ides, and a railroad station between two tracks. The beerrepresents the couple’s, “the American” and “the girl’s”, usual routine activity they dotogether. This bothers the girl because “that’s all [they] do … look at things and trynew drinks.” This shows that the girl is tired of doing the same thing and wants to dosomething different, like having a baby and a family, instead of fooling around all thetime. She wants to stop being a girl and become a woman. Hemingway thenpresents the reader with two contrasting hills. One hill on one side of the station isdull, desolate, and barren; “it had no shade and no trees”, very desert like. However,the other hill on the other side of the station is beautiful, plentiful in nature, and had“fields of grain and tress along the banks of the Ebro River.” Also on each side of thestation where each hill is, there is a train track. These objects are symbolic devicesprepare the reader in realizing that the characters are in a place of decision. Therailroad station is a place of decision where one must decide to go one way or theother. The tracks symbolize either decision that the girl must make. By the looks ofthe environment around each track, it is clear what kind of destination each trackleads to. This proves that the girl must decide whether she wants her body and life tobecome barren and desolate or plentiful and beautiful. If she chooses abortion, then,of course, she will choose the track with the desolate hills because her body willbecome a barren desert where no life will abide. On the other hand if she wants tohave the baby, she will choose the track which is surrounded by the plentiful andbeautiful hills, because her body will be a genisis. Either way, this clearly conveys thetheme of abortion by showing that the girl must make a life or death decision.Along with symbolic objects, three symbolic characters further...
