Joseph Fattorusso

       In simple terms I feel that “Hills like White Elephants” by Ernest Hemingway is about an unstable love affair between the woman protagonist and the young man in the story. The “American” man does not seem to want the relationship to develop into something longer than a passionate romance. A more developed relationship at the time would traditionally result in marriage and a family. When I was younger I never thought there’d be a day that I’m just a little bit older, or at least old enough where he decision to have a family becomes an issue of time. When you’re 18, it’s hard to imagine that time will start to run out.   I’m excited to be in a place in my life where I’m embarking on that journey and as a happy man. But many of my years were spent in an unbalanced place, especially when I first read this story as an 18 year old(I loved Hemingway since reading the Nick Adams stories.). Conversely, the strategic badgering of the girl to complete an abortion as...

  “Even the Sparrow finds a home, and the swallow a nest for herself, where she may lay her young, at your altars, O Lord of Hosts, my King and my God.” Psalm 84:3        In her September 15th, 2020 article “The Meaning of Sparrows: Symbolism and Identification,” [ https://owlcation.com/social-sciences/The-Meaning-of-Sparrows-Identification-and-Folklore]  Jennifer Stone takes us through the long history of sparrows as a symbol in art and literature, ranging from the Bible, through Shakespeare and to modern times as “Jack Sparrow” from Pirates of the Caribbean. She notes the wide range of their symbolism: sometimes the symbol of counter culture, noting the common 18th century practice of Pirates receiving Sparrow tattoos to symbolize their disconnection from common society. In China, a sparrow flying into a home  may be a symbol of good luck in marriage, but a sparrow hitting the glass of a window and falling dead can be either a positive or negative om...