In the short story "Hills Like White Elephants," Earnest
Hemingway tells the vague story of a man and a young woman, their relationship,
and conflicts. Through symbolism, setting and a dialectical structure,
Hemingway characterizes the relationship between the two main characters as
dysfunctional and uncommunicative.
One of the big symbols from this piece is
the name "Jig" of the girl. We first learn her name when the
man is trying to convince her to go forward with her upcoming operation,
"It's really an awfully simple operation, Jig. It’s not really an
operation at all" (Hemingway). A jig is a kind of dance, so by
naming her this, Hemingway is suggesting that the two characters are almost
"dancing" around the subject at hand, and almost avoiding it.
This is essential to the characterization of their relationship, because
through symbols such as this, we are able to see that they are greatly lacking
in communication. Similar to this, the setting, and more specifically the
weather, of the piece plays a very important role in describing the dynamic of
the two main characters. When Hemingway first begins to describe where
the story takes place, he talks about the warm, sunny area, but when describing
the location of the two, they "sat at a table in the shade, outside of the
building" (Hemingway). This shows that the main characters are in a cold
and dark place; however since they could easily step into the warm and happy
place (the sun), by making the final call on the operation shows that they do
not work well together, and are unable to communicate. Lastly, the
overall dialectical structure of the piece suggests that they almost fake
communication, and pretend everything is okay so they do not have to deal with
the real problems at hand.
Through all aspects of the short story, it is apparent that the
two main characters do not function well together, and have a serious lack in
communication.
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