... that realization covers a hidden meaning within the text. An argument that can be made is that the girl is the white elephant because the couple is not in a relationship, and rather, they are having an affair. This theory can be supported with many examples in the short story ... are meant to be ambiguous so that they may be discussed (Straus 651). Kafka's works have been referred to as literary Rorschach tests or "inkblot tests" because they are unclear and they reflect what the reader wants to see in them (Straus 652). In order to analyze ... This alternate interpretation of the nov...

• Word Count: 3072
• Approx Pages: 12
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... self-deception. He feels he is a "creature driven and derided by vanity" and the vanity is his own (Joyce 480). This is where the boy recognizes that there is no compatibility between the beautiful and innocent world of his imagination and the very real world of fact. ...

• Word Count: 784
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School

... himself. Wilson's occupation and courage are attractive to Margaret who then sleeps with him. Francis is aware that she has had many lovers before and this incident only tears the couple apart further. The story ends with Francis trying to redeem his pride by chasing down a buffalo. They think he has finally killed it when it suddenly charges them again and ... his life instead of a girlfriend. "In Another Country" is about a man who has been injured in the war and is in a facility with other injured men to be subjects in tests using new therapeutic machines. Throughout the story, the m...

• Word Count: 2043
• Approx Pages: 8
• Grade Level: High School

... Ondaatje was born in Colombo, Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) on Sept. 12, 1943. He immigrated to Canada via England in 1962, Bristling with intelligence and shimmering with romance, this novel tests the boundary between history and myth. Patrick Lewis arrives in Toronto in the 1920s and earns his living searching for a vanished millionaire and tunneling beneath Lake Ontario. In the course ... is a familiar name at least to movie goers. He is the author of The English Patient,the novel that was made into a motion picture which garnered a number of Academy Awards a couple of years ago. At her sug...

• Word Count: 3985
• Approx Pages: 16
• Grade Level: High School

... of the time science fiction stories take place in the future, but readers could almost see this story as set in the present. A person could argue that children take government tests all the time to see how smart they are. I remember in Elementary School taking several days during the school year to take ... tests that we never actually got a "grade" for. The only difference is that the tests would never show the government that you were too smart, and your parents would never receive a phone call asking what kind of burial they would like ... ...

• Word Count: 657
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School

... intrigue. One can picture one's self sitting at a table in that same train station, overhearing their conversation and wondering what's going on with the couple. One wants to solve the riddle. Although one may feel more like Dr. Watson than Sherlock Homes when it comes to analyzing a short story, ... render his intent elementary. Hemingway's "Hills Like White Elephants" is set in a train station located on a rail line between Barcelona and Madrid. The young couple has a forty-minute wait to catch the train and are in the middle of a conversation. Hemingway first sets the scene: "The hi...

• Word Count: 960
• Approx Pages: 4
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

... to tragic results regarding the people who possess these qualities. In the short story "A Lamp at noon", by Sinclair Ross, tragic results of a young couple's conflict which is based on a lack of empathy and understanding, also a lack of communication under the influence of an isolating environment is suggested by the ... while we"re waiting Paul! Think of me and him. It's not fair. We have our lives, too, to live". A possible cause of the couple's conflict is their huge background differences. For example, the mother comes from a very rich family while the father comes from a fairly poo...

• Word Count: 604
• Approx Pages: 2
• Grade Level: High School

... discard of it in a dumpster sets the stage for a future full of misery. The greatest irony in the short story is that despite the couple's great love for one another, the love from their parents, and their promising education prospects their fate is sealed in a single wrong decision. Boyle ... at last" (615). On hindsight this statement has a very ironic ring. Their newfound freedom from high school is short lived. It is while the couple has gone camping that China becomes pregnant and that brings a screeching halt to their blissful existence. The writer describes their period of incarce...

• Word Count: 1452
• Approx Pages: 6
• Grade Level: High School

... main characters in the story. Though the text can leave many unanswered questions, the dialogue is very detailed in trying to understand what the couple is trying to portray and the reader must rely on the use of symbolism to fully comprehend the storyline. The author relies on the symbolism ... to make. According to Jig, this side represents the consequences of the abortion, and also sheds light on the meaningless and emptiness of the couple's relationship prior to the pregnancy. Jig expresses that her life has become dull and shade less. She also explains how the life they are ... c...

• Word Count: 814
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... and the girl with him". Most of the story is predominately dialogue between the two characters. During this conversation, the reader may determine that the couple is at a critical point in their lives when they must make a life-or-death decision on whether the woman should have an abortion. Although this ... [. . .] "They don't look like white elephants."". The hills for Jig represent the child while the hills for the man symbolized the big obstacle the couple had to overcome in their relationship. Later in the story there fields of grain and a river, which symbolizes the child and beyon...

• Word Count: 1031
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School

... Jig" and the man identified as "The American," conflict begins to arise and brings the reader to the conclusion that the couple is dealing with the burdensome obstacle of unplanned pregnancy. Many different themes such as one's choices and the consequences that follow, doubt and ... portrayed in Hemingway's "Hills Like White Elephants" is the feeling of doubt and ambiguity. As time progresses throughout the story and the couple's verbal "tug-of-war," the reader witnesses the irrevocable deterioration of the relationship, giving them uncertainty of whether or not it ... comes across as a...

• Word Count: 1134
• Approx Pages: 5
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... by these words that the major said to the narrator in "In Another Country". In Ernest Hemingway's short story, "Hills Like White Elephants", a couple is depicted, primarily through dialogue, in a conflict over an issue which is really never mentioned, but is obviously an abortion. The story takes place ... a man and a woman sampling various alcoholic drinks which include "cervezas" and "Anis del Toros." It becomes clear that drinking is a major part of the couple's relationship when the woman later remarks, "That's all we do, isn't it. . . try new drinks."(Hemmingway 422) Alcohol playe...

• Word Count: 2088
• Approx Pages: 8
• Grade Level: High School

... Gurov has no reaction. And when she leaves, he thinks the relationship between them as an another episode or adventure just like the others and he will forget her in a couple of weeks. Returning to his daily routine in Moscow, Gurov seems to forget the things he lived in Yalta. And he again feels a longing for his former activities like going ... the end was far away from them, and the most difficult part of their relationship was just to start. Chekhov is so broadminded in this story because of allowing the couple to come together again. He doesn't deal the age difference between Anna ...

• Word Count: 931
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School

... point of discussion was centered on Ed, in this phase the topic seems to switch back and forth, from Mel's ex-wife, to an old couple that were involved in an accident, to the subject of knights as well as a worst case scenario of what would happen should one of them die ... the third phase of the story, when "The sunshine inside the room was different now, changing, getting thinner," the topic of discussion centers on an old couple who were involved in a car crash. By this point in the story, everyone is pretty much open with their feelings, and they are all deeply involved ... in the ...

• Word Count: 1424
• Approx Pages: 6
• Grade Level: High School

... and her husband went to the ball; meanwhile, Mme. Loisel was having the time of her life her husband ended up falling asleep at the ball. The couple had left the ball; and when they got home Mme. Loisel noticed that she had lost the necklace. Her husband then went out looking for the necklace; ... after a while they finally accepted that the necklace was lost. Mme. Loisel and her husband decided not to tell Mme. Forestier the truth. Instead, the couple ended up spending ten years of their lives paying for the replacement they bought for Mme. Forestier. After the ten years had past Mme. ...

• Word Count: 1130
• Approx Pages: 5
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

... reading the story about the American tourists in Mexico, the complex reader must use Percy's viewpoint to understand what he is writing about. The couple being written about, travels to Mexico to look for the real experience. The couple somehow ends up in an Indian village. After their experience with the Indians, they truly believe that they saw "it". Percy ... that the tourists lose their sovereignty when they look for approval from the ethnologist. Percy explains this in the following quote, "A degree of sovereignty has been surrendered by the couple. It is the nature of the loss, mo...

• Word Count: 1734
• Approx Pages: 7
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

... being previously married to other people, are together drinking and talking about life and what "love" really means to them. Mel and Terri are one couple while Nick and Laura are the other couple. Throughout the story, the characters that talk the most are Mel and Terri, talking about past events in their lives: As the couples tell their story ... 's voice. He does not like how Terri thinks that violence is truly loving somebody. While Mel disagrees with his wife's idea of love, he tells his memory about an aging couple that had been in a car accident and could not stand being away from ...

• Word Count: 981
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School

... last forever. Its enemies: lack of communication, routine, money, different points of view, etc. "Shiloh", by Bobbie Ann Mason, is a short story about a couple who has a conflict: they see things in a different way. While one of them wants to succeed in life, the other does not care. The story takes ... at home. Norma Jean, his wife, is till pretty, works in the Rexall drugstore and has acquired an enormous amount of information about cosmetics. The couple had a child who died at the age of four months. The third character is Norma Jean's mother, Mabel, who works in a custom upholstery s...

• Word Count: 855
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School

Indulging the reader with his masterful literary techniques, Ernest Hemingway produces the story of a young couple in his short story, "Hills Like White Elephants." Waiting to catch a train the young couple stops for a short rest in the shade of the station building. Everything seems normal, they order drinks a have normal conversation until the man brings up the topic of the girls ... is set in a small train station stuck between Barcelona and Madrid in "the hills across the valley of the Ebro" (514). The setting directly symbolizes the controversy that the young couple is having. The fact ...

• Word Count: 1498
• Approx Pages: 6
• Grade Level: High School

... ;Signs and Symbols" by Vladimir Nabokov does but leaves the reader hanging at the end with many unanswered questions. "Signs and Symbols" starts off with an elderly couple going to visit their son in a mental institution for his birthday. Upon arrival, the parents learn that their son had attempted suicide and that the institution is not allowing people ... to visit him. After returning home and letting the whole situation sink in, the couple decides that they want to remove their son from care the following day. That night, the parents receive two mysterious phone calls from someone wit...

• Word Count: 1066
• Approx Pages: 4
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

... /fiancé, and now ex. We met during Super Bowl weekend, at his house, where I never thought I would be; thanks to a friend who cant travel alone she dragged me and a couple of my friends to his house for a super bowl party. While I was there I kind of kept to myself but interacted enough. As time passed we all started getting a little more ... , I felt amazing, I was never that excited for any boy. We exchanged numbers and texted here and there and then I realized, I have absolutely nothing to say to this boy, we were a couple of years apart and each experienced different things and with ...

• Word Count: 1620
• Approx Pages: 6
• Grade Level: High School

... too. Too bad we don't have that much spending money. It really sucks that school is so darn expensive."," a bummed Calliope replied. "But if you think about it, in just a couple more years we'll be done with school and then we'll have real jobs that pay real money. Then we are free to do whatever we want and go ... runs out of gas. Sometimes, she would spend all of her time studying for upcoming exams or prepping for work, her friends didn't know how to take her away for a couple hours to do something fun. More than once, her dedication to school has affected her friendships. "Hey Cal, ...

• Word Count: 1061
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School

... by telling stories of her ex husband Ed, who used to beat her. Mel seems at one point seems to be on the right track with a story of an old couple but gets lost and never really connects anything up with what love is. Even on the subject day to night, they never really came up with a determination of love. The ... . He may have abused her because of the lack of love and killed himself from the jealousy of losing her to Mel. Mel brings up a story of an old couple which the old couple seemed to be in love, then mentions that the old man's heart was breaking because he couldn't see her. Mel...

• Word Count: 472
• Approx Pages: 2
• Grade Level: High School

... what her name suggests. She was rude, wild, and rebellious. Symbolism is also portrayed in Hills like White Elephants. It can be seen during the opening bar scene where the couple was sitting. There was a beaded curtain that the woman reached out to several times. I believe this represents the separation between a normal life and the present situation she is in. She ... out for a normal life where she would not be forced to make such a life altering decision. The train station was located between two separate railways, leading to different points. The couple was going to take the train ...

• Word Count: 782
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School

... to go down the hill. That is where the miscommunication begins. "I don't know what we were thinking in those days", exclaims the narrator. Ultimately, some kind trust is restored the couple is reunited at the end of the story. In two of the stories, Neighbors and Feathers, couples aspire for a change. They seem to be more or less tired of their ... Stones" apartment, at the same time they realise they have to return to their own daily mediocrity. As mentioned, also in Feathers a couple is faced with a change in their lives. In contrast to Neighbors, however, theewhat happy but a simple ...

• Word Count: 1587
• Approx Pages: 6
• Grade Level: High School