Monday, September 24, 2007
Hills Like White Elephants..
A young couple sit conversating with each other waiting for their train to arrive. Not much about their relationship is explained. The only fact that was implied was that the young man wanted his "girlfriend" to get an abortion and she didn't want to. Jig says, “And you think then we’ll be all right and be happy”. As Jig observes her surroundings she points to the mountains in a distance and tells her boyfriend that they look like "white elephants". I believe that perhaps the "white" elephants symbolize purity and innocence just as the unborn baby within her does. Jig maybe felt upset with her boyfriend because he was telling her it was a simple operation. Maybe to him it would be simple but to her it was a bigger deal because the operation was being done to her. To me, her intuition is telling her to keep the baby but the thought of her relationship with her boyfriend being effected negatively keeps her in a state of confusion. In conclusion as to how i feel, maybe her boyfriend isn't who she is meant to spend her life with. If you truly loved someone and they were your soul mate they would not try and convince you to rid the life that was made between the both of you. Without actually telling us i believe she sticks with her gut feeling despite of what her boyfriend says and does not have the "simple operation" of which he claims.
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5 comments:
I think that the girl KNOWS that regardless of a baby or not, this isn't a long term get married sort of relationship. He seems older and very wealthy and she seems to be enjoying this lifestyle. An unexpected problem arises ( her pregnancy) and she knows very well that it is not with him or with their kind of lifestyle that she wants to have a baby.... I agree with you that intuition is telling her to do the opposite of what he says... but in the end I think she probably choses to have the abortion and continue the life that she has enjoyed thusfar... then again... i could be wrong and each person is entitled to their own ending to these short stories...
I think that the girl wants this baby but is being influenced by her man to have this done. You can see that she is scared to loose him and will do everything he wishes.
I don't think he wanted her to have the abortion because they weren't meant to be together. It could be though that it was completely unplanned and they wouldn't be able to handle a baby properly at that time in their lives.
The way I see it, the man holds somewhat of an influence over the girl. He wants the abortion, but claims that he'd be completely ok with it if she kept the baby.
The girl, on the other hand, gives subtle hints that she wants to keep the baby, but she also picks up on the not-so-subtle hints from the man that he wants an abortion. So despite what his claims are, she's trying to convince herself to swing over to the man's view.
Basically, she knows what he wants and what he says, but is not sure which to follow.
Can you see how this confusion, or conflicted state of mind, is expressed through the narrator's descriptions (through Jig's eyes) of the setting?
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