Hills Like White Elephants by Ernest Hemingway - Book Report/Review Example

The story Hills Like White Elephants by Ernest Hemingway has many elements that have symbolic representations. Those elements represent things that the readers must understand beyond the obvious. Those symbols also make us realize the deeper underlying implications of the story for human lives and behaviors. The Bamboo Bead Curtain is another symbol. It makes us think about boundaries or borders. The apparent divide between Jig and the man is their difference of opinion. Jig wants to keep the baby while the man is not ready for fatherhood, especially because they don’t seem to have been married at the moment.

The pregnancy itself is a curtain that precludes communication between the two. At the end of the story, the ‘curtain’ of difference turns to be an unbreakable wall. The frequent orders for beer and the beer itself also represent the use of a substance to obstruct smooth communication. Instead of discussing the important issue that has come up, they keep on asking for a beer just to obstruct the communication between them. The beer also represents an element to quench their thirst for unanswered questions: ‘And you really want to?

’ ‘And if I do it you’ll be happy and things will be like they were and you’ll love me?’ ‘If I do it you won’t ever worry?’ These questions never seem to be satisfactorily answered and Jig is extremely thirsty for the answer. And in the event that they have no answer, the beer seems to act as a quenching element although liquid is not exactly her craving. These symbols make us involve intellectually into the story for, it is often difficult to understand them.

Once we understand what those symbols represent, they also involve us emotionally into the story especially while sympathizing with Jig.