Hills like white elephants论文(2)

“All right. I was trying. I said the mountains looked like white elephants. Wasn t that bright?” “That was bright.”

“I wanted to try this new drink: That s all we do, isn t it — look at things and try new drinks?”

“I guess so.”

The gir looked across at the hills.

“They re lovely hills,” she said. “They don t really look like white elephants. I just meant the coloring of their skin through the trees.”

In this short dialogue, Jig mention the symbol of white elephants for the second and third times, but she denies the symbol when she mention it in the third time. Her feelings have changed , because her emotion has changed. Maybe this symbol is not so important, but it is a way that Jig try to use to cheer herself up and call attention of the man from beginning to end. But apparently the man can not pay his attention to the hills. What he cares about is only one thing. Through “He did not say anything but looked at the bags against the wall of the station. There were labels on

短篇小说论文

them from all the hotels where they had spent nights”, we can consider a "white elephant" as an unwanted item. It could also be pointed out that the man never accepts burdens he doesn't want, and this is what he cares about.

The man think the white elephant is a symbolic of the baby., because it will undoubtedly destroy their free and easy life. In fact, it is only a presentation that the white elephant means a baby. The real thing is that it represents the man, the man who let him go unchecked in the happiness of no responsibility. He only cares about himself and his own lifestyle, and do not willing to sacrifice for others, even his own baby.

In the end of the story, the girl may consider the white elephants as the man s love or responsibility to her. And they symbol happy life of them in the future. Even if the American man says that he doesn t want the girl to do anything that she doesn t want to do, in other words, that is he doesn t want to hurt the girl, he only care about he himself. He wants to get rid of these troubles and continues his so-called happiness. He pays his attention to his so-called happiness in reality and doesn t want to undertake responsibility. That is why he turn a blind eye to the white elephants. The girl gives up all hope in the end. But maybe she feels relieved finally, and says “There s nothing wrong with me. I feel fine.” As a matter of fact, it perhaps means that she also give up her love for the man. Therefore, the so-called fine is her feeling of relieved after giving up loving him.

Hills Like White Elephants shows ignorance and void of the lost generation from an unique angle. Hemingway used a lot of metaphors in writing the story. “The white elephants” have so many meanings including baby, responsibility, love and so on. The man and the girl don t realize that the baby is a bridge to happiness and future, and abortion means that they ll destroy their happiness in the future. Actually, happiness is responsibility, and the baby also means responsibility as well as happiness. But unfortunately, the lost generation can not understand it.[2] Through these metaphors, this short fiction becomes more realistic and touching. These abundant mataphor meanings are closely related to the theme of the story, and contribute to deepen the themes, heighten the artistic effect, and lead readers up to meaningful afterthoughts.

Reference:

[1] 李晓燕，海明威小说《白象一样的小山》隐喻解读[A],开封，开封教育学院学报，2009.

[2] 彭嗨粟，《白象似的群山》中的象征分析[A]，商丘，商丘职业技术学院学报，2006.