An extension of the structuralism methods includes the Derridean linguistic methods of deconstruction. Hills Like White Elephants consistently suggests the ideas of pregnancy and abortion. The title itself contains the word hills that could be in reference to a baby bump; furthermore, the world elephants contain nine letters that insinuate the idea of the nine months term that occurs during pregnancy. When viewing the text through the deconstructive theoretical lens, the words hills and elephants could have infinite significations and meanings rather than just carrying the central idea of pregnancy. Jacques Derrida claims that the center “has no natural locus (Derrida 916)” rather it serves as a function in “which an infinite number of sign-substitutions
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He claims that the capitalistic society of the western hemisphere distinguished the role of the author rather than seeing a text as a work of a culture. This deconstructive argument portrays the idea that by assigning a specific author to a text limits the potential meaning of that text. Barthes believes that all text have been written before, and are part of larger cultural text that individual writers pick up and use in different arrangements. Furthermore, the reader (who is also part of all the texts circulating in the metaphysical world of cultural discourse) interacts with the given text in a given moment to generate meaning; therefore, it is wrong to speak of an author as the main source of meaning. Barthes says that writing will perpetuate by the removal of the author hence, “the birth of the reader must be at the cost of the death of the Author (Barthes 877).” This idea rises through the concept that everything is a part of a greater cultural discourse, and everything shapes and generates an individual’s idea. In terms of Hills Like White Elephants, a deconstructive approach would claim that the meaning of the text is infinite and it is in the mind of the reader. Though Ernest Hemingway wrote the short story, the story still serves as a gathering of the already preexisting ideas that float in the metaphysical world; so Hemingway does not hold the true of meaning …show more content…
The scientific dissection of the language illuminate the way syntagmatic and associative relationships within a text can help the meaning of a text come to light. Roland Barthes claims that a deconstructionist would pull on “the thread dangling from a sweater… and [watch] as the fabric of the garment unravels into a pile of yarn from which it was made (Richter 835).” By reading a text in a deconstructive way the instability of a center is exposed. This instability and lack of a transcendent center results in an endless chain of signifiers. While structuralism argues that everything fits into a hierarchical structure, deconstruction shows the unraveling of this structure. In Hills Like White Elephants the structuralism approach allows the reader to see the relationships between the signifier and signified and the syntagmatic and associative relationships; the deconstructive approach unravels these ideas and claims that meaning of a text is continuously deferred between different cultures, societies, and
He claims that the capitalistic society of the western hemisphere distinguished the role of the author rather than seeing a text as a work of a culture. This deconstructive argument portrays the idea that by assigning a specific author to a text limits the potential meaning of that text. Barthes believes that all text have been written before, and are part of larger cultural text that individual writers pick up and use in different arrangements. Furthermore, the reader (who is also part of all the texts circulating in the metaphysical world of cultural discourse) interacts with the given text in a given moment to generate meaning; therefore, it is wrong to speak of an author as the main source of meaning. Barthes says that writing will perpetuate by the removal of the author hence, “the birth of the reader must be at the cost of the death of the Author (Barthes 877).” This idea rises through the concept that everything is a part of a greater cultural discourse, and everything shapes and generates an individual’s idea. In terms of Hills Like White Elephants, a deconstructive approach would claim that the meaning of the text is infinite and it is in the mind of the reader. Though Ernest Hemingway wrote the short story, the story still serves as a gathering of the already preexisting ideas that float in the metaphysical world; so Hemingway does not hold the true of meaning …show more content…
The scientific dissection of the language illuminate the way syntagmatic and associative relationships within a text can help the meaning of a text come to light. Roland Barthes claims that a deconstructionist would pull on “the thread dangling from a sweater… and [watch] as the fabric of the garment unravels into a pile of yarn from which it was made (Richter 835).” By reading a text in a deconstructive way the instability of a center is exposed. This instability and lack of a transcendent center results in an endless chain of signifiers. While structuralism argues that everything fits into a hierarchical structure, deconstruction shows the unraveling of this structure. In Hills Like White Elephants the structuralism approach allows the reader to see the relationships between the signifier and signified and the syntagmatic and associative relationships; the deconstructive approach unravels these ideas and claims that meaning of a text is continuously deferred between different cultures, societies, and