Abortion In Ernest Hemingway's Hills Like White Elephants

Becoming a parent is something most people see in their future, however it often comes at the wrong time for some people. In Ernest Hemingway’s, “Hills Like White Elephants”, we see a couple’s conversation as it leads up to the decision they are making on whether or not to have an abortion. With the white elephants representing a metaphor for the unborn child, we are able to see the struggle of a couple trying to make a decision on whether to keep the child or not, through which it is apparent that the two of them as a couple don’t communicate properly and the girl does not normally know how to make her own decisions. The characters are presented in a vague way, there names are not even mentioned when they are introduced in the story by the narrator. They are introduced as “the American” and “the girl.” They are on a train station, which is a stopping point between Barcelona and Madrid. This is where travelers make the decision which direction to go, which parallels how the main characters have to make the decision on having an abortion or having a baby. When they are on the train the girl is looking out the window and she points out that the hills look like white elephants. The subject changes and she keeps bringing up the white elephants. White elephants are considered an idiom for unwanted
The problem is that they both want different things. No matter what happened, one of them would have to give up what they wanted in order for the other to be happy. With white elephants serving as their metaphor for the baby, it showed how it was not easy for them to properly communicate what they wanted. Although the decision is ultimately up to the girl, one might assume that she would make the decision to have the abortion because that’s what the American wanted, and also because she is dependent on him making all the decisions