Hills

This short story placed in the early 1920's begins with two people talking and having drinks at a train junction between Barcelona and Madrid. An American man and a girl, probably nineteen or twenty years old, are waiting at a Spanish railway station for the express train that will take them from Barcelona to Madrid. They drink beers as well as two licorice-tasting drinks sitting in the hot shade and talk about what the American man says will be "a simple operation" for the girl.
Through writing "Hills like White Elephants" by Ernest Hemingway is suggested that having a child is better seen as a progressive life change than an obstacle. On the other hand, the reader gets the impression that the girl is not at all sure that she wants an abortion. She's ambivalent about the choice. We sense that she is tired of traveling, of letting the man make all the decisions, of allowing the man to talk incessantly until he convinces her that his way is the right way. He has become her guide and her guardian. He translates for her, even now: abortion involves only a doctor allowing "a little air in." Afterward, they will be off on new travels.
In the story, Hemingway refers to the Ebro River and to the bare, sterile-looking mountains on one side of the train station and to the fertile plains on the other side of the train station. The hills of Spain, to the girl, are like white elephants in their bareness and round, protruding shape. Also notable is that "white elephant" is a term used to refer to something that requires a lot of care and getting little return, just like having a child.
It is advantageous to the reader that the man and the girl do not communicate clearly. Additionally, Hemingway incorporates a clever title to add appeal to this story. A white elephant can also been defined as an item that is worthless to one but priceless to another, bringing to mind the saying, one man's trash is another man's treasure. In the case of Hemingway's couple, the baby represents something of no apparent value to the man, yet priceless to the girl.
The girl is trying to be brave and nonchalant but is clearly terrified of committing herself to having the operation. She tosses out a conversational, fanciful figure of speech noting that the hills beyond the train station "look like white elephants" and hoping that the figure of speech will please the man, but he resents her ploy. He insists on talking even more about the operation and the fact that, according to what he's heard, it's "natural" and "not really an operation at all."
Later Jig steps away from the shade of the building and of her mate and she initiates a change in tone. Jig tells the man that "It isn't ours anymore," referring to their lifestyles and the world they have been living in. In the images of water and drought, or more simply, of life and death, the author emphasizes Jig's choices. One choice is to abort the baby and wonder about the future of her relationship to the man. The other choice is to make the jump into the river of life, which seems, to Jig, to have some promise established in her suggesting to the man in the sentence: "We could get along."
However, for the girl, this life of constant travel, living in hotels, and never settling down has become wearying. Their life of transience, of instability, is described by the girl as living on the surface: "look at things and try new drinks." Hemingway shows that the girl, Jig, is ready for the next step in life now that it has been presented to her. On one side of the setting, lies the sun baked, barren hills. Jig contemplates their future and watches "the other side" where the country is fertile and there are "fields of grain and trees".
The man is using his logic in order to be as persuasive as possible. Without a baby anchoring them down, they can continue to travel; they can "have everything." However, the girl contradicts him and, at that moment, seems suddenly strong and more in control of the situation. With or without the abortion, things will never be the same. She also realizes that she is not loved, at least not unconditionally.
The need of real conflict would have detracted from the obscurity of the story's theme and the conflict of both characters' points of view. One of the attractions of this story is the element of the unknown. During the very short exchanges between the man and the girl, she changes from someone who is completely needy upon the man to someone who is surer of herself and more aware of what to expect from him. At the end of their conversation, she takes control of herself and of the situation: She no longer acts in her former childlike way. She tells the man to please shut up — and note that the word "please" is repeated seven times, indicating that she is overwhelmingly tired of his hypocrisy and his continual harping on the same subject.
Everything in the story indicates that the man definitely wants the girl to have an abortion. Even when the man maintains that he wants the girl to have an abortion only if she wants to have one, we question his sincerity and his honesty. When he says: "If you don't want to you don't have to. I wouldn't have you do it if you didn't want to," he is not convincing. From his earlier statements, it is obvious that he does not want the responsibility that a child would entail; apparently, he strongly wants her to have this abortion and definitely seems to be very unresponsive to the girl's feelings.
With Jig's smile to her mate and to the serving woman, Hemingway eases the tension created by the conflict. By this time Jig seems to have come to a conclusion. Finally, the man asks, "Do you feel better?" and she replies, "There's nothing wrong with me, I feel fine". Jig has decided that being pregnant is a life change to be cherished and built upon.