What is the poem Hills Like White Elephants about?

Ernest Hemingway’s “Hills Like White Elephants” tells the story of a man and woman drinking beer and anise liqueur while they wait at a train station in Spain. The man is attempting to convince the woman to get an abortion, but the woman is ambivalent about it.

What do the hills represent in Hills Like White Elephants?

Hills which are like white elephants represent a belly of a pregnant woman. It describes the state of the couple’s relationship if their unplanned pregnancy results in death. Things can’t go back to the way they were, their lives will always be impacted by the decision to carry out the abortion.

What is the symbolic meaning of white elephant?

A white elephant is an idiom for a valuable possession of which its owner cannot dispose and whose cost (particularly cost of upkeep) is out of proportion to its usefulness or worth. So, the white elephant is the unborn baby that the couple is discussing.

What does alcohol symbolize in Hills Like White Elephants?

When reading Hills Like White Elephants, it is obvious that drinking alcohol is a large part of their relationship. Alcohol is not portrayed as a good thing. The symbolic part of the alcohol is that it is the only functioning part of their relationship.

What is the symbolism of white elephants?

The white elephant—which was more often than not stricken with albinism, and thus more a ruddy-pink color—was, and remains to this day, a symbol of success. To possess a white elephant connoted political power, wealth and prosperity, great wisdom, and the love of one’s people.

What do hills symbolize?

Hills carry their own significance least of which is the concept of higher and lower levels of land – the latter can contain swamps, people, darkness, fields, heat, unpleasantness, life whilst the former can suggest isolation, life, death, thin air, purity, clear views to name a few.

What is the purpose of white elephant?

A white elephant gift exchange, Yankee swap or Dirty Santa is a party game where amusing and impractical gifts are exchanged during festivities. The goal of a white elephant gift exchange is to entertain party-goers rather than to gain a genuinely valuable or highly sought-after item.

What does a white elephant mean spiritually?

White elephants are believed to be a symbol of purity, divinity and a calm mind, while grey elephants symbolize an untrained and agitated mind, which tends to wander off from the path toward enlightenment.

What could alcohol symbolize?

Alcohol is a symbolic vehicle for identifying, describing, constructing and manipulating cultural systems, values, interpersonal relationships, behavioural norms and expectations.

What is the summary of hills like white elephants?

Hills like white elephants “Hills like White Elephants is a story about an American man and a girl named Jig who has become pregnant. It appears that their relationship was not a serious one. They were traveling together and having a good time.

What is the irony in “hills like white elephants”?

The title “Hills Like White Elephants” has irony in itself. In the story they both view a hillside that reminded Jig of white elephants. This is ironic because white elephants are very rare and important. This is how Jig views her unborn child and that she doesn’t want to come through with the abortion.

What is the plot of “hills like white elephants”?

The plot in “Hills Like White Elephants” is about a couple who is having a passive aggressive conversation about abortion. The girl is trying to decide what to do and the man is trying to convince her. The plot is not clear until the man starts speaking of an operation. This is an epiphany.

What is the point of view in hills like white elephants?

This story, Hills Like White Elephants, is taken form the Objective (dramatic) point of view where the author is the narrator. The author doesn’t enter the mind of the characters at any time. He allows us only to see the characters as we would in real life. This is sometimes called the dramatic point of view.