A Challenging Short Story, Hills Like White Elephants by Ernest Hemmingway

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Ernest Hemingway wrote a challenging short story about a couple that faces an awful issue. He sets his story, “Hills Like White Elephants” on a hot day at a train station, which is actually a stopping point between Barcelona and Madrid for the two main characters. They have to then decide where to go, whether or not to go with each other and/or to continue their relationship. The difference between the white hills and barren valley emphasizes the division between life and death, which comes to the choice Jig faces between having the baby and going through with the abortion. She seems very caught up between the two issues she has because she is very indecisive on what she wants to do.
As Hemingway wrote the story, he put it in a conversation like way, even though the couple barley talks, which shows tension between them. When the American and Jig actually do talk to each other, it seems as if they are trying to avoid each other, and the topic of the abortion. The American is really frustrated and will try and say almost anything to convince his girlfriend to have the operation. With in the story, he tells Jig that he loves her and that everything between them will go back to the way it use to be if she goes through with the abortion. Eventually, she cries “please, please, please, please, please, please” stop talking and says that she will have the abortion just to shut him up. When Jig then fails to speak Spanish with the bartender shows that she depends on the American but how she also has trouble expressing herself to other people.
The American and Jig drink beers throughout the story to avoid each other and the problems they have with their relationship. As soon as they get to their stopping point at the train station, they sta...

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... and Jigs relationship issues. The decision on whether or not to go through with an abortion is a big problem for a young women like Jig, and it makes it harder for her when her pushy boyfriend keeps egging on the conversation that she does not want to talk about. The couple has a lot of problems at such a young age and the fact that they are drinking while she is pregnant and they are fighting does not help the issue at all. Drinking to avoid does not solve anything, especially since the story goes unknown without an answer to whether she goes through with the operation or not. It leaves the reader thinking, “Did they go through with the abortion?” “Did they decide to keep the baby and work things out between them?” This short story is definitely considered a cliffhanger and it leaves the reader thinking and wanting to know what eventually happens with the couple.

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