Hills_Like_White_Elephants

Ernest Hemingway’s “Hills Like White Elephants” at first glance might seem like a simple conversation between two people on a train, but upon closer inspection we find this conversation between girlfriend and boyfriend a tense exchange of words on the decision of abortion. When Jig brings up the subject that the hills “look like white elephants” she is talking about something more than a geological formation, but rather the unborn fetus in her stomach that the two are about to abort. Hemingway uses the word hill as a simile to a woman’s stomach — when a women is late into a pregnancy her stomach can often times look like a hill. Hemingway also uses “white elephant” as a metaphor for Jig’s unborn child — an albino elephant, much like a child, is a beautiful and wonderful thing, but at the same time costly and burdensome. According to dictionary.reference.com a white elephant is described as “a possession entailing great expense out of proportion to its usefulness or value to the owner” The nameless American man in “Hills Like White Elephants” seems to be the one pushing Jig into an abortion she does not want. The American, from what I gather from the story, is very manipulating— he tells Jig things will be “Just like we were before” as long as she gets the operation done. The American is unconcerned with Jigs feelings or emotions — take for example when the American talks to Jig about the “simple” operation he tells her “They just let the air in and then it’s all perfectly natural” he downplays the seriousness of abortion by telling her “they just let the air in” and “its natural,” either the man is ignorant to how an abortion is performed, or inconsiderate of Jigs’ feelings concerning the emotional roller coaster that usually follows a abortion. The American also comes off as being very pushy — when Jig tells the American “No, it isn’t. And once they take it away, you never get it back” in reference to losing her innocence though abortion, the American continues to try and push her towards accepting the abortion by sympathizing with her “I don’t want you to do anything that you don’t want to do -’ and then tries to force her into accepting the abortion “All right. But you’ve got to realize –“ If the American truly cared about Jig he would tell her the truth about the operation instead of down playing it, he would stop manipulating her with thoughts of “being happy” again, and support Jig in either decision she makes.