Hills Like White Elephants Essay

Hills Like White Elephants tells the chronicle of a womilitary personnel, jig, and a humanness known only as the American, sitting in a address station. Though the narrative is brief, it has more than to say. When training the invention for the first time its full effect doesnt set in. By taking a closer look and rereading the tarradiddle, a bigger mail is revealed other than what seems to be a dull conversation. Jig is pregnant and the American man is pressuring her into having an abortion. The little exposit in the story, some which may gaucherie by you, symbolize the man and womans post. The story takes go under in a train station in Spain.The whole story is set around Jig and the American man wait on the train to arrive. But it isnt really the train they be waiting on, its answers. They be stuck at a crossroad wish a train. Which burster to go? Which train tracks to go conquer? In other manner of speaking which path do they choose for their future? Should she k eep the baby or should she give in to the mans pressuring. At the end of the story the American man looked up the tracks but could non see the train. That could be interpreted as the man not seeing what his future fuddles. It excessively means that he doesnt know when the couples answers bequeath come and be solved if they ever are.Although the train symbolizes the choice in a path it also symbolizes time. the express from Barcelona would come in twoscore transactions. Time moves quickly by dint of the story because what seems to be a short conversation takes up most of the time they had before the train was to arrive. By the end of the story there is only 5 minutes until the train comes. The train like Jig and the mans life history is moving rather quickly. The train suggests that they dont have much time to decide on what theyre pass to do more or less the baby. Jig compares the hills that surround the train station to white elephants.They look like white elephants she said. In response the man says Ive never seen one. In which she replies No, you wouldnt have. In this slip white elephants symbolize a situation that is unavoidable. Like in the phrase the elephant in the room, the elephant is big and approximately impossible to avoid. Jig and the mans situation is an elephant in the room. No matter how hard they try to dodge their problem, its always going to be there. The lines quoted above also suggest that Jig feels that the man never had to deal with something as substantial as this life changing decision.When reading a piece of literature some things may seem to case by us. For example when reading Hills Like White Elephants the waitress puts the drinks down on matt-up pads. When reading its for the first time, the felt up pads are just coasters and the drink is just a drink. But when rereading the short story the felt pads represent more, they symbolize an intake of purports, thoughts and personal opinions. And what seems to be a sim ple alcoholic drink can be interpreted as bottled up emotions. The woman brought out two glasses of beer and two felt pads. She put the felt pads and the beer glasses on the table and looked at the man and the girl. A coasters purpose is to catch the drips of water that condensates from cold beverages. In this case the drips that came from the cold beer can represent all the emotions that Jig and the man were feeling about their situation that were finally released during their conversation. All those emotions and thought were captured and soaked up by the felt pad. By the end the woman came out through the curtains with two glasses of beer and put them down on the damp felt pads. The felt pad represents how Jig and the American man intake distributively others feelings.The felt pads are damp in the end because so many emotions were taken in. The bead curtains separate the man and Jig from the bar and its master(prenominal) purpose is to keep out flies. The bead curtains are tra nsparent centre that both Jig and the man are able to see through them. The bead curtain symbolizes a problem that both Jig and the American man can see but are unable to endeavour a solving to. They cant reach a solution because of a barrier which is also represented by the curtains. The barrier separates Jig and the man. The girl looked at the bead curtain, put her hand out and took hold of two of the strings of beads. This seems to be Jigs way of trying to understand the man view she takes hold of the barrier but doesnt quite go through. Although Hills Like White Elephants seems like a shorts story with not much to it, when reread numerous times, the story bring into beings much more. The little details that arent very noticeable when read the first time become the backbone of what the story is truly about. The symbols in the story suggest meanings that are larger than itself. The story of whats thought to be a daily conversation between a man and woman turns out to be a con versation about a life changing situation.