Susan Sontag writes, “the modern style of interpretation excavates, as as it excavates, destroys; it digs “behind” the text, to find a sub-text which is the true one.” She writes this trying to explain that reading is now all about symbolism, allusions, and references. Writing is a way to express thoughts by the author and reading is trying to understand where the author is coming from. i.e. the time period, the age of the writer, and the events happening all around. When we read we have to dig deep into the text to actually understand it, to interpret it.
After reading Hemingway, I still felt a little confused about who said what in the short. I have a vague picture of whats going on. The male character seems to be on vacation with the female character and she sounds as if she has fallen out of love while he is still madly in love with her. I say this because throughout the whole short, she always wants him to be quite and stop talking, to seize peace. Her reference to the white elephants baffles me though. I cannot picture mountains that look like white elephants because of the sun. The mood of the short also seemed very dull and they didn’t sound at all knowledgable of what they were going to do next, talking about happiness in the past and comparing it to their current state and how their happiness would be after they “do it”. Also, the female character doesn’t seem interested in the conversation at hand with the male. She is constantly looking outside the window and admiring the hills that looks like white elephants to her.
