Any - Essay Example

that Hemingway chose to write the story the reader has a myopic view of what is going on and continues to read because they are both appalled and thrilled at what they are reading. The story only identifies the female in the story as "Jig" and never reveals the name of the man. The reader is brought into the story by the literary style that Hemingway uses. Hemingway picks out a moment in time rather than giving us a beginning, middle and end like he would in a regular short story. We are immediately taken to this one moment in time to see this one incident unfold.

The symbolism in the story is quite clear. Upon first looking into the definition of "white elephant" it was clear that Hemingway was using the title as a way to bring the reader into the story of an unwanted pregnancy. According to several dictionary definitions, the term "white elephant" refers to something unwanted. In this case the unwanted item is the child. According to Marga Mansilla Olmos, the train is a symbol of change (Olmos 2001). This can be seen because the train is going from one place to another and the scenery is going to change as the train continues.

Jig will also have a change in her life because she may be getting the abortion. As Olmos says: "The train here symbolizes change, movement but in some way they are scared of it as movement is not always forward but it can also be backwards in this case in their relationship. It is the “train of life”. (Olmos par. 3). As readers we are dreading Jigs plight because it does not seem that she really wants to do this act. Instead, she seems to be pushed by the male in the story. Although he says he doesnt want her to do it unless she wants to, the reader can tell that he is pushing her to get rid of the baby.

There are fields of grain that Jig looks across which seem to symbolize fertility and there is fruit which seems to indicate the fruit of the womb. If this is the case then we can see that Jig is thinking about the baby from