Hills Like White Elephants Internal Conflict

The short story, “Hills Like White Elephants”, by Ernest Hemingway is not the easiest text to interpret. The short story involves a man and woman who are casually waiting for a train. They both decide to drink some beer as they are waiting and exchange a normal conversation until the man suggests the woman should get a simple operation. The type of operation is not clearly stated, but from the woman’s reaction it is clear she does not plan on having the operation. The man then keeps bringing up the operation until finally the woman asks him to please stop talking. Although the operation is never stated, I assume the man suggests an abortion because he says even if she does not get the operation he will “love it” (p. 116 Hemingway). I interpreted many conflicts in the text when the man suggests abortion, however the woman’s context clues suggest she would rather keep the child and avoid the subject of the operation. There are many conflicts in “Hills Like White Elephants”. From what I learned in discussion, an internal conflict is not clearly stated in the text, while an external conflict is. An internal conflict that occurs in
Internal and external conflicts are scattered throughout the text. Secretly the woman wants to keep the child, but never states it. The man creates an external conflicts throughout the text by trying to convince the woman to have an abortion. He promises they can have everything and the whole world. However it seems the woman wants the child because she describes the line hills and white elephants as the unborn child. She finally tells the man to stop talking, and it obviously was not the first time the discussion of abortion had came up between the two. In the end, we as readers do not know if she had an abortion or not, but as a woman she has the right to make a decision with or without the man’s