The short descriptions of setting may not seem very detailed but combined with dialogues they tell us the true meaning of this three and a half page story. There is a couple waiting for the train. The American and his young girlfriend nicknamed Jig are sitting at a table in the shade, waiting for the train, talking and drinking beer. The whole story centres on a conversation over whether the girl should undergo an abortion or not. Although Hemingway never uses the words “abortion“ or “baby“, we can clearly tell that is all the characters are talking about.
This story is set in the valley of the Ebro river in Northern Spain. It is told through the conversation between a young woman, Jig and an American man, who are traveling together. They are waiting for their train to arrive within the next 40 minutes. They order two glasses of beer from the woman who works there. Jig remarks the hills in the distance look like white elephants; he says he’s never seen one.
Hills Like White Elephants In Ernest Hemingway's "Hills Like White Elephants”, the story illustrates a young woman named Jig and an American man challenged with the decision of abortion. Throughout the sequence of the story it is apparent that the man is persuading Jig to undergo the procedure. The apprehensive discussion the two are having suggests that they are avoiding the underlying issue at hand. In addition, the setting of the story establishes the stigma involved with the procedure, as Jig left her town and traveled to Spain. Hemingway’s use of symbolism in the dialogue and setting helps reveal the difficult matter through suggestion without the actual term abortion being mentioned.
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.
I think that Jig saw her pregnancy and the challenges that it would bring as wonderful. She say’s “they’re lovely hills.” When Jig says, “they look like white elephants” she is remarking on how rare and beautiful a child is, just as a white elephant would be a rare and beautiful site in nature. The American says “I’ve never seen one” and Jig pointedly remarks that he wouldn’t have. This tells me that she feels the beauty of unborn life as only a mother to be can and that she realizes that he has no way of knowing how she feels. The unrelenting heat represents the steaminess of the sexual relationship between Jig and the American.
The Pro-life advocates who are against late-term abortion argued that life begins at conception. At six weeks the fetus heart begins to beat and all the major organs have developed. In that case, any action deliberately taking to abort the fetus is ethically wrong and is considered as murder. An unwanted child is a pitiful thing, the thought of terminating something that if allowed to run its natural course, would result in the birth of a human being that will bring joy to most families. The Pro-abortionist focused only on a women’s right to choose and all the social problems inherent in an unwanted child, forgetting that the unborn child is a precious thing that has the right to life and deserves the full protection under the moral and ethics law.
You know how I get when I worry,” as if to make her understand his actions through a simple guilt of him worrying (59, Hemingway). He gives no comfort to Jig, no actions are done to help her through what she’s going through. Hemingway writes a great story in dialog, leaving it up to the reader to make inferences based on the facts given so that they can figure out the story and the characters. The reader infers that Jig and the American’s relationship has come to an end and that Jig and the American don’t want the same things in life. The reader also infers that Jig may at first appear helpless but later she reveals that she’s ready to make her own decision.
Define observation and inference. After careful reading of Ernest Hemingway’s “Hills Like White Elephants”, it is very clear what it’s purpose is. The story takes place in the Ebro River valley of Spain, where an American man and his female companion Jig are waiting for a train and having drinks discussing “doing it”. Obviously, by “doing it”, they’re referring to whether or not they should have an abortion. At the end of the story, we can only assume that they decide to go through with the abortion, when Jig tells the American male “I don’t care about me.” The man goes and haves a drink by himself and return to his companion.
Paper One Literal meaning of “Hills like White Elephants” by Ernest Hemingway The story starts off with a detailed description of a train station surrounded by white hills, grassy fields, and trees in Spain. An unnamed man and his girlfriend are sitting at a table in a bar outside the station. They are waiting for a train to Madrid. The weather was very hot, and the man decides to order two beers from the female bartender. The girlfriend says that the hills in the distance look like white elephants, which the man says that he has not seen one.
Here we are in this so-called world of freedom but when we exercise that freedom, we become ridiculed for making a choice. I would rather end a pregnancy instead of bringing a child into a world that they are forced to struggle and go without ; to make a child suffer is a far worse act then dissolving the birth of an unborn/ undeveloped fetus. In Roe v. Wade, a landmark Supreme Court decision in 1973, stated that a woman and her doctor may freely decide to abort a pregnancy during the first trimester, state governments can restrict abortion access after the first trimester with laws intended to protect the woman's health, and abortion after fetal viability must be available if the woman's health or life are at risk. Abortion was allowed in the United States of America