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Hills Like White Elephant Setting Analysis

Decent Essays

Never underestimate the power of place and image. Even when limited, details are what the world is made of. Think of the ocean, composed of tiny drops of water. While both “Story of an Hour” by Kate Chopin and “Hills like White Elephants” by Ernest Hemingway have different settings, both effectively use setting to act as a symbol, and develop contrast within the story. The stories are of two female characters, Louise Mallard from Hour who lives in a two-story house. Springtime is here; rain is in the air, and death hangs in the atmosphere. On the other hand the girl called Jig from Hills is in the heat of a foreign country called Spain at a train station with an American man, having a little chat about elephants. Dig deeper through the limited setting to know more. Abstract …show more content…

Yet, Louise has already drunk the ‘elixir of life,’ there is no going back for her. So Louise descends further, further down the stairs to her grave. Live free or die. Similarly to Louise’s window, nature is the setting for Hills and holds many symbolic qualities. With nature comes life but also death. This is evident in Hills where the two sides are very different. One is brown and dry, the other is a field of grain, both holding the different meanings. The side Jig and the man are seated is the dry one, representing a baroness and on the other is a field of grain - fertility and she is the sun with the power to scorch or nurture the hills. The field as said is fertility it represents Jigs unborn child along the banks of a river, being her opportunity, and then mountains are her pregnancy just beyond the other side of the river if only she seize the opportunity, however there is another symbol, a tree. This tree is an obstacle that she looks at the mountains through. It represents deep-rooted misogyny, dictating what she does with her life. In once sense it is her

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