Who Is Abortion In Ernest Hemingway's Hills Like White Elephant?

In 1927, abortions weren’t as simple as the American explained it in, “Hills Like White Elephant.” “It’s really an awfully simple operation, Jig… It’s not really an operation at all.” Whether it was a manipulation driven tactic or pure ignorance, he couldn’t have been more wrong. During the 20s, many women either died or suffered severe medical conditions during an abortion. Consequently, abortions were illegal back then so many abortions were done at home, and usually with a household item of some sort. Thus, the complications of unsanitary and unsterile tools. In this story, Hemingway does a great job at making his readers guess on what type of operation the American is pushing for, since he never mentions it by name. After a second pass and the ability to decipher the cryptic comments between the two, everything starts to make sense. Whether looking at the train station setting, the two different landscapes or the dialogue, the conflict of abortion is crystal clear. First and foremost,

On one side, the landscape is lifeless, no shade, no trees, hot, and dry. On the other side, the landscape is lush with a flowing river, fields of grain and trees, symbolizing to give life. As Jig is walking back and forth between these two clashing landscapes, she is contemplating both sides of the conflict, life with the baby and life without. With the last sentence of this short story reading: “I feel fine…There’s nothing wrong with me. I feel fine” Jig is implying that the problem is with the American not her. Therefore, even though the ending is conclusive, the last sentence leads readers to believe Jib is keeping the baby. Most people who read “Hills Like White Elephants” are unaware of Hemingway’s emotional ties to the story. The relationship and abortion in this unique short story, reflects a conflict he had 4 years prior in 1923. After the divorce, it became a third-person narrative and the story was