Symbolism in Hills Like White Elephants(《白象似的群山》中的象征手法)

Symbolism in Hills Like White Elephants Hills Like White Elephants is a short story written by Ernest Hemingway. Ernest Hemingway is an outstanding American writer and novelist. In his works, he uses a lot of symbols to lead readers to dig the deep meaning. It represents Hemingway’s writing style ---- Iceberg Theory. He often uses simple words to build up several vivid characters and buries his ideas or emotions deep between the lines. This story takes place near a train station. An American man and a girl named Jig sit at the table out of a bar. They are drinking, talking with each other and waiting for the arrival of a train. The topic is about if the girl is going to have an operation. But they can’t persuade each other. Then the train comes and their conversation brings to a halt. The story referred to a sensitive topic, because of that, Hemingway does not use a word of pregnant or abortion. Now, we are going to analyze the symbolism in this short story. At first, it comes the title “Hills Like White Elephants”. It contains three different symbols: hills, the color white and the white elephants. The hills can be interpreted in two ways. Jig thinks the shape of the hills looks like an elephant. The other interpretation is that the hills are just like the rounded enlargement of her stomach with a baby, which suggests Jig’s pregnancy. White is a kind of holy color. In western culture, white is the color most often associated with innocence, perfection, the good, honesty, cleanliness, the beginning, the new, neutrality, lightness and exactitude. In that girl’s eyes, the color white symbolizes the innocence and purity of her unborn child. And the meaning of white elephants derives its origin from India. The white elephant in India is holy like a God. Indians respect white elephants. But giving somebody a white elephant represents a kind of punishment. On account of the large number of food the white elephants need, a well-off man will falls down to a penniless man. Here, for the girl, having the unborn child is bittersweet. She hopes that her baby can grow up healthily but it is so expensive that she can’t afford it. As for the man, he regards the child as a burden that should be abandoned. There are three characters in this story. Nonetheless, the girl is the only one who has a exact name. Jig, the girl’s name, also implies and symbolizes a lot. A jig is a kind of dance in Irish.This name can show that the girl and the man “dance”around each other and around the problem that exists without saying anything important or coming to any clear decision. The word is also used in the slang “the jig is up”. It means trick has been torn down and everything is over. The meaning suggests the end of their love. Another one is Anis del Toro. It is mentioned five times in the story. They are discussing whether add water into the Anis del Toro or not. It is a simple thing but Hemingway repeats again and again to highlight the deep meaning. Anis del Toro is a drink that they have never tasted before. The taste of it will change when you add water into it. So the girl said, ”It tastes like liquorice .” Then the man also gets a conclusion, “That’s the way with everything.” The love between the man and the girl just like the drink which has soured. Hills Like White Elephants is similar to many of Hemingway’s other short stories. He uses straightforward writing, simple words and sentences to express profound significance. He also uses a multitude of symbols to highlight the theme. This allows the readers to fill in the blanks that the author has never told and come to their own conclusions. It can also make the story more attractive and interesting. It leaves readers more room for imagination.