Essay On Symbolism In Hills Like White Elephants
Choosing which paths to take when confronted with a cross-road is a complicated but necessary process in life. This process becomes even more complicated when having to base decision-making with another person’s interest in mind. Often couples are faced with a forking path, sometimes putting their relationship on the line depending on which way to turn. In the short story “Hills like White Elephants,” Hemingway exemplifies this fact of life and relays this message to his readers by telling the vague yet compelling story about an American couple and the compromise that puts a strain on their relationship. Jig and the man stopped at a junction on their way to madrid, where they are forced to deal with the constant elephant in the room- Jig’s
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Foremost, the first sign of symbolism is presented when Jig was looking at the line of white hills, she observes that “they look like white elephants”(Hemingway). This use of symbolism with the hills looking like white elephants delivers the idea of the “elephant in the room,” being the topic of Jig’s decision on the abortion. This reference to the hills looking like white elephants sparks the conversation of Jig’s “operation,” which constantly only ends in the couple resenting each other, which is why the topic is normally avoided completely while they spend most of their time drinking and traveling. Jig constantly makes subtle hints that she’d like to keep the child, while her boyfriend makes subtle hints that having that child would lead to the end of their relationship, regardless of the condescending reassurance that if she “doesn't want to, she doesn't have to.” Jig is left with the decision of choosing to follow the man’s hidden suggestions about aborting their child or she can follow her own instincts and keep the child that she seems to see as more of a gift than a problem. This use of symbolism shows how love can influence your decision making when one is given the ultimatum of staying with one’s lover, or following their own personal
Foremost, the first sign of symbolism is presented when Jig was looking at the line of white hills, she observes that “they look like white elephants”(Hemingway). This use of symbolism with the hills looking like white elephants delivers the idea of the “elephant in the room,” being the topic of Jig’s decision on the abortion. This reference to the hills looking like white elephants sparks the conversation of Jig’s “operation,” which constantly only ends in the couple resenting each other, which is why the topic is normally avoided completely while they spend most of their time drinking and traveling. Jig constantly makes subtle hints that she’d like to keep the child, while her boyfriend makes subtle hints that having that child would lead to the end of their relationship, regardless of the condescending reassurance that if she “doesn't want to, she doesn't have to.” Jig is left with the decision of choosing to follow the man’s hidden suggestions about aborting their child or she can follow her own instincts and keep the child that she seems to see as more of a gift than a problem. This use of symbolism shows how love can influence your decision making when one is given the ultimatum of staying with one’s lover, or following their own personal