The first time I read this story my mind was spinning. The author left the reader with very
little background information, which challenged the reader to dissect this piece and get to the
bottom of the underlying meaning of this story. After reading it a second time I started to pick up
on what this story actually represented and quite frankly I ended the story feeling upset. Ernest
Hemingway portrayed the plot pessimistically. It wasn’t a happy story, nor was it a happy
ending. In fact, the story felt all too real for how struggling couples interact in today’s society.
The two main characters in this story were the American and the girlfriend. We later find
out the American calls her “Jig.” They both were waiting at a train station …show more content…
We’ve all heard of
the metaphor about the elephant in the room. The elephant in the room is when there’s something
very obvious that no one wants to talk about. In this case, Jig notices the hills look like white
elephants. She continuously looks at the scenery and orders more drinks in an attempt to avoid
the topic about the operation. The hills looking like elephants symbolizes the elephant in their
situation. She doesn’t want to talk about the abortion, and the American is pressing her to have
the operation even though she doesn’t exactly want to. This is a common problem among
couples today. It’s a very dark subject, and difficult to get through, which is another reason why I
think the author is pessimistic when writing the story. The couple never makes any progress on
the issue and it seems as though they are giving each other answers just to satisfy the other
person and shut them up, rather than step up to face reality and solve the problem.
At the end the couple ends up sitting apart from each other. This symbolizes and
foreshadows their impending future. If they can’t figure out this problem, it is inferred that
little background information, which challenged the reader to dissect this piece and get to the
bottom of the underlying meaning of this story. After reading it a second time I started to pick up
on what this story actually represented and quite frankly I ended the story feeling upset. Ernest
Hemingway portrayed the plot pessimistically. It wasn’t a happy story, nor was it a happy
ending. In fact, the story felt all too real for how struggling couples interact in today’s society.
The two main characters in this story were the American and the girlfriend. We later find
out the American calls her “Jig.” They both were waiting at a train station …show more content…
We’ve all heard of
the metaphor about the elephant in the room. The elephant in the room is when there’s something
very obvious that no one wants to talk about. In this case, Jig notices the hills look like white
elephants. She continuously looks at the scenery and orders more drinks in an attempt to avoid
the topic about the operation. The hills looking like elephants symbolizes the elephant in their
situation. She doesn’t want to talk about the abortion, and the American is pressing her to have
the operation even though she doesn’t exactly want to. This is a common problem among
couples today. It’s a very dark subject, and difficult to get through, which is another reason why I
think the author is pessimistic when writing the story. The couple never makes any progress on
the issue and it seems as though they are giving each other answers just to satisfy the other
person and shut them up, rather than step up to face reality and solve the problem.
At the end the couple ends up sitting apart from each other. This symbolizes and
foreshadows their impending future. If they can’t figure out this problem, it is inferred that