H2>Is “It” a Gift or a Curse of the White Elephant? What is the use of symbolism in writing? Is it merely to confuse the reader or is its true intent to make the reader think about the meaning of the story? A symbol is a person, object, or event that suggests more than its literal meaning (Meyer 220).
In Ernest Hemingway’s short story “Hills Like White Elephants,” Hemingway uses a plethora of symbols to convey the idea that the young girl, Jig is ambivalent to having an abortion and that her older American boyfriend does not want to have the baby. Although the word abortion is never used in the story, the reader understands the concept through Hemingway’s symbolism. In the beginning of the story, Jig and her boyfriend are waiting for a train in the valley of Ebro. They did not take a car or any other customary means of transportation. Thus, the train means choice.
On a train, the track can only lead one way or go in the opposite direction, which means that Jig has not made a decision about what she is going to do. At the end of the story, we still do not know what Jig is going to do or what train she is going to take. In addition, the valley of Ebro has a river running through it, the river representing life, the life of the baby. Right now, Jig does not know if she is going to keep the unexpected pregnancy and her boyfriend wants their life as it used to be, without the pregnancy. However, the final decision is Jigs decision. The use of the words “everything” and “not anything” also have meaning throughout story. The boyfriend is constantly telling Jig, “it’s really not anything” (615).
The Essay on A Story In My Life
A story in my life Stories have been told from generation to generation, some families use stories in different context than others. Some families use stories to entertain, touch someone, or to help you learn some sort of life lesson. Story telling has dated far back in time, it began as people singing and chanting while doing tasks to keep themselves entertained. In my family stories are told ...
He feels that the child that is growing in Jig’s stomach is nothing; that he does not even think of it as a part of himself.
He does not want the baby and has put it out of his mind. However, on the other hand, Jig, by at the end of the story has started to think of the child as something. She tells her boyfriend that “we could have all this and we could have everything” (616).
Jig knows that having the child will make her look like a whore in the eyes of her community, thus she knows that she has to get rid of the baby, but in her heart she wants to keep it. Moreover, the story contains the word “two throughout it, which reinforces that Jig and her boyfriend only are not ready to be a three unit family, that they are happy right now with two people. They had “two glasses of beer and two felt pads,” the train only “stopped at this junction for two minutes” (614), and they only had “two heavy bags” (617).
They are not ready for a child and that is why there is an emphasis on the word two. Ironically, the word two could also mean that Jig feels that she is ready to have the baby. She could be seeing herself and the baby as two and thus she is thinking of keeping the baby. Jig might be having the abortion because she is drinking during her pregnancy. Jig does not even think twice about drinking, she is the one that even said, “let’s drink beer” (614).
Even though in this time period a pregnant woman drinking was acceptable, it was suggested that the woman drink very little alcohol.
However, Jig does drink a lot of alcohol at the train station. She continues to drink through out the story and even tries Anis Del Toro, which is illegal alcohol drink in most countries due to the drink killing people when consumed in large quantities. She is already thinking of the child as dead and not being a part of her. Moreover, Jig says, “everything tastes of licorice. Especially all the things you’ve waited so long for, like absinthe” (614).
The Essay on Identify balanced meals, snacks and drinks for children
Identify balanced meals, snacks and drinks for children in their early years, following current government guidance on nutritional needs. Children should be encouraged to eat a varied diet. Setting a schedule for meals and snacks will help keep the children satisfied through the day and avoid them asking at various hours for food. They should eat foods from each of the five main food groups every ...
This line means that Jig has been waiting to become pregnant and now that she has, she feels she has to kill the unborn baby.
Absinthe is a kind of drink, however, it is also considered a poison. Which could mean, that in Jigs mind, she has already made up her mind that she is going to kill the baby, however, in her heart, she still has not made her decision. The land description is also an important symbol in this story. When Jig looks at one side of the train station, she sees “the country was brown and dry” (614).
However, Jig looks in a different direction she sees “fields of grain and tress along the banks of the Ebro (river).
Far away, beyond the river, were mountains. The shadow of a cloud moved across the field of grain” (616).
The two different descriptions are significant because they symbolize the choices that Jig has to make; to have the baby or abort it. The dry countryside represents her feelings if she does not have the baby. The countryside with grain represents fertility. However, the shadow going across the field could also mean what society would think of her if she keeps the baby, and that socially how they would not accept her or the child. Moreover, it almost seems that Jig would want to stay pregnant, seeing it as being more beautiful and full of life, nevertheless we never know what she is going to do. Even the title, “Hills Like White Elephants” is a symbol that Jig does not want to have the baby.
The “Hills” can refer to the shape of a pregnant women’s belly. Especially due to Jig being young, her belly could be very pronounced in the last term. The original meaning of a white elephant came from the Indian society. A white elephant is a creator that the Indian society would consider sacred and if a person were given a white elephant, they would be expected to take care of it and never let it die. However, elephants eat tons of food and would be extremely expensive to take care of, the white elephant would eat a person out of their house and leave them with no money. A white elephant is an unwanted gift, which is now the modern day meaning of a white elephant.
The Essay on Black Like Me White Griffin Man
Greg Trumbold Black Like Me In the Fall of 1959, John Howard Griffin set out on a journey of discovery. A discovery of his own nature, as well as a discovery of human nature. With the help of a friend, Griffin transformed his white male body into that of an African-American male body. Through a series of medical treatments, the transformation was complete. He spent the next several months as an ...
Therefore, the meaning of the title is an unwanted pregnancy or unexpected pregnancy. It is still a gift to Jig as she does not know what she is going to do with the gift and her boyfriend does not want her to have the baby. The woman could also look at pregnancy as a beautiful aspect of life. In the story, the woman’s pregnancy is implied through their conversation. She refers to the near by hills as elephants, “They look like white elephants” (614).
She is comparing the hills to her own situation– pregnancy. “They’re lovely hills. They really don’t look like white elephants.
I just meant the coloring of their skin through the trees” (614).
Just as the hills have their distinct beauty to her, she views pregnancy in the same fashion. Her reference to the hills having skin and enlarged mound forming off what was once flat. The man views pregnancy as the opposite. When the girl is talking about the white elephants, he agrees that he has never seen one, the man’s response is, “I might have, just because you say I haven’t doesn’t prove anything” (614).
This shows the defensive nature of the man, when the woman implies the he is unable to differentiate between what is beautiful and what is not. At the end of the story, the main points are reinforced.
The man returns from taking the bags to the tracks and asks if the woman is ok. Her reply is, “I feel fine. There is nothing wrong with me. I feel fine” (617).
Here she reiterates that she sees the pregnancy as an experience that is not necessarily as bad as the gentleman is implying. The man, on the other hand, feels nothing has been accomplished, “he picked up the two heavy bags and carried them around the station to the other tracks.
He looked up the tracks but could not see the train. Coming back, he walked through the barroom, where people waiting for the train were drinking. He drank an Anis at the bar and looked at the people. They were all waiting reasonably for the train. He went back through the bead curtain. She was sitting there and smiled at him. ‘Do you feel better?'” (617) This is a major metaphor in the story explaining the man’s situation at the end.
He took the bags (questions) to the tracks looking for the train (an answer), but saw nothing coming. The answers to the questions he is looking for are not going to come to him; instead, he has to wait and see what happens. In the bar, he was the only one not waiting patiently for the train, implying that the others are at ease with the situations they are in, not anxious to overcome them. When he returns to the woman, the man asks if she feels better, hoping that the situation would have fixed itself in the time he was gone so he could move on in his life. However, he will never have the power to fix the situation, only Jig can make the decision. Words, drinks, and many other objects were used as symbols in this story. Jig has the undesirable choice to make, to abort the baby that she is carrying or to let it live, and in the end, we still do not know what she is going to do.
The Term Paper on Coping With Miscarriage Men Pain Feel
Coping with Miscarriage: The Male Perspective Fathers who have experienced stillbirth, infant death, or miscarriage walk a uniquely sorrowful and challenging path K[facing] the intense challenge of parenting a child who cannot be physically held, tickled or read to. (Drury, 1) One of the hardest things a couple may face in their lifetimes is the tragedy of miscarriage, also known as spontaneous ...
The man tries to support Jig, but falls short due to his own feelings. He does not want the baby and will say or do almost anything to make Jig feel the same way. Then Jig will believe that if she will abort the baby ” everything will be fine” (616), however, not everything will be fine. Work Cited Hemingway, Ernest. Hills Like White Elephants. The Norton Anthology of Short Fiction.
Ed. R.V. Cassill. New York: W.W. Norton & Company. 1981. 613-617. Symbolism.
The Bedford Introduction to Literature. Ed. Michael Meyer. Boston: Bedford/St. Martins. 2002. 220..
