Theme and narrative elements - Essay Example

?Running Head: THEME AND NARRATIVE ELEMENTS Theme and Narrative Elements in the Short Story Theme and Narrative Elements in the Short Story The short story “Hills Like White Elements” by Ernest Hemingway revolves around the theme of abortion. Although it is never openly named, abortion is what the two people at a table are talking about. Symbolism and setting are two particular literary elements that enhance the theme and help it to be decoded by a reader. First of all, let us briefly outline the story’s plot. The man called “American” and his partner whose name appears to be “Jig” have opposite points of view on abortion. While the man insists that abortion is needed since he wishes to go on living his self-indulging lifestyle, Jig wishes to preserve a child because she believes it will grant new meaning to their life. As both are sitting in a bar at a train station, it becomes clear they are waiting for a train to come. The train is heading to Madrid where the woman will have an operation she dreads. At the end, it is unclear whether Jig has made up her mind to kill the fetus or not. Yet, it is obvious that the relationship between the two has grown very distant. As the story opens, one is immediately introduced to the story’s setting which helps to grasp the theme of the story. To illustrate, “The hills across the valley of the Ebro were long and white. On this side there was no shade and no trees and the station was between two lines of rails in the sun. Close against the side of the station there was a warm shadow of the building, and a curtain made strings of bamboo beads, hung across the open door into the bars, to keep out flies. The American and the girl with him sat at a table in the shade outside the building. It was very hot and the express from Barcelona would come in forty minutes. It stopped at this junction for two minutes and went to Madrid.” (Hemingway, p. 211) This paragraph tells us that the man and his partner are in a place where it is “very hot”, a place without trees and even without any shade. Even the flies must be kept out of the room. The described setting evokes feelings of decay and a meaning of bareness. If to combine these images with the conversation that follows, one may successfully find some clues as to the relationship between the man and the woman. There is no hope for this relationship to flourish, it is doomed to decay and decomposition. Even if the woman eventually agrees to make an abortion, their relationship will hardly be the same as it was before the problem arose. Bearing in mind the overall theme of the story, one may find a symbol here as well, which may be interpreted as a possible story ending. Namely, barren hills may symbolize the fate of a bay that will never be born. No life, no children’s laughter, no flourishing. In terms of the story’s symbolism, one more profound symbol should be mentioned. This is the symbolical meaning of the hills and “the big white elephant”. Hills may symbolize the breasts of a woman who is pregnant. They are swollen and thus remind hills. At the same time, the big white elephant may be a symbol of an abdomen inside of which there is a fetus. In Buddhism, a white elephant came to Buddha’s mother in her dream and gave her a lotus flower that actually symbolized her pregnancy (Weeks, 1980, p.75). Having provided the examples of symbolism and setting in this story, let us explain how they affect the narrative theme. First of all, these symbols help to predict the story’s major implications. The woman is pregnant – this is conveyed with the help of hills-and-elephant symbol. Next, the relationship is decomposing – this can be inferred from the barren setting. The child will probably be killed in the womb – this can be inferred again from the unpromising setting in the opening paragraph. All in all, symbolism and setting have played the key role in interpreting the story’s meanings. References 1. Hemigway, E. (1998) The complete short stories of Ernest Hemingway. Simon and Schuster. 2. Weeks Jr., L. (1980) Hemingway Hills: Symbolism in 'Hills Like White Elephants’. Studies in Short Fiction, Winter 1980. Vol. 17 No. 1. p. 75. 1. The importance of a point of view in a short story is determined by the effect it has on the reader. While it is generally accepted that a text is narrated by a narrator that should not be confused with the author, there can be distinguished three major types of narrators: first-person, second-person, third-person limited, and, finally, third-person omniscient. The first-person point of view in narration creates a feeling of immediacy since it deals with narrator telling about his experience, yet it is rather subjective. Similarly, the third-person limited point of view offers to perceive a story with an illusion of immediacy. Unlike the first-person one, the third person narrator is not a character of the story. This point of view conveys knowledge about one particular character, specifically knowledge of his/her thoughts and emotions. Last but not least, the third-person omniscient point of view suggests telling the text from an unlimited point of view in a rather objective manner. This narrator is aware of all feelings and thoughts of the story’s characters. As for the point of view in the short story “I Used to Live Here” by Jean Rhys, it is third-person limited (for example, in line 1 one reads: “She was standing by ...”) (Rhys, 1987, p. 387). The limited nature of this point of view is illustrated by the narrator’s awareness only of what is going in the weird woman’s consciousness. Since the narrator does not display awareness of the thoughts and feelings of other characters, he is not omniscient. This point of view is consistent throughout the text. It plays an important role in creating the story’s contents and conveying the major theme of the story. The reader is offered to focus on the woman’s personality and feelings, rather than on each character equally. The use of the third person also forms the perception of alienation which emerges on an intuitive level. Finally, the opportunity to see the woman’s feelings and her way of reality perception contributes to the overall meaning of this story. Having researched a few scholarly sources, I came to the thought that the woman is dead and she is actually a ghost. As for shaping the reading process, the third-person limited point of view allows focusing on the woman primarily without being distracted by other things. 2. I would like to explore the role that symbols play in conveying literary themes in “Go by Brooks” by Leonard Cohen (1968). The overall theme of this poem is love. The speaker addresses his sweetheart directly: “Go by brooks, love…” (Cohen, 2011, “Go by Brooks”). ‘Brooks’ is a recurring symbol in this poem, as well as ‘rivers’ and ‘oceans.’ Each of these is repeated twice. Bearing in mind that Cohen was a Jew, and a practicing Jew, it is evident that he may have taken his symbolism from the Scriptures. For instance, in the Bible, Palestine is depicted as a “land of brooks of water, of fountains, and depths that spring out of valleys and hills” (Deu 8:7; Deu 11:11). Thus, a brook is a source of fresh and life-giving water that underpins larger pools of water like rivers and oceans. Probably, this symbol refers to love that the speaker feels and invites his sweetheart to feel. First, love is like a brook, then it develops into a river, and finally into an ocean. When his beloved has passed brooks and rivers, she will find herself deeply in love – like in an ocean. And there he is – the author of the poem whose love is already as deep and boundless as an ocean. References 1. Cohen, L. (2011) “Go by Brooks.” Retrieved on 9 December 2011 from http://bumbleshoot.tripod.com/poetry/cohen.html. 2. Rasley, A.(2008) The Power of Point of View: Make Your Story Come to Life. Writer’s Digest Books. 3. Rhys, Jean. I Used to Live Here Once. In The Collected Short Stories (by Jean Rhys). Norton & Co. , 1987: pp. 387-388. Read More