5) The "hills" are symbolic of the way woman's stomach looks while she is pregnant. They also symbolize the idea of fertility and barrenness. One hill, on one side of the station is dull, desolate, and barren; "it had no shade and no trees." However, the other hill on the other side of the station is beautiful, full of nature, and has "fields of grain and tress along the banks of the Ebro River. "(Hemingway, 1927, para.
Critique of “Hills Like White Elephants” Ernest Hemingway is well known for his theme of symbolism in his stories. “Hills Like White Elephants” is a short and vague story that revolves around a brief conversation between an American boy and a girl he calls “Jig” while they debate her having a procedure, which is perceived to be an abortion. This story was written before abortion was legalized in America. “By 1910 all but one state had criminalized abortion .” (Henshaw, 2010). This made the procedure a huge issue for the two main characters.
Hemingway’s use of symbolism in the dialogue and setting helps reveal the difficult matter through suggestion without the actual term abortion being mentioned. For instance, the term white elephant is used as a metaphor to represent the unborn baby and describe the adjustment on their lives a baby would bring. The girl looked at the mountains and states, “They look like white elephants” (Hemingway 97). The man disagrees with her statement and tension builds. The girl retracts her statement, and states, of course, the mountains do not really look like white elephants only "their skin through the trees” (Hemingway 98).
Victoria Sanchez ENG 113 Paula Quintal 27 September 2011 Symbolism in Hills Like White Elephants “The woman brought two glasses of beer and two felt pads. She put the felt pads and the beer glasses on the table and looked and the man and the girl. The girl was looking off at the line of hills. They were white in the sun and the country was brown and dry. 'They look like white elephants,' she said.” (Hemingway, 1927) Hills like White Elephants, by Ernest Hemingway, is a short story published in 1927.
The impression presented is that the characters are at a train station in the middle of a dry barren place, under the sun, with no shade or trees, which gives the reader the idea of the lack of life. The characters are alone in the warm shadow of the building, separated from the world by a curtain, yet still in nature, where life is. The use of a train station as the location, where the story takes place is probably because of the confusing conversation that dominates the conflict in the story. The conversation between the man and woman is much like the train tracks, running parallel, yet never meeting. The man and woman are talking, but neither is hearing what is being said.
At one point in the middle of their conversation Jig looks off into the distance and notices the big white hills. She says “they look like white elephants.” This symbolizes the innocence of her and her unborn baby, and clarifies to the reader that her opinion is
Symbolism In “Hills Like White Elephants” In the short story “Hills Like White Elephants”, Ernest Hemmingway uses so much symbolism that it is almost impossible to know the importance of what the characters are discussing without a little insight into his use of imagery. Often in the story, the symbolism is subtly hidden within seemingly minor details that can bring a major amount of meaning into perspective. The first examples of symbolism are right in the title of the story: “Hills Like White Elephants”. The hills in the title are found in the dry, sunlight scenery referenced by Jig at the train station while she and the American were drinking their beers. The word hill first brings to mind an image of a geological structure, any raised mound of earth; however, in the story it comes to mean so much more.
Corey R. Davis Professor Johnston English 102*32 2/10/12 Hills Like White Elephants Literary Analysis The literary fiction short story, “Hills Like White Elephants”, was written by Ernest Hemingway in 1927 out of the Men Without Women short story collection. The story is set at a train station in Ebro River in Spain. While a man called “the American” and the women called “Jig”, are waiting for the train to Madrid to arrive, they both order a few alcoholic beverages to speed the waiting time up. The woman looks off into the hill line and discovers that the hills are white in the sun and the country was brown. “They look like white elephants”, the women said to the man.
The symbolism of the hills represents the belly of a pregnant woman. The silence of this symbolism gives the readers clues to let them know that the couple is talking about an abortion. The silence of “Hills Like White Elephants” never tells the reader what the couple is actually discussing or talking about. The phrase “It’s really an awfully simple operation, Jig. It’s not really an operation at all” (Hemingway, 2011, p. 445) is a clue that allows the reader to figure out the couple is talking about an abortion.
The woman wore giant sunglasses and a little Mona Lisa smile that I guess is supposed to communicate her disdain for her uterus and her utter satisfaction with her size-4, cellulite-free, vacation-filled life. Cover Photo Lady has lots of company: the American birth rate has literally never been lower in our recorded history. That includes the Great Depression, when people were too busy being Greatly Depressed to have babies. TIME tells us that the birth rate declined 9% between 2007 and 2011, which apparently is like whoa.