Hills Like White Elephants is a short story about life and death, selfishness and peer pressure. The name of the title of this story represents something rare and special which is behind the plot. It makes us question what love is and the meaning of life which isn’t seen as valuable. The end result is that the couple featured does not stay together.
The Hills Are Like White Elephants is a see saw conversation between and American man and a local woman. The peer pressure that is eluded towards the local woman gives the reader something to think about and try to figure out where the story is going. The quote “Its really an awfully simple operation, jig” (Hills like white elephants, Ernest Hemingway pg2, 30) gives and idea of the thought of a possible discussion of an abortion. What makes it more evident of an abortion is the quote “We’ll be fine afterward. Just like we were before”.
You can tell the woman in the story is hesitant to go through with the discussed operation because of her continued silence when the man keeps pressing the issue. He keeps trying to reassure her by saying things like “You don’t have to be afraid. I’ve known lots fo people that have done it”. Theres a part of the story when you think that carelessness or just the time of the era related to the story plays a part when they are both drinking alcohol. Normally a woman who is pregnant wont consume alcohol but it clearly states confusion through the quotes of “Lets drink beer”
You get the sense that the man is telling the woman anything she wants to hear so that his selfish, inhumane request is carried out by the woman he is manipulating. His persistent passive aggressiveness shows its working when the woman says “Then I’ll do it. Because I don’t care about me.” With all the pressure from the man, the woman still subtly reveals she’s going to keep the child in the dialogue ” but they haven’t taken it away” and “All right, but you got to realize-” “I realize”.
So in the end the man and the woman go on their separate ways while the woman will go through with the abortion and that they probably wont ever see each other again. This is a rough situation to be in for both of them but you hear about these kind of crossroads with people or couples. In the end the child suffers or isn’t given a chance to enter the world.
burkshacc 