web. 21 Nov. 2009. .