Hemingway use the number two for two
purposes (no play on words intended). The first relates to the American man and the
girl, whom he calls Jig, being a couple. This reinforces the man's perspective that he
wants their relationship to stay just as it is: traveling, staying for a night or a few
nights at different places to see different things, and tasting new drinks. The
instances where two represents their relationship in this way are
these:
‘Yes.
Two big ones.’The woman brought two glasses of beer and two felt
pads.‘We want two Anis del Toro.’
The girl looked
at the bead curtain, put her hand out and took hold of two of the strings of
beads.The woman came out through the curtains with two glasses of
beer and put them down on the damp felt
pads.
The second relates to
the division between them--the separateness that Jig's pregnancy is pushing them into.
This also represents a significant irony and paradox in that it is ironic that, while a
couple, they are divided and separated, and it is a paradox that
two can be both separateness and unity. Of course, the answer to
the riddle of the paradox is that two going in the same path is
unity while two in divergent directions is separateness. These
quotes represent two as
separateness:
the station was between two lines of rails in the
sun.
It stopped at this junction for two minutes
He
picked up the two heavy bags and carried them around the station to the other
tracks.
In an ironic
statement, Hemingway uses the last reference to
two to enlighten us on the man's
perspective and give the reason for their growing separateness. The man carries "the two
heavy bags" round the corner of the station, then looks up the tracks for the train: he
"could not see the train." This is a metaphor for the man's experience: he can't see the
metaphorical train that is about to hit him. The train symbolizes the disagreement about
the abortion that is threatening a collision and will wreck their relationship when it
finally arrives.
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