Symbolism in Hills Like White Elephants Literary Essay Example

📌Category: Hemingway, Literature, Writers
📌Words: 993
📌Pages: 4
📌Published: 03 April 2022

The author uses symbolism in specific parts of the story to help the reader challenge their mind and create a picture. This means that any given object or thing could show a much greater picture. One of the main parts of the short story is when Jig, the female character, talks about the view that she is seeing from the waiting area of the train station. There was also a misunderstanding going on between the man and the woman in this short story. They talked about how he believes that she should get an abortion when she hasn’t come to a final conclusion. In Hemingway’s “Hills Like White Elephants” Jig’s importance of the decision erupts in the moment that will make her consider what she has to do to make the right decision; here are some ways that the author uses symbolism, allegory, and motif to tell his story with deeper meaning.   

First, the author is trying to express individual parts of the story by using allegory, he uses this in various ways; such as having a sentence or a phrase with an underlying meaning.  While she is talking, she is saying "All right. I was trying. I said the mountains looked like white elephants. Wasn't that bright?"; I think that this shows significance throughout the story. This shows significance because the mountains that she is talking about are the roundness of her pregnant belly, and it will be a hill that she has to get over if she decides to go through with this pregnancy. This is something that is a challenging decision between the couple, they have a disagreement in the following lines, "It's really an awfully simple operation, Jig," the man said. "It's not really an operation at all." The girl looked at the ground the table legs rested on. " I know you wouldn't mind it, Jig. It's really not anything. It's just to let the air in." The girl did not say anything.”. This is an important line in the story, the words “Just to let the air in.” are essential to their disagreement considering that he is telling her essentially to take the fetus out and let the air in. It's just as simple as ‘letting the air in’ to him but she is not all that sure. These phrases stuck out with the use of allegory throughout the story.   

Additionally, throughout this paragraph, I am showing where the author uses motifs in the text that stuck out to me. There was also a misunderstanding going on between the man and the woman in this short story, talking about how he thinks that she should get an abortion when ultimately, she is undecided. We as the readers know that having an abortion is not as effortless as the man makes it seem. It can take a huge toll on a woman’s mental and physical health, but it is clear that to the man it is an awfully simple operation. In these next few lines, it shows where he doesn’t see the weight this will put on her shoulders, "No, it isn't. And once they take it away, you never get it back." "But they haven't taken it away." "We'll wait and see." "Come on back in the shade," he said. "You mustn't feel that way." "I don't feel any way," the girl said. "I just know things." " I don't want you to do anything that you don't want to do—" "Nor that isn't good for me," she said.”. These few lines show their conversation after them talking about how they could have it all if she would just go through with the procedure. If she could do that then everything could go back to normal for them. This is all that the man wants, he is not ready to settle down and wants to keep living his adventurous lifestyle full of traveling. This is shown to us in these lines, “He did not say anything but looked at the bags against the wall of the station. There were labels on them from all the hotels where they had spent nights.” by Hemingway allowing us to see this it is showing that he just wants to keep traveling and this is essentially the reason why he wants her to get rid of the fetus.   

Furthermore, the author uses symbolic phrases to show the underlying meanings of the short story.  There are many parts of this story that have a deeper meaning. All readers might not be able to grasp the meaning without spending time trying to interpret the hidden messages throughout. Here are some phrases that stuck out to me, and what I feel that they mean. The clouds she sees are the abortion of the fetus, the clouds can be so nice white and fluffy but they can easily change to any shape. To me, this represents the abortion of the fetus because the cloud can be bright and white, but also dull and dark. The fields of trees and grains represent fruitfulness, when she goes up and walks towards the window saying that this all could be theirs, it represents fruitfulness to me because she is feeling hope; and is excited to see what the future could bring if she decided to settle down. The dry side of the valley is showing what her body would be like after the abortion, almost foreshadowing as he leads with “You've got to realize," he said, "that I don't want you to do it if you don't want to. I'm perfectly willing to go through with it if it means anything to you. Thus, telling us that if she went through with this operation then she would almost feel robbed of something. She would be dry, as in unhappy, bored, and ready for something different. I think that all of these are significant uses of the phrases in the story to show the uncertainty and hardship this couple is facing.   

Conclusively, while some could see the story as less than what it is, you have to look deeper into the meaning behind it to see what the author was really trying to make clear. The author uses allegory, symbolism, and motifs in the short story to portray key points that aren't easily understood, thus leaving us to take a closer look at the story itself. 

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