Symbolism in Hills Like White Elephants Essay

'Hills Like White Elephants'

Ernest Hemingway's short story 'Hills Like White Elephants' is a story about a couple who are having some trouble in their relationship. The main characters in the story are an American man and a girl. The whole story is mostly a dialogue between the couple. In this story that takes place in Spain while a man and woman wait for a train. The story is set up as a dialogue between the two, in which the man is trying to convince the woman to do something she is hesitant in doing.

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 womans pregnancy is implied through their conversation. This couple is at a critical point in their lives when they must decide whether or not to have an abortion. Certain themes arise from this story such as choices and consequences, doubt and ambiguity, and how men and women relate. The couple is unmarried and the girl has become pregnant, but the man wants her to have an abortion. The man is really selfish he is didnt want to responsible to take care the baby and become family.

Writer also uses many examples of symbolism in Hills Like White Elephants, including descriptions of the surrounding scenery, the hills themselves, and the station where the action takes place. The differences in each character in their personality, means of communication and desires, truly emphasize the constant opposition that burns between them, this very opposition leads to the couples inevitable separation, as Jig discovers herself and her independence through the dilemma at hand. The story might have shown his true feelings about the pregnancy. In the story, the boyfriend is moody and wants the girl to do what he wants. From boy side he wants this abortion because he wants to keep his current lifestyle. This story ends with no resolution, I thing the writer wants the readers to conclude for themselves what will happen next.