Comparison and Contrast of 'Hills Like White Elephants' and 'The Nightingale and The Rose'

My main idea is to compare and contrast the following three literary elements: settings, symbols, and theme, of the two shorts stories, read in class, ¨Hills Like White Elephants¨ and ¨The Nightingale and The Rose¨.

¨Hills Like White Elephants¨ is a short story written by Ernest Hemingway, published in 1927. The story takes place in Spain, the Valley of the Ebro, at a train station. Why he establishes the story at a train station? Because he wants us to know that the relationship is at a turning point. This station is a stopping point between Barcelona and Madrid, and when the train arrives the passenger will have to decide to which way they want to go, making similarity to the relationship. Also, the difference between the two parts of the valley makes a reference to the decision that the girl has to face between having the baby or not.

¨The Nightingale and The Rose¨ is a short story written by Oscar Wilde, published in 1888. Almost all of the story takes place in three different places. The first place is the center of grass plot, where he sees the white rose. The second place takes place around the old sun-dial where he finds the second rose the yellow one. And the third place is beneath the young student´s window, so when the day comes, he opens the window and sees the beautiful red rose.

Both ¨Hills Like White Elephants¨ and ¨The Nightingale and The Rose¨ show the use of different symbolism with the purpose of representing something else. Because the best way to create different emotions and meanings is by using the symbolism, also because of thanks to the symbolism the readers can derive a deeper meaning of the story by themselves. In both stories ¨Hills Like White Elephants¨ and ¨The Nightingale and The Rose¨, we can find many different symbols which I am going to explain to you below. In ¨Hills Like White Elephants¨ the more characteristic symbols that I could find are; First, we have the hills that plays a major role in the story, because the hills which she represents them like white elephants, in reality, Hemingway wants to refer as a belly of a pregnant woman. Second the train. Why is the train symbolic? Because the train only goes one way, in this case, Hemingway wants to represent the girl’s choice, in other words, ones she decides to abort there is no turning back. Third the drinks as another symbol referring to the abort. Because as we all know the alcohol can affects the baby. And the last symbol that I am going to talk about is the white elephants, according to Dictionary.com the definition for white elephant is: ¨a possession that is unwanted by its owner¨, according to this meaning Hemingway makes a reference to this meaning in the story referring to the baby as the white elephant because likewise the pregnancy, it is an unwanted thing like the white elephant.

In ¨The Nightingale and The Rose¨ we can find many different symbolisms, the purpose of Wilde was to make us, the readers, derive a deeper meaning of the story by ourselves. The most characteristic symbols that I found in the story are: First, the red rose, that have been always associated with love and romance. So, if it is a romantic story, it is normal for Wilde to include it. The rose changes meaning by the end of the story. At the beginning the rose represent the Student love for the girl, because she refuses to dance with him, until he brings a red rose. This suggest to us that neither the girl or the nightingale didn’t understand the real symbolism of the red rose that always has been the love, they use the flower more us a kind of currency to buy someone´s affection. As the story goes on the significate of the rose change because literally, he sacrifices his life to bring her the rose, as he uses his own blood to dye the rose. But by the end neither the Student and the girl were able to appreciate the true meaning of the rose. Second the silk, exemplifying her silliness and materialism. Wilde wanted us to interpreted the silk us one more example of the materialistic thought that she has, as I already mentioned before, she doesn´t really understand the truly symbolism of the rose when for example she rejects it in favor of more monetarily valuable jewels, basically she uses it as a kind of currency, so more or less it happens the same with the silk. And last one the dusty book, this symbol shows up by the end of the story when the Student rejects the love and return to his studies.

Both stories have their differences and similarities on their theme. One on hand we have ¨Hills Like White Elephants¨ based on a conversation that is having place in a train station located in the valley of Ebro, Spain between the American man his girlfriend. The American man frustrated and mad to his girlfriend, is going to tried everything that is on his hand to tried to convince her to have the operation, that is understood to be an abortion. The girl, undecide about the choice she´s going to make, comes to admit for a moment that she will abort but just with the purpose of making him shut up. But this does not silence the persistence of the man. She finally begs him to please stop talking about it, so he can realize of the brutality the he is asking for.

On the other hand, we have ¨The Nightingale and The Red Rose¨ based on two main themes; the love and the sacrifice, and it end showing to us a morale that Wilde wanted us to know: most of the times love is associated with danger and sacrifices and not always triumph. On one side the sacrifice theme in this story, we can only see it reflected especially in the character of the Nightingale.