Ernest Hemingways Hills Like White Elephants Essay

Ernest Hemingways Hills Like White Elephants Ernest Hemingways short story Hills Like White Elephants relies on symbolism to carry the theme of either choosing to live selfishly and dealing 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 hills symbolize two different decisions that the pregnant girl in our story is faced 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†¦show more content†¦She must choose one hill or another, she cannot sit on the tracks forever and mull over the pros and cons of each decision. The girl, the American and the woman all symbolize the decision that must be made. The girl symbolizes youth, innocence and naivety. She is totally ignorant of the consequences of an abortion because she is young, beautiful and in the prime of her life, and experiencing new things all the time. Hemingway uses her to show a young, pregnant girl trying to decide if she wants to remain carefree like the American or if she wants to be like the woman and be wise and mature. The girl battles back and forth with an inner conflict, two different sides pulling at her final decision; If she has her baby she will ruin her youthfulness and destroy her romantic relationship with the American, but it very well could transform her into a woman who is wise, mature and focused on someone other than herself. The girl is getting tired of the same routine of drinks and a social life and she decides to do something very different. She decides to keep her baby, to become a woman and leave her carefree and childish ways behind. However, the only thing that is standing between the girl and the life she wants for herself and her child is the American. The American is a selfish individualist that wants to do things his way and only lives to please himself. TheShow MoreRelatedAbortion In Ernest Hemingways Hills Like White Elephants1237 Words   |  5 Pages The short story â€Å"Hills Like White Elephants,† by Ernest Hemingway, talk about a young couple and their relationship issue about abortion. Even though, the story happened in a short period of time, but it tells more than just a story. The woman named Jig, where the man only called as â€Å" a man† or â€Å" The American.† Although the relationship between them is complicated, but it is clearly that they are not married. 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