Ernest Hemingways Hills Like White Elephants Essay -- Hemingway Hills

Ernest Hemingways Hills Like White ElephantsErnest Hemingways short story Hills Like White Elephants relies on symbolism to carry the theme of either choosing to live selfishly and traffic with the results, or choosing a more difficult and selfless path and reveling in the rewards. The symbolic materials and the symbolic characters aid the readers understanding of the subtle theme of this story. The hammocks constitute ii antithetical decisions that the pregnant girl in our story is confront with. Both hills are completely opposite of each other, and each hill or decision has a consequence that is just as different as the appearance of the hills.Hemingway uses drinking, the hillsides, and a railroad track between the two hills to help convey his theme. The beer in this story is used to represent the couples universal recreational activity to that they do together. Their recreational activity bothers the girl because thats every(prenominal) they do look at things and try new drinks. This pulls the reader some suspicion that the girl has puzzlen tired of doing the same things oer and over again and would deal to do something different, like getting married and get-go a family instead of goofing off all the time. She wants to stop behaving like an childlike girl and become a woman. These desires and feelings show that the girl is ready and desiring a change, however her male partner doesnt seem at all implicated in changing his ways. Hemingway presents the reader with two contrasting hills. One of the hills is dull, desolate, unattractive and barren, it was very much like a desert it had no shadowiness and no trees. The other hill, however, is graceful, plentiful in nature, and abundant. It had fields of grain and gimmick along the banks of the Ebro River. A train track runs between these two hills, and this helps give the reader a sense of impending decision. Symbolically, the girl can train one hill or the other, and she is in the middle of the track deliberateness her options. The girl must charter what path she wants to take with her life. She can ask to abort her child and risk becoming barren and sterile, or, she can choose to keep her baby and her life will be plentiful and beautiful with the delight that children often bring to their parents. If she chooses to abort her baby, she will become like the barren hill, however, if she chooses to keep ... ...woman on the train represents the wiser, older and mature individual that the girl would like to be. She stands in contrast to the American and appeals to the girls secret desires to grow up, and cease with the same old routines. The girl often talks to the highest degree having a charming time and trying new drinks. The woman is displayed as a mature, and older person who works instead of having a fine time and trying new drinks. By her work she is contributing to the universe of discourse more than she is taking from it. She is no longer attracted to the le isurely and selfish lifestyle. She is in an indirect supporting role to the girl because she is the opposite of what the American is and she represents psyche that the girl would like to be. In closing, the theme of this story is conveyed through the symbolism that Hemingway chose. Because of the symbolism in this story, the reader is able to understand the girls inner conflict. by the contrast of the hills and the American and the woman, we are able to see that the girl is incomplete like the American nor like the woman. She is like the railroad track school term between the two hills trying to make up her mind, and follow a trail of her own choosing.