Character
The man's nationality.
What is American?
The type of location they are waiting at.
What is a train station?
The style of narration used.
What is objective (or third-person limited)?
The major symbolic meaning of the title itself.
What is the unwanted baby/pregnancy?
White elephant = an expensive, useless thing.
The primary literary element driving the story forward.
What is dialogue?
The girl's nickname.
Who is Jig?
The country where the story takes place.
What is Spain?
The narrator does not describe this part of the characters.
What are their thoughts or feelings?
The contrast between the dry hills and the fertile valley.
What is symbolism or juxtaposition?
The general timeline of the story’s events.
What is 30-40 minutes waiting for a train?
What is a limited timeline (or real-time narrative)?
His drink order.
What is beer (or dos cervezas)?
The contrasting views from the two sides of the station.
What are dry and barren with the other as fertile with fields of grain and a river?
How the perspective from the story is told.
What is strictly external, focusing only on dialogue and actions?
The meaning behind the statement "everything tastes of licorice."
What is their current life has a bitter or unpleasant taste?
The number of distinct times the characters change their seating location.
What is twice (once from outside in, once back out)?
Her drink order and opinion.
What is Anis del Toro (or absinthe) and she complains it tastes like licorice. ?
The name of the river mentioned.
What is the Ebro (River)?
The specific types of details the narrator does provide.
What are sensory details/objective facts including scenery and objects?
The meaning of the "beaded curtain" as a symbolic barrier.
What is an obstacle to communication?
The reason the dialogue is written as it is (lacking tags).
What is to create ambiguity (or mimic real conversation)?
The item he carries throughout the story.
What are the travel bags/suitcases?
The man moves their luggage, described only by the travel stickers covering them.
The specific item separating the bar area from the waiting room.
What is the beaded curtain?
This symbolizes the barrier between the couple.
The objective, sparse narration forces the reader to do this.
What is make inferences or interpretations?
The general term for the symbolic device Hemingway uses where everything is beneath the surface.
What is the "iceberg theory" (or "theory of omission")?
The specific moment the climax occurs.
What is when Jig stands up, says she feels fine, and perhaps makes her final decision?