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Hills Like White Elephants Ernest Hemingway white elephant symbolism
Hills Like White Elephants Ernest Hemingway white elephant symbolism
Theme of hills like white elephants analysis
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The marriage the couple share is one of convenience as elaborated within the husband’s lack of concern and harshness towards his wife. The wife harbors bottled up feelings, and desires to branch out into the world, forgetting the lonesome loveless marriage she endured for so long. She tells of how she is in need of multiple alterations in life, from materialistic aspects of impossible season change and of course a possession of a cat which translates into her pleading with her husband for a tiny offspring who will undoubtedly bring sunshine and pure exuberance in her depressing existence. Hemingway writes a work of art that explores one woman’s determination of having a “cat”.
In “Hills like White Elephants”, the young couple’s dialogue depicts the conflict of the story which leads to what most readers infer to be the complications of an abrupt pregnancy. The title of the story symbolizes the unborn child that resides within the mother. In olden times and even today, White Elephant is thought of popular gift exchanging game played during the holiday seasons. Players often receive an undesirable present as a result of the game, which in this case is precisely what this child classifies as. Indecisive, and confused, the girl does not seem to know
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Although she has had multiple men lie with her unattached, she’s never really had a taste of true love. This may be why the men seem to blur together and why she doesn’t even recall their physical appearance or much of those vague, meaningless nights. She incorporates the use of a metaphor of a lonely tree to indirectly convey herself, giving the reader an image of a single tree, perhaps in a place full of dead weed, and despair to which all the birds have spread their wings and flown from. The tree doesn’t recall exactly birds have come and gone, It only notices that its “its boughs are more silent than before” (lines
The communication going on between the man and girl in the story, "Hills Like White Elephants,'; are not an honest one. The man seems to lead the conversation where as the girl is quiet. He brings up the subject of 'operation' which suggested abortion, but never mentions the word 'abortion' in the story to understate it. He tries to convince the girl to get the operation, but the girl seems bothered by this subject. However, he does not stop. Their relationship seems to be fine when the baby has not came in between them. We could see this where the guy says, "We'll be fine afterward. Just like we were before.'; The girl wants the relationship to become as before, but is in a huge dilemma whether to give birth to the baby or not. The man does not want the baby and has the choice of abortion in mind, not thinking of the other problems that would occur through operation such as the girl's health. Later on, the girl makes a melancholy remark that the hills look like white elephants. Probably the hills being a round shape reminded her of the baby. She walks toward the end of the station, and sees the beautiful nature. When she looks more toward the nature, one could see her small desire wanting the baby and thinks what may have been happened if she had the baby. The guy does not pay attention to that remark, because he is just concerned about making his point that he wants the operation done, not considering her side.
The symbolism in “Hills Like White Elephants” is very exclusive, but effective. Throughout the story, the hills are said to appear like white elephants, though only in color. The white elephant was a very rare and precious gift, but it was also very costly and could not be used as a beast of burden or killed (Weeks 77). So then we know that something is either seen as precious or as a very costly annoyance. This story starts out with a man and a girl having a conversation while waiting at a train station. The couple is enjoying drinks at a bar and the girl is talking about how the hills look like white elephants, although only in their color. The man seems to ignore her, since he has other things on his mind. The man then tells her it is “An awfully simple operation… It’s just to let the air in (Mays 790).” We now know what the white elephant is a symbol for, a child. The man wants...
Hills like White Elephants takes place in the early twenties, a time when abortions were not only illegal, but negatively impacted ones reputation detrimentally. In the 1920’s, some 15,000 women a year died from abortions because they were shamed into having them done illegally by those who were not medically trained to perform such an operation. (Pollitt) This was because of the extreme prejudice against women and their rights to their own bodies and to making their own decisions. In a time where a woman was viewed as her husband’s property, Jig is torn between making the decision she feels is right and the decision that she is being told is
In conclusion, the short story ‘Hills like White Elephants’ contains symbolism to a high degree. The most important of all symbolism is perhaps the "white elephant". As we all know, a white elephant is a gift that nobody wants. To correlate this to the story, the white elephant is the baby who wants to abort template hesitant.
Hills Like White Elephants displays the differences in the way a man and a woman view pregnancy and abortion. The woman looks at pregnancy as a beautiful aspect of life. In the story the woman’s pregnancy is implied through their conversation. She refers to the near by hills as elephants; "They look like white elephants" (464). She is comparing the hills to her own situation, pregnancy. "They’re lovely hills. They really don’t look like white elephants. I just meant the coloring of their skin through the trees" (465). Just as the hills have their distinct beauty to her, she views pregnancy in the same fashion making the reference to the hills having skin—an enlarged mound forming off of what was once flat. The man views pregnancy just the opposite. When the girl is talking about the white elephants and agrees that the man has never seen one, his response is, "I might have, just because you say I haven’t doesn’t prove anything" (464). This shows the defensive nature of the man, and when the woman implies the he is unable to differentiate between what is beautiful and what is not.
In Hemingway's short story "Hills Like White Elephants," the story starts with a scene that opens on a railway station in Spain where the Barcelona-to-Madrid express is. The American and Jig, his girl, sit at a table drinking beer. The landscape surrounding the station plays a role into a part of the conversation the American and Jig will have later on in the short story. The landscape is described as the valley of the Ebro River, with long white hills on each side. Jigs remarks about the hills looking like white elephants which is a defined as something that is of a great burden or a possession unwanted by the owner but difficult to dispose of, and is especially of something that is expensive to obtain. This remark starts the conversation that is very serious but is being portrayed by the American as not a big deal. The meaning of the conversation is never just bluntly stated, but through clues and a bit of interpretation it is easy to tell that they are having a conversation about Abortion. The man plays off the conversation as not a big deal and a very easy thing to get done, but Jig knows that, that is not the case, and that there is more to the surgery than what the man knows. Through the conversation, the relationship between Jig and the American can be seen as ...
Ernest Hemmingway uses time, place, and symbolism in "Hills like White Elephants" to intensify the central dilemma in a story about a man and a woman deciding on whether to go through with an abortion. Although a literal reading of the title may not seem to have any relation to the story, the title is rich in implications. Critics suggest that "Hills" refers to the shape of a woman's stomach when pregnant, and Webster's 21st Century Dictionary defines white elephant as: "[An] awkward, useless possession. " The term is also defined in Webster's as an item that is worthless to some but priceless to others. According to Victor Lindsey, the child in the story is a white elephant in the view of the man, who is trying to convince the girl to get rid of it.
Swaying trees in the distance, blue skies and birds chirping, all of these are examples of setting. Setting can create the mood and tone of characters in a story. In the story Hills Like White Elephants, the story starts out with our two characters, Jig and the American, also referred to as the man, on a train overlooking mountains. “The girl was looking off at the line of hills. They were white in the sun and the country was brown and dry” (Hemingway). In the case of this short story, the hills provided Jig something to take her mind off of the grueling conversation she was having with the Man. As said by a critic, “the story itself is comprised almost entirely of dialogue. Although there is a situation, there is no plot” (Henningfield). This characteristic makes the story harder to identify. As the couple reached the station they sat down on a bench and continued to talk. “The girl stood up and walked to the end of the station, looking at fields of grain and trees along the banks of the Ebro” (Hemingway). The location of setting plays a big role in how the characters wi...
In the short story by Ernest Hemingway, "Hills Like White Elephants," a couple is delayed at a train station en route to Madrid and is observed in conflict over the girl's impending abortion. In his writing, Hemingway does not offer any commentary through a specific character's point of view, nor, in the storytelling, does he offer his explicit opinions on how to feel or think about the issues that emerge. The narrative seems to be purely objective, somewhat like a newspaper or journal article, and in true Hemingway form the story ends abruptly, without the couple's conflict clearly being resolved. The ambiguity of the ending has been a subject of much debate; however, the impact of what is not said in words can be gleaned through the symbolism of their surroundings. Upon examination of the setting, the couple's final choice becomes instantly apparent.
Through the characters' dialogue, Hemingway explores the emptiness generated by pleasure-seeking actions. Throughout the beginning of the story, Hemingway describes the trivial topics that the two characters discuss. The debate about the life-changing issue of the woman's ...
Each year there is 44 million abortions in the world. Abortion first happened in the 1800s in Western Europe, it has been around in every corner of the world for the past years. Abortion became a “thing” to prevent suffering of the mother and her future child. After the 1800’s that 's when many people began to think of abortion as cruel and inhumane. After making abortion legal in the United States it became one of the most controversial issues ever. Due to abortion being one of the most controversial topics ever it has caused disagreements with the pro-life and pro-choice supporters. Pro Life means that you are against abortion while pro choice means that you agree with abortion. Abortion is the terminating of a pregnancy by removing a fetus
White elephants are seen as something quite special and rare, exactly like her unborn child is to her. The man will not follow her in that idea, he is not open to it, which makes it even harder for the girl not to go through with the abortion. As said in ‘Reading Hemingway’s ‘Men Without Women’ by Joseph M. Flora: ‘the girl is eager to his advice. She wants guidance and she wants her choice to be good.’(page unknown). Because the man wants her to have the abortion, she might do it, just because he wants her to and he believes it is the best thing to
An initial look at the story does not reveal a considerable amount about the conversation and what is happening. An analysis of the work sheds light on the issue of abortion and women’s rights. The setting of “Hills Like White Elephants” is important to understanding the story. The setting is set in a café at a train station.
In the short story “Hills Like White Elephants” by Ernest Hemingway, the author employs the use of the iceberg theory to convey a hidden message within the lines of the story for the reader. Through the use of strictly dialogue, Hemingway allows the reader to only see the part of the iceberg that is above water. The rest of the story is inferred by the reader. For example, Hemingway uses simple sentences rather than complex sentences to get straight to the point. All of Hemingway’s use of detail and explanations of scenery or background is made simple.
This short story is filled with symbolism, some of which the reader may never find. The title itself can be analyzed a lot deeper. The “hills” refers to the shape of the female body during pregnancy and the “white elephants” symbolize a property requiring much care and expense and yielding little profit (merriam-webster.com). The story is about a man and a woman taking a train to get an abortion. The train is supposed to show change and movement, something this couple appears to need because their life is very routine.