Hills Like White Elephants By Ernest Hemingway

“Hills Like White Elephants” was written by Ernest Hemingway, and was included in his 1927 story collection, Men Without Women. This particular short story takes place outside of a train station at a bar, where its protagonists are waiting for a train to Madrid. The subject of the story and the interaction between the two relates to abortion, the overriding theme links to a more overarching subject, that of male – female relationships, the inequality that often exists between them and the emotional gap that also often separates the two genders. The story, itself, has two interesting corollaries: First, the author, Hemingway, has written “Hills like White Elephants” with much ambiguity as to its outcome; in fact, in many respects, he has left the outcome for the reader to discern. Secondly, Hemingway’s dialogue between the man and the girl demonstrates a sensitivity toward women’s issues not commonly associated with a man whose fame was predicated on stories of life in war-torn countries, hunting in the plains of Africa or big game fishing off Florida’s Atlantic coast. The discussion about abortion provides a platform to touch on the transcendent theme of male-female relationships, allowing the reader to infer outcomes,
Interestingly, that Ernest Hemingway, himself an iconic male figure known as much for his interest in hunting and sport fishing as he was for writing, would write such a story speaks to his depth as a writer and a person, made more remarkable for its time period, the late 1920s. This, too, demonstrates that people are not always what they seem, nor are conversations, words and the people who use