Notes, definitions, or questions will appear in this window when you click textual links. Click colored question mark buttons for information on internal threaded links.
Is there snow on the hills? Is this an image of innocence?
This side of what?
There is no shade and no trees "on this side" so we might presume they are found on the other side of the valley.
This description sets up an opposition (one side versus the other) that may be echoed thematically
parallel lines which do not intersect
This is a metaphor for the relationship of the couple who are unable to connect with each other.
A curtain hides or covers. It is the entrance to the bar. Is it significant that the curtain is not solid but rather divided into pieces by the strings of beads? This image reoccurs throughout the story.
They are outside of the building with the flies. They are being kept out as well. Why? Why are they at the station. Where are they going? Are they waiting for a train or just waiting?
Here we see the separation between the couple and the people inside the bar. Also, the man does not address anyone in particular, rather he addresses the curtain itself. There is a sense of aloofness and lack of human responsiveness. There is no effort at graciousness on the part of the foreigner and no overt hospitality on the part of the hosts. Might this speak to the period and the cynical attitudes of the people?
The opposition between the dry place, where the couple is, and the white hills in the distance is seen here. Again we see a split between the barren wasteland and nature. Already this seems to be a central metaphor in the story. Is the larger question of the abortion illuminated by this opposition?
a rare, expensive possession that is a financial burden to maintain; something of dubious or limited value; an endeavor or a venture that proves to be a conspicuous failure.
This idea of a burden seems to mirror the relationship of the couple and the issue they are dealing withthe possibility of the girl having an abortion. She looks at the hillspresumably an oasis of natureand sees barrenness. Are the white hills a metaphor for the pregnancy of the woman which may end in a barren womb full of air?
Her comment is a metaphorical interpretation of her surroundings. He, on the other hand, responds as if she had made a literal statement. They do not understand one another. Their modes of thought are entirely different and this sets up the rest of the story and the couple's tragic relationship.
The girl is already aware that he would not respond to her comment about the hills. She is somewhat attuned to the fact that their relationship is doomed.
The man becomes defensive here. His comment is absurd and seems merely a mechanism to antagonize the girl. Is this intentional or is the man perhaps threatened by the woman and the situation.
We might presume that the girl is unable to read/speak Spanish. This is an indication that she is, like her companion, an American. The man, however, does speak Spanish. This calls for a degree of dependency of the girl on the man. This in turn helps to define the dynamics of their relationship. He is in control.
Why does everything taste like licorice? Licorice is sweet but in medicine induces vomit. Might the man mean that "everything" possesses a dual positive/negative nature, e.g., happiness cannot exist without sorrow. Does this comment reflect the cynicism of the age?
She agrees with his statement that "everything" tastes like licorice. The next sentence is quite elusive. What has she been waiting for that has the toxicity of absinthea green liqueur having a bitter anise or licorice flavor and a high alcohol content. Whatever it is it angers the man. Is the bitterness/potency of the alcohol a metaphor for the couple's relationship. How is the alcohol an anesthetic for the couple. Might it also function as an indication that an abortion, accompanied by anesthetic, is being contemplated?
They irony is explicit.
images of life in contrast to images of barrenness which surround the train station and the couple
The place where they are has no name. The absence of a name, and hence a real sense of place, seems to parallel the relationship of the couple. They don't know where they are. How can they then know where they are going?
She does not read or speak Spanish. She is dependent on the man.
Note the manner in which he addresses the woman. It is unfriendly and demanding.
Licorice is both a sweet candy and an ingredient used in medicine as a purgative.
The trees function much the same way as the beaded curtain, which separates the couple from the other people/life. Likewise, the trees are a dividing line separating the couple from the nature/fertilityanother hint that abortion (what might be considered unnatural) is the unstated topic of conversation. We might picture the hills themselves as rounded like a pregnant woman's womb. They are found on the other side of the valley, however, and can only be seen from a distance. The girl's contemplation of the distant hills might signify that the girl is becoming conscious of the difficult choice between the dry country where she is with the man (a future abortion or barrenness of the womb) and the natural hills (carrying the child to term and leaving the man) which currently resemble the burdensome "white elephants." Note that the man never looks at the hills. He is in denial that the choice is a difficult one.
Might this be a play on his insistence that she gets an abortion or put more bluntly "cuts it out."
The girl is given a name. A jigger is a measure of alcohol.
Presumably the "operation" is an abortion.
He sees the operation as a simple medical procedure. She appears to view the option of an abortion as a complex decisionboth for the life of the child and the life of the relationship.
The implication here is that Jig does not view the abortion as natural while the man does. If they have conflicting ideas about something as basic as nature itself, how can they sustain a relationship?
It is difficult to imagine that this couple was truly happy before the pregnancy.
The girl clearly wants to keep the child.
What does this subjective qualification say about the man's attitude toward people? Toward Jig?
She is probably alluding to the baby and the abortion. The abortion takes on larger implications than the ending of a pregnancy. The decision seems to be a choice between independence (doing what she wants regardless of consequences) and dependence (doing what he wants to make him happy.)
He does not have room for a baby in his life. His love is measured out with "coffee spoons." It is limited and therefore inauthentic.
The woman's seems to have decided to keep the baby.