Hills Like White Elephants
ENG 102
7/12/2013
Hills Like White Elephants
Hills Like White Elephants was written by Ernest Hemingway, and first published in 1927. Although its title leads you to believe the story is going to be about landscape or animals, it is in fact, about a couple’s struggle over whether or not to go through with an abortion. This short story takes place in Ebro, Spain during the middle of the summer, at a train station. The two characters in the story are a man referred to as ‘The American’, and a woman referred to as Jig. The nonchalant attitudes of the main characters shape the thought and introduction to the presentation of the story. As the story starts, you get the feeling that this man and woman are just out for a friendly drink and some traveling, until they start to mention the ‘procedure’, but this leaves you wondering what outcome they chose. The word abortion is never directly printed in the story, but the author gives us clues as to what he is talking about, “it’s a really simple operation Jig,….I know you wouldn’t mind it, Jig. It’s really not anything. It’s just to let the air in” (Hemingway 42, 44). The American thinks of the abortion as a ‘procedure’. The way he views and describes the ‘perfectly simple procedure’ is unfeeling towards Jig. He keeps telling Jig, “I don’t want you to do it if you don’t really want to” (Hemmingway 57), but at the same time, he keeps trying to sell her on the idea by telling her how perfectly simple it is. From his point of view, he even goes as far as to tell her that “we can have the whole world” (Hemmingway 76), and everything will be as it was before.
Jigs point of view on the procedure is not the same as the Americans. She is really struggling with the idea of the abortion. Her reply to the American when he says that they could have the world again was, “And we could have everything and every day we make it more impossible” (Hemmingway72). In that quote, she tells us that she is starting to love the
7/12/2013
Hills Like White Elephants
Hills Like White Elephants was written by Ernest Hemingway, and first published in 1927. Although its title leads you to believe the story is going to be about landscape or animals, it is in fact, about a couple’s struggle over whether or not to go through with an abortion. This short story takes place in Ebro, Spain during the middle of the summer, at a train station. The two characters in the story are a man referred to as ‘The American’, and a woman referred to as Jig. The nonchalant attitudes of the main characters shape the thought and introduction to the presentation of the story. As the story starts, you get the feeling that this man and woman are just out for a friendly drink and some traveling, until they start to mention the ‘procedure’, but this leaves you wondering what outcome they chose. The word abortion is never directly printed in the story, but the author gives us clues as to what he is talking about, “it’s a really simple operation Jig,….I know you wouldn’t mind it, Jig. It’s really not anything. It’s just to let the air in” (Hemingway 42, 44). The American thinks of the abortion as a ‘procedure’. The way he views and describes the ‘perfectly simple procedure’ is unfeeling towards Jig. He keeps telling Jig, “I don’t want you to do it if you don’t really want to” (Hemmingway 57), but at the same time, he keeps trying to sell her on the idea by telling her how perfectly simple it is. From his point of view, he even goes as far as to tell her that “we can have the whole world” (Hemmingway 76), and everything will be as it was before.
Jigs point of view on the procedure is not the same as the Americans. She is really struggling with the idea of the abortion. Her reply to the American when he says that they could have the world again was, “And we could have everything and every day we make it more impossible” (Hemmingway72). In that quote, she tells us that she is starting to love the