Jig And The White Elephant By Ernest Hemingway

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Simple sentence patterns give a sense of clarity to the readers when they picture the characters’ ideas and emotional expressions. Within the 1461 words, Hemingway uses repetition as a pattern in the story. He discovers “the uses of words in repetition” are “valid and valuable” (3Style 31). Every time Hemingway repeats a word or clause, it implies the importance of the word meaning. The five uses of “hills” in the story represent the relationship of Jig and the American. Hemingway uses “long,” “white” and “lovely” to describe their relationship (Hemingway 000). Jig and the American have been together for a long time and they consider themselves as a whole. Jig looks back on their good time when they travel to various locations. “The line of …show more content…
“White elephants” also occur in the story four times. Traditionally, the white elephant is an object that is not popular and unwanted. White elephants symbolize the unborn child, who the American wants to discard. However, Jig sees the white elephants as a lovely, precious gift. She is already tired of “look[ing] at things and try[ing] new drinks” (Hemingway 000). Jig hopes for a better life because of this baby. The American likes the idea of having a baby, but he is not ready for one yet. “Please” takes place in a sentence seven times because Jig cannot bear the American anymore. He tries to persuade Jig to have the abortion over nine times in the story. Jig becomes impatient and she wants the American to stop talking. She needs her personal space and time to make the critical …show more content…
Normally, looking is just a simple, common and unimportant move. However, in the story, the girls constantly changes her vision from “the bead curtain” to “the hills”, “the ground”, “the bead curtain” again, and finally “the hills on the dry side of the valley”(Hemingway 000). From these lines, Jig is seeing as a person who is very erratic. She looks like she is convinced by the American to have the abortion. In contrast, she looks into different objects every time when the American tries to persuade her to make the final decision. She avoids having the discussion with the man. Also, she uses similes and metaphors to imply that she knows a lot of people who are not happy after having abortion. Jig claims: “And afterwards they were all so happy”(Hemingway 000). The hidden message in this sentence is she does not believe in the American’s words and in fact she is knowledgeable about the abortion’s process and consequence. “Curtain” presents eight times throughout the story. Gary Elliott argues that the curtain “represents and functions as a rosary for [Jig], who must certainly be a Catholic”(Smith 30HLWE 208). However, there is no hint to show Jig has religious belief. In the story, the curtain is a protector that makes the outsiders difficult to see, listen and figure out the characters’ forbidden conversation. The man can only communicate with the waitress “through the curtain” (Hemingway 000). In fact, the curtain is a
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