Hills Like White Elephants Essay

Hills Like White Elephants tells the story of a wo hu domainity, gigue, and a while known only as the American, sitting in a shack station. Though the story is brief, it has much to say. When reading the story for the primary quantify its full effect doesnt set in. By taking a closer case and rereading the story, a bigger situation is revealed other than what seems to be a dull conversation. trip the light fantastic is pregnant and the American man is pressuring her into having an abortion. The little details in the story, somewhat which may slip by you, symbolize the man and fair sexs situation. The story takes place in a train station in Spain.The integral story is set around trip the light fantastic toe and the American man waiting on the train to arrive. but now it isnt really the train they are waiting on, its answers. They are stuck at a crossroad homogeneous a train. Which direction to go? Which train tracks to go vote out? In other words which trend do they ch oose for their future? Should she exert 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 not see the train. That could be interpreted as the man not seeing what his future holds. It also means that he doesnt know when the couples answers will come and be solved if they ever are.Although the train symbolizes the alternative in a path it also symbolizes time. the express from Barcelona would come in forty minutes. beat moves quickly through with(predicate) 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 is moving rather quickly. The train suggests that they preceptort have much time to decide on what theyre going to do about(predicate) the baby. Jig compares the hills that surround the train station to white elephants.The y look like white elephants she said. In resolution the man says Ive never seen one. In which she replies No, you wouldnt have. In this case white elephants symbolize a situation that is unavoid equal. Like in the phrase the elephant in the room, the elephant is big and almost 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 circle with something as substantial as this life changing decision.When reading a piece of literature some things may seem to slip by us. For example when reading Hills Like White Elephants the waitress puts the drinks down on felt pads. When reading its for the scratch time, the felt 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 feelings, thoughts and personal opinions. An d what seems to be a simple 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 tabular array and looked at the man and the girl. A coasters purpose is to catch the drips of water that condensates from frosty 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. exclusively 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 each 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 main purpose is to keep out flies. The be ad curtains are transparent meaning 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 reach a solution 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 kind of go through. Although Hills Like White Elephants seems like a shorts story with not much to it, when reread numerous times, the story becomes 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 big than itself. The story of whats thought to be a mundane conversation between a man and woman turns out to be a conversation about a life changing situation.