- Published: August 2, 2022
- Updated: August 2, 2022
- University / College: California Institute of Technology (Caltech)
- Level: Secondary School
- Language: English
- Downloads: 46
“ Black Man and a White Woman in A Dark Green Rowboat” is a story about a struggling relationship and displays a power center in the relationship. This makes the story interesting. The black man literally gets sick and tired of the dictating terms inflicted on him by the selfish, shallow white woman, moves on in his life leaving the relationship behind. This ending justifies its character and the story is beautifully woven by playful words.
Hemingway literally plays with symbols. It would be wrong to say that Hemingway weaves his characters in the light and shed of certain particular objects. In Hemingway’s stories, even characters themselves bear certain meaning and they are also presented in some symbolic pattern. In the story, “ Hills like White Elephants”, the title in itself is the representation of the apparent innocence which is not true. Apart from this, the objects that are stark symbolic are the hills and the big white elephant. Both of these objects are the symbol of a pregnant woman’s swollen breasts and abdomen. In the parental dream, where the mother of the future Buddha, is gifted a lotus by the white elephant is also symbolic. The flower symbolizes fertility and the elephant in the image of ‘ prestigious leadership’.
In the story ‘ Black Man and White Woman in Dark Green Rowboat”, the characters are symbols themselves, the black man is the symbol of the oppressed and the black woman is the symbol of the oppressor.
Both the stories evolve from some deep personal experience and personal loss. In the stories, “ Hills like White Elephants” and the story “ Black Man and White Woman in Dark Green Rowboat” authors share their experience of struggling human relationships and the intricacies within it. The troubling relationship serves as the background in both the stories which is a mere prologue. A lot was tried to deliver and these thin lines discriminate both these stories from being mere fiction. The stories are not just woven in autobiographical elements as they have the capacity to relate to our lives.
