Hills like White Elephants by Ernest Hemingway

“Hills Like White Elephants” by Ernest Hemingway, is a story that takes place at a train station in Spain, where an American man and a girl, whom he calls Jig, drink beer while waiting for a train to Madrid. As the man and girl are enjoying their beers, the girl begins to express how the line of hills in the distance looks like white elephants.” They don’t really look like white elephants. I just meant the coloring of their skin through the trees.” (553). Their conversation is boring and testy at first as they talk about their drinks, but once they begin talking about the situation, it soon becomes clear that the man is pressuring the girl into an unspecified operation. Though there was never any proof, their conversation strongly implies that the operation the man is talking about is abortion. The girl got bothered by this discussion and then asks the man to stop talking about it. The story ends with the man asking the girl if she feels better and the girl is quick to respond with “I feel fine.” (555). Hemingway reveals that difficult or uncomfortable situations can lead to a lack of communication between the ones experiencing the discomfort.

The man and the girl are the main characters; actually they are basically the only characters, in this story. Hemingway doesn’t describe either of the characters except for saying that the man is American. Before they get on the topic of the operation, the

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man does not seem too worried about talking it out with the girl. The girl on the other hand, seems to be somewhat bothered because she keeps making remarks that seem to refer to her pregnancy. Her pregnant stomach is like an unwanted gift that someone pretends to like or want. “The girl was looking off at the line of hills. They were white in the sun and the country was brown and dry.” (553). These metaphors also allude to infertility, (“the country was brown and dry…”) as opposed to her fertility. Hemingway makes the reader believe that the man is older because he is referred to as “man” and the girl is referred to as “girl” as opposed to “woman”. Both of the characters are flat characters because they both lack details and development. The girl knows that she is pregnant but clearly doesn’t care because she drinks beer and continues to ask for more. The man says, “I don’t want you to do anything that you don’t want to do-“. “Nor that isn’t good for me, I know. Could we have another beer?” (555). The man then continues to ask her if she realizes what she’s doing and she quickly interrupts