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In literature, crossroads often represent a situation in which a character needs to make a crucial decision—just as the character must choose a physical path, they must symbolically choose a life path. In this story the couple’s prolonged stay at a train station beside the Ebro river plays such a symbolic role. Their wait at the train station suggests a stage of suspension, the sense of things coming to an intolerable standstill until they resolve whether or not to get an abortion and, accordingly, which direction their relationship will go next.
The Train Station Quotes in Hills Like White Elephants
The Hills Like White Elephants quotes below all refer to the symbol of The Train Station. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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Hills Like White Elephants
Quotes
He did not say anything but looked at the bags against the wall of the station. There were labels on them from all the hotels where they had spent nights.
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He drank an Anis at the bar and looked at the people. They were all waiting reasonably for the train.
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Get the entire White Elephants LitChart as a printable PDF.
The Train Station Symbol Timeline in Hills Like White Elephants
The timeline below shows where the symbol The Train Station appears in Hills Like White Elephants. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Hills Like White Elephants
The story opens with an extended description of a train station located in Spain’s Ebro valley. In these opening details the landscape’s barren, hot, and...
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The girl gets up from their table and walks to “the end of the station,” taking in the landscape around her. Through her eyes the barren hills look fertile, full...
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...to scream. The woman appears from the bar to let the couple know that their train will be arriving in five minutes, which the man translates for the girl. The girl...
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...the table, explaining that he should move their bags to the other side of the station. The man carries the heavy luggage to their tracks where the train is not yet...
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