Every moment is essential in a short story; every action, every word, even every object mentioned. These objects carry with them deeper significance than their physical existence. They are called symbols. Ernest Hemingway fills his story, “Hills Like White Elephants” with an assortment of symbols that help portray the overall theme of the story. Through this symbolism Ernest Hemingway creates the world around the couple waiting for the train and further develops the seemingly petty squabble between them in to a fight against the human condition.
Symbols in Hemingway’s story vary from the grandeur to the seemingly miniscule. However, all the symbolism in “Hills Like White Elephants” present the shaky relationship between the American and the …show more content…
Alcohol plays a significant role in this story, representing their idleness and lubricated relationship with one another. It also represents the longing for an alternative lifestyle the woman has, as portrayed in her exasperations: “Everything tastes like licorice. Especially all the things you’ve waited so long for, like absinthe” (Hemingway 540).
The way they live, the constant traveling, has become tiresome, at least to the woman, and alcohol has become the perfect symbol of this tedium: “That’s all we do isn’t it – look at things and try new drinks” (Hemingway 540). There relationship and way of living has become something of a paradoxical, sacred nothingness.
Through all the symbolism Ernest Hemingway presents in this story, the setting and environment is the most significant symbol, as can be witnessed early in to the work: “The girl was looking off at the lines of hills. They were white in the sun and the country was brown and dry.” She then spoke in her purest form the most significant symbol of the whole story, “They look like white elephants” (Hemingway 539). This is a symbol of their lives, of their relationship, and of the choices that must be made. The white elephant is something that is both rare and sacred, as it is also essentially useless. It is a symbol of their lives spent traveling, something
Symbols in Hemingway’s story vary from the grandeur to the seemingly miniscule. However, all the symbolism in “Hills Like White Elephants” present the shaky relationship between the American and the …show more content…
Alcohol plays a significant role in this story, representing their idleness and lubricated relationship with one another. It also represents the longing for an alternative lifestyle the woman has, as portrayed in her exasperations: “Everything tastes like licorice. Especially all the things you’ve waited so long for, like absinthe” (Hemingway 540).
The way they live, the constant traveling, has become tiresome, at least to the woman, and alcohol has become the perfect symbol of this tedium: “That’s all we do isn’t it – look at things and try new drinks” (Hemingway 540). There relationship and way of living has become something of a paradoxical, sacred nothingness.
Through all the symbolism Ernest Hemingway presents in this story, the setting and environment is the most significant symbol, as can be witnessed early in to the work: “The girl was looking off at the lines of hills. They were white in the sun and the country was brown and dry.” She then spoke in her purest form the most significant symbol of the whole story, “They look like white elephants” (Hemingway 539). This is a symbol of their lives, of their relationship, and of the choices that must be made. The white elephant is something that is both rare and sacred, as it is also essentially useless. It is a symbol of their lives spent traveling, something