Hills Like White Elephants is from a collection of short stories Men Without Women by Ernest Hemmingway. It was first published in 1927.
The story is about a couple waiting for a train at the train station. The male character is referred as the American and his female companion as the girl and later Jig. The girl is pregnant and the man is trying to insist in a very artful way that she must go for an abortion. The setting is in the valley of the Ebro in Spain. At one side there are hills and the scenery is brown and dry and on the other side of the station there is the Ebro River and the scenery is green. The weather is very hot because of the bright and burning sun.
The male character is dominant, defensive and hypocritical and the female character is pendent and is incapable of voting for her decision.
In the story the man persistently tells her to abort the child but never uses the word abortion. He keeps on giving more like hypnotic suggestions that she must abort the child because its a very simple operation. He is hypocritical because he keeps on saying But I dont want you to do if you didnt want to. He says that he doesnt need a baby in their life - Thats the only thing that bothers us. Its the only thing that made us unhappy, But I dont want anybody but you. I dont want anyone else. They are happy with their life, drinking and traveling from one place to the other - Just because you say I wouldnt have doesnt prove anything reveals the defensive nature in him.
Ernest Hemmingway has used a lot of symbolism. Hills are symbolized as the bulging belly of a pregnant woman and the White Elephants are symbolized as a baby or the birth of a baby. White elephants are very rare and expensive to raise so the baby is symbolized as White Elephants.
The girl is very pendent and a creeper. She entirely understands that she is weary of their life as gypsies and wants to settle down. We can deduce it from this line I wanted to try new drinks: Thats all we do, isnt it look at things and try new drinks. On one side at the train station there is barren land and dryness, which represents death, and on the other side there is green, which represents a new beginning to their life with the River Ebro as the sign for fertility. She stands on this side and says We can have everything, We can have the whole world, We can go everywhere. These lines show her willingness to give birth and settle down. Later in the story the girl is referred as Jig, the meaning of the word is fishermens lure, or a tool, or a sort of leaping and kicking dance. The meaning of the word shows that she lacks depth of character and personality, which allows the man to manipulate her.
The word two has been used quite a few times. The number is very significant to the story. Two lines of rails, two big ones, two glasses of beer and two felt pads all points out that they are a couple and it is the baby who has walked life as a third person. The baby is an invader from the mans perspective and even though the girl wants the baby deep down in her heart, she knows it is not possible to show the light of this world to her baby without his consent. We can also speculate farther with the two railway tracks and the train station that there is always a distance between them and the train moves in opposite directions. One way is to Madrid for abortion and the other is denial of his lovers opinion.
During the end of the story the man says Id better take the bags over to the other side of the station, ant girl replies smiling, All Right. Then come back and well finish the beer creates a big dilemma in the in the readers mind and what decision was made remains a mystery. It is up to the readers choice to come to a suitable conclusion.
Ernest Hemmingway has written a masterpiece. With a very simple setting and a few dialogues she unfolds human characteristics and gives us an insight of a relationship. She with a shallow and mundane conversation has shown a side of human life. The true meaning of the story lies in its symbolisms and the depth of understanding of the reader.
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