Hills like white elephants论文

短篇小说论文

An Analysis of the metaphors in Hills Like White Elephants

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Abstract

Hills Like White Elephants is one of the most famous American short stories ever by Ernest Hemingway. It is of all the main features of Hemingway s writing with telegraphic style metaphors and Iceberg Theory. This paper tries to analysis the metaphors existing in this story and explore the character images.

Instruction

Hills Like White Elephants was first published in Paris in transition magazine in August 1927. In October of the same year, Scribner's published it in New York as part of a Hemingway short-story collection, Men Without Women. It is a short story about an American man and a girl named Jig. In the story the two are sitting in a train station in Spain , drinking beer and anise liquor while waiting for the train to Madrid. While they are waiting, they have an intense, ongoing discussion over whether or not Jig will get an abortion. The man is attempting to convince the woman to get an abortion, but the woman is ambivalent about it. At the end of the story, the train is about to arrive and the man carries the baggage to the tracks as they prepare to depart. The ending of the story is unclear ,because Hemingway didn t give us the outcome of Jig s decision. In the end of the story, Jig just says, "There s nothing wrong with me,I feel fine."-- her happiness is a central theme of the story, but we are still wondering whether she went through with with the operation or not after finishing reading this story.

As we all know, Hemingway is very strict in choosing scenes in his works. In the world of Hemingway, each story can only belong to the scene where it happens. Choosing a good stage or scene contributes to save a lot of language but to express better. Hills Like White Elephants is no exception. Each scene appears in this story is not by accident - the hills, white elephants, the railway station, and so on. All of these are metaphors with implied meaning which contribute to painting a true picture of what lies beneath.[1]

The Hills

In the novel, the girl was looking off at the line of hills. They were white in the sun and the country was brown and dry.

"They look like white elephants,” she said.

"I've never seen one," the man drank his beer.

"No, you wouldn't have."

In this dialogue, the hills may symbolize big obstacles that we must climb, but they are not enormous mountains. This represents the fact that the girl's baby is a major obstacle in her life, but it is not the end of her life and she will make it through.

Jig looks at the hills and sees opportunity, yet at the same time the man looks at the hills and

短篇小说论文

sees nothing-- his vision of a positive and happy future is blocked by the enormous obstacle of the child. The man s reaction of this symbol is so realistic that causes Jig s dissatisfy. "No, you wouldn't have." She says it with a tone of complaint, and then they give tit for tat. From this time on, it hints that there is an unhappy tense between them.

The Railroad Station

The remote and quiet railway station is the place where the story take place. It is the harbour of people s soul after suffering so much hardship. We can imagine that after making decision and coming back to the metropolis, this couple of lovers would soon forget what they talk about during the 40 minutes. Actually, these middle- class young people are light of heart and do not have enough time to think twice of something. It is at this remote and quiet place that they can open up and share their inward world, and we readers can concentrate on the two main characters. Besides, the railroad station is also a symbol of being at the crossroads of life during a time of crisis. The American man and the girl Jig cannot stay at the station forever. They are traveling and there will be change. There must be a decision of where to go next. All of this is symbolic of the decision of whether to keep the child or not. All traveling has a cost and so does the outcome of this decision. To either keep or abort the child is a costly decision.

In the end, the man picks up both his and the girl's baggage and carries it out to the railroad tracks, the tension of the story is relieved. The girl claims to be fine and then the story comes to its open-ending, which is the typical ending way of Hemingway s novels.

Metropolis Connected by Railways

The cross of railways is a metaphor of the differences and conflicts between the lovers. This two modernized metropolis - Barcelona and Madrid, represent the free and easy life of the two lovers. And it is also the symbol of the lost generation s lifestyle - wealthy, bustling with activities, but void and pale. In the story, Hemingway used “the man” to represent the male character, while used “the girl ” to represent the female character, rather than “the woman”, which implies the conflict between them. They lived in this kind of life, and they ll always live in this kind of life.

The Woman in the Bar

“The woman in the bar” is the metaphor of “onlooker”. The woman in the bar come on stage both in the beginning and the end of the story, which shows the structure balance of this story. In the beginning of the two lovers conversation, “The woman brought two glasses of beer and two felt pads. She put the felt pads and the beer glasses on the table and looked at the man and the girl.” In the end of their conversation, “The woman came out through the curtains with two glasses of beer and put them down on the damp felt pads. The train comes in five minutes, she said” . We can see that the woman in the bar is the only one who come on stage alone except for the man. Though there are only a few words describing the woman in …… 此处隐藏：5979字，全部文档内容请下载后查看。喜欢就下载吧 ……