She wonders if this will solve their problems and get the relationship back on track, where he argues that it is on track; but he is just worried about the pregnancy. Jig is telling the man that she is willing do it, but only because she doesn't care about herself. She is expressing that she is in despair over the issue, and feels like she will lose everything. He keeps telling her that he doesn't want her to do it if she doesn't want to, but at the same time she knows that he prefers that she have an abortion. At the end of the story there is no there is no clear answer on what will happen when they leave the train station, but it is apparent that Jig wants to keep the child, and is worried about the relationship changing
The girl in the short story is undeniably nervous about having an abortion. The man in the story is trying to be persuasive but is growing impatient. He keeps telling her that “it isn’t a big deal and he knows people who have had it done and they are fine” (Clugston, 2010). Tone is very important in “Hills Like White Elephants.” The point of view in literature is how the story is told. Point of view is told in different ways to increase or decrease the dramatic effect (Clugston, 2010).
The man is young I think, it is not mentioned in the story, but I guess, because if he was old, he would not want to have the abortion so much, now he seems that he wants to have fun and be with Jig alone, he do not want to be a parent with all the things that come with a baby, like responsible. He likes for example to drink a lot. I see the woman like a typical female, she do not want to have the abortion in the start, because she is feeling like a mother, she wants her baby. But afterwards she cannot handle to discuss with the man, that’s why she just give after and say okay to have the abortion. Like she says, “I don’t care about me” (page 417, line 16).
They both love each other and they want to do a certain thing to make each of them happy but with respect to one another. On the contrary jig is the antagonist because she is opposed to the idea of having an abortion and wants to keep the baby while the man keep insisting on it that she cannot transmit her opinion and express how she feel clearly. One of the things that we notice it take place in Spain by the Ebro River a word that means “Abortion”. While they are resting the man ask for “Dos Cervezas the man said into the curtain”
This shows how settling down would be a necessity not only for the girl but also for the American man who is definitely not very excited about keeping the baby and is obviously in favor of the abortion, and everything he says is an effort to persuade her into it as he says: "It is really an awfully simple operation, Jig, it is not really an operation at all" . The man is being very pushy
If she had the baby, he might leave her, she would have no way to support herself. Society backed her into a corner because it didn’t support a woman’s right to choose. If this took place today, the effect would have been very different. A single mother like Jig, would have rights to do what she wanted. Raising a child alone isn't as taboo as it was back then.
First, in the story, we understand that the American man has money, and he is an adult because he seems to know what he is doing. He doesn't want to have a child. Therefore, he is asking his girlfriend to risk her life by having an abortion. All this makes him very selfish, as well. He doesn't care about her, despite the fact that he says: 'well, I care about you.'
It’s not really an operation at all” (Hemingway, 2011, p. 445) is a clue that allows the reader to figure out the couple is talking about an abortion. The feminist perspective shows that the male has the power in making the decision, even though it is not his body. This is how the woman shows her love to the male and the fact that she is dedicated to him. “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.
The author of "Hills Like White Elephants", Ernest Hemingway, does not reveal the source of conflict between the young man and young woman in the story, but it is implied that the conflict is centered on the decision of abortion. The goal of the man in the story is to convince the young woman to have an abortion procedure. The goal of the young woman is to do whatever it takes to make her partner happy and thus preserve their relationship. The young woman in the relationship is definitely the "giver," while the man is definitely the "taker." The young woman, Jig, shows herself to be very dependent upon her male counterpart throughout the story.
The story is set up as a dialogue between the two, in which the man is trying to convince the woman to do something she is hesitant in doing. “Hills Like White Elephants” displays the differences in the way a man and a woman view pregnancy and abortion. The woman looks at pregnancy as a beautiful aspect of life. In the story the woman’s pregnancy is implied through their conversation. This couple is at a critical point in their lives when they must decide whether or not to have an abortion.