Paper Topic:

Looking at Hemingway`s `Hills Like White Elephants` employ explication to analyze one element of the story and how you think it makes the story good or bad.

Hills Like White Elephants : Explication of Symbolism

Ernest Hemingway , the great American author of the twentieth century is known for saying a lot without writing many words . He often used symbolism in his short simple writing so that he could accomplish this task . It has many things hidden inside the plot , which the potential reader has to guess and find its meaning reading between the lines (Renkiel ) In the story Hills Like White Elephants , Hemingway uses symbolism to not only help tell the story , but to create the tense mood and tone of

the story . The story was written in 1927 , but is still relevant seventy years later . As long as there are couples who are faced with a crossroads in their relationship , there will be those who can relate to this story

The story is about an American male and a woman at a railway station between Barcelona and Madrid , Spain and is told mostly through dialogue In Hills Like White Elephants , the narrative is almost all dialogue between Jig and the American man , so we must take our clues from them It never comes out and says , but it is obvious that the man wants the woman to have an abortion , which was illegal in Spain at the time While neither the man or woman wants the baby , she is not sure that she wants to have an abortion as the solution to her problem . The man keeps telling her that it is a simple operation and that I 'll go with you and I 'll stay with you all the time . They just let the air in and then it 's all perfectly natural (Hemingway . They both know that this is the end of the relationship despite the promises made by the American man

Jig , the woman , and the American are drinking beer and trying new drinks while they wait for their train . She comments that the hills look like white elephants even though neither one of them have ever seen one . White elephants are symbolic for something that is too big and costly for what it is worth . So the white elephant in their situation is the baby . Babies are expensive and even though they bring a huge amount of joy , they are also a lot of work . Hence , to this couple it would be a white elephant and there is no room in their lives for this situation . The thought of a baby permanently ties him to Jig . he is telling her now that he will stay with her , but it is very unlikely since he does not want the ties of this child

The hills are symbolic of the belly of the pregnant woman . As the pregnancy progresses , her abdomen will grow and become rounded like a hill . It is difficult to climb a hill just as a pregnancy can be difficult is several ways . It can be difficult in a physical way . Many women find themselves terribly sick , and sometimes the pregnancy can...

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