The ending of the story leaves unclear the result of her decision. She says, "I feel fine" at the end of the story her happiness is a crucial theme of the story, but the reader was left wondering if she went through with the operation. Of the numerous symbols from the story, the main three are the hills, white elephants, and the railroad station. Hemingway uses these elements to develop the theme of the story. The theme is about how Jig sees the prospect of keeping her child and having a happy life, while the man fails to see the possibilities and works to encourage her to go through with the abortion.
I believe that she is afraid that he will leave her if she does not do what he wants. At the beginning of the story Jig seems to be very worried about the situation and at the end of the story she smiles as if she is relieved and happier than she was at the beginning of the story because of the action of her boyfriend, the American. There are signs of communication given in the story but they are not always clear and are left up to the interpretation of the reader. Although the word abortion was never spoken, it is assumed when the American says, “It's really an awfully simple operation, Jig. It's just to let the air in” (Hemmingway 3).
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 it’s a very simple operation. He is hypocritical because he keeps on saying – “But I don’t want you to do if you didn’t want to”. He says that he doesn’t need a baby in their life - “That’s the only thing that bothers us.
The man goes on to try and convince her an abortion is a very simple operation and that they would be happy again once it was over. She doesn’t seem to buy it. The man tells her she does not have to go through with it if she does not want to. She responds that she will do it, because she doesn’t care about herself. He continues to tell her how simple it would be.
April 04, 2011 Journal for Jordan by Dana Canedy opens different points of view on the decision of Charles having gone to war when his partner Dana had just become pregnant. She has an opinion about his decision as expressed when she says: “He simply could not be sent into battle. It had taken us too long to find each other” (Canedy 105). At the same time she tries to support Charles because she knows how hard he fought for it and how important this mission was for him, as we see in the following sentence uttered by Dana: “I did have political view about war—everyone did, and I could have forced him into debating the issue. But none of that seemed right now.
Although Hemingway never uses the words “abortion“ or “baby“, we can clearly tell that is all the characters are talking about. One of the first things readers and Jig notice are the hills surrounding the valley. She seems to be fascinated by them and their white colour reminds her of white elephants. The man obviously does not to care about the landscape, he keeps going back to the topic of abortion, which Jig does neither want to talk about, nor think of. “The girl looked across at the hills on the dry side of the valley and the man looked at her and at the table“ (90).
When it comes to symbolism, this story has plenty of it. One of the main symbolisms in the story is when Jig stares at the hills and comments on them. She says they look like white elephants. The phrase “Hills Like White Elephants” is symbolic of the pregnant Jigs belly. It’s also symbolic because the American views the couple’s unborn child as an approaching obstacle just like a hill.
She has lowered herself expectations in life to satisfy someone else’s. Another excerpt from this story that I would like to view is “Well, the man said, “If you don’t want to you don’t have to. I wouldn’t have you do it if you didn’t want to. But I know it’s perfectly simple.” She has listened to him try and rationalizes the “easy” procedure of an abortion. Like, how would he know?
There are not any trees in sight only two distant hills and the woman refers to them as white elephants. They sip on their drinks and through conversation you can conclude that the woman and the man are at odds over her pregnancy. She wants to have the baby, but the man does not. He tries to sway her decision by telling her that the abortion process is simple. “Awfully simple and not really anything.” He wants to keep the lifestyle that they have on track.
Earnest Hemingway’s “Hills like White Elephants” is a story of a verbal battle and contest of wills between two characters. The reader is asked to decipher much of the information in the story through the use of symbolism and imagery. The reader must also come to a conclusion as to how the character chooses in the end. Beginning with the title “Hills like White Elephants” and through further description of the terrain surrounding the couple, the reader can sense the internal struggle between the two characters over the issue of whether Jig will agree to have an abortion. The story is set in a bar beside a train station.