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Hills Like White Elephants

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Hills Like White Elephants
Daniel Halbert
English 101
9/19/13
Hills like white elephants

Life and death a choice debated every day in the world we live in. In the short story "Hills Like White Elephants" the author Ernest Hemingway skillfully uses the setting to hint the choice many of us face today. The decision of whether or not a fetus of an unborn baby should be aborted. from the symbolism of the hills, the tracks, and the states of each land we will be able to see the pros and cons of both choices.

When the girl mentions the hills and how they look like white elephants is the first hint given of what they are actually talking about. When the girl says "They don't really look like white elephants. I just meant the coloring of their skin through the trees." it gives us a look into her longing for a child. the fact that she wants that connection but at the same time doesn't know if she could handle it. Wondering if that maternal bond will give her happiness or change her life into something she doesn't want.

The train station show us the is a choice to be made whether to go forward or to go back. With one train going right taking them to the city to have an abortion and live the life they had before this decision. Then other taking them left away from to city to keep the baby and live the new life set before them. No one can decide for them because this choice will be the defining moment in there lives, all depending on the train they choose to take.

The tracks separate the desolate land from the rich fertile land which can be seen as life from death. The north being baron and dry symbolizes them having the abortion and taking away life of the child. like as is the child had never been part of their lives and they could free live their lives before this situation had appeared. While the rich and fertile in the south signifies them keeping the child and not going through with the abortion. Allowing them to live this new life with life of their child in it.

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