Literature Review
There are many ways through which the writers use in the expression of their desires. Different writers will apply different forms of symbolism to air out their views and opinions on contemporary issues of the society. The manner through which the different writers use to air out their views explains the type of a person the writer may be. The poets also play an important part in the society as they use the poems in the propagation of important messages in the society. The short story Hills like White Elephants by Ernest Hemingway and the poem Black Woman by Georgia Douglas Johnson have close to similar information that they pass to the society. There are several themes that are dominant in the two pieces that will help us understand their relation to the current world and their importance.
There are many themes that are seen from the two pieces of literature. The most common theme that is seen in the two pieces of literature is that of fear. The main characters are afraid of the societies that they live in. In the poem black woman the main character is afraid that the current world is not the perfect world for the unborn child. She begs the child to remain where he is and not join the current world. In the short story, the main character is afraid of the society that she is in and of the pregnancy she has. Based on the times that the two pieces of literature were written, the main thing that created differences was racism. Therefore, the author of the short story and the poet were against this vice.The main characters in the two pieces of literature are faced with decision-requiring events that require their choices. The characters have to decide what they want to do with their lives together with the lives of the unborn children.
There are several cases of symbolism that have been applied to the pieces of literature. The title of the second piece, Hills like white elephants is used to show the characteristic of the problem that was facing the main character of the story. She saw her problem being as big as the elephants. The elephant perhaps meant the baby that was to be born to the two characters in the story. The setting of the story is also symbolical to show the nature of tension and conflict that the couple were facing. The train tracks are used to show the separation of how each character perceives the nature of the pregnancy and how each character understands the pregnancy.
The train tracks separated the form of thinking between the lady and the American man. The man saw the green fertile farmland on one side and the lady saw a barren landscape with hills on one side. They emphasized on the difference between themselves and what the child yet to be born to them meant to them. The difference is used to emphasize the uncertainty that is experienced in unplanned pregnancies.
In the poem Black woman by Georgia Douglas Johnson may be used to express the thought that maybe the author wanted the readers to recognize the union between the dominant theme and the concept of racism. According to the poet, he says, “Don’t knock at my door, little child, I cannot let you in, you know not what a world this is” She is not okay with the world that the child is about to enter. Based on the time that the two pieces of literature were written, we see that racism was a big problem to the society. The themes of fear and choice show how the main characters were faced with the big problem of racism that they had to deal with.
There are similarities between the movements in the short story and in the poem too. They both are clouded with the uncertainty cloud where the characters are left to reason out the best method of saving the unplanned pregnancy and avoid creating pain to the child to be born. The difference is that the in the poem, the main character has admitted how cruel the world is and how she would prefer that the child finds another abode. However, the lady in the short story does not yet know whether she needs the baby or not.
In conclusion, the author and the poet of the two literature pieces have used great skills in conveying important message to the audience through the careful articulation of detailed experiences of the main characters of both pieces.
References
Pritchett, V. S. (1981). The Oxford book of short stories. New York: Oxford University Press.
