What is the moral lesson in Hills Like White Elephants?

Honesty is a key moral all try to abide by, but lying to someone is one of the easiest morals to break because one is only telling someone what they want to hear. Which is why the man is using dishonesty in the form of lying as a tactic to convince Jig to do what he wants her to with her unborn child.

How does Hemingway represent Hills Like White Elephants?

A white elephant symbolizes something no one wants—in this story, the girl’s unborn child. Comparing the hills—and, metaphorically, the baby—to elephants also recalls the expression “the elephant in the room,” a euphemism for something painfully obvious that no one wants to discuss.

What is the thesis of Hills Like White Elephants?

Thesis: In “Hills Like White Elephants,” Hemingway uses Jig’s refusal to communicate as a way of highlighting the American’s powerlessness. Thesis: In “Hills Like White Elephants,” Hemingway suggests that Jig’s ambiguous communication with the American is actually an effective power play.

What is the irony in Hills Like White Elephants?

The irony in the title of the story is that a white elephant is something that nobody wants. At first she compares them to hills because she does not want to keep the baby, but after, she says they don not look like white elephants at all symbolizing that she wants to keep the baby which is ironic.

What are the symbols in Hills Like White Elephants?

Hills Like White Elephants Symbols

• Barren/Fertile Land. As the story opens, we are introduced first and foremost to the setting’s barren landscape, which is described as “brown and dry,” with “no shade” and “no trees.” Yet while the story feels as though…
• Light.
• Alcohol.
• The Train Station.

What does the alcohol symbolize in Hills Like White Elephants?

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. It gives the couple a short-term relief from their real life problems and realities.

What is the significance of the white elephant in Hills Like White Elephants?

A white elephant is a gift that turns out to be more like a burden. It is an allusion to a practice once used by the King of Siam. In “Hills Like White Elephants,” it symbolizes Jig’s feelings about her unborn child and the American man.

What literary devices are used in Hills Like White Elephants?

Hemingway’s work Hills Like White Elephants communicates several political viewpoints―such as abortion and nationalistic inferiority―and conveys conflict through the use of imagery, symbolism, point-of-view, and setting. In the beginning of the short passage, Hemingway presents multiple images to set the mood.

What is the symbolic meaning of white elephant?

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 is the main conflict in Hills Like White Elephants?

The main conflict in the story “Hills Like White Elephants” is the debate between the man and his girlfriend Jig over whether or not to abort their unborn baby that Jig is carrying. The man obviously wants—and pressures—Jig to have an abortion while Jig is reluctant to go through with the procedure.

Who says and once they take it away you never get it back?

Discuss the themes associated with the line “And once they take it away, you never get it back” in “Hills Like White Elephants.” This quote from “Hills Like White Elephants” speaks to the theme of sterility in the modern world. Jig knows that no matter what she chooses to do, her relationship will never be the same.