Foreshadowing In Hills Like White Elephants

"Hills Like White Elephants" is a very disturbing story by Ernest Hemingway about two characters that are arguing at a train station. I read this story several times and it pissed me off more, the more times I read it. The two characters are an American man and a lady known as Jig. The conflict in the story is about an operation that the man wants her to have and that the girl does not want performed. I think this is the best example of propaganda ever written to convince educated people that there is absolutely nothing wrong with abortion. When writing propaganda for the educated you can’t just state why one thing is all bad and another is all good you have to let them figure it out for themselves. It is not killing it is just according to Hemmingway, “It’s just to let the air in” (636). It is so simple just let air in and the blood, brain, and heart out. We all like air after all life depends on it, except the baby’s life. Just a simple …show more content…
The couple is waiting on a train to Madrid, get some drinks, and are looking at the mountains. The pair discuss how the hills look like white elephants or not. I think this is foreshadowing of a much bigger argument that comes next in the story. The couple starts off arguing over whether or not the mountains look like white elephants.
The central conflict of the story is then introduced, Hemingway writes, “It’s really an awfully simple operation, Jig, the man said. “It’s not really an operation at all.” (636). Hemmingway only names the girl, Jig, when the man starts to talk to her about having an operation. Jig sounds more like a nickname than her real name to keep the characters representing males and females in general. The man is trying to convince the woman to have this operation and seems to say that it is no big deal. I think this shows that the American man is a player and knows how to be smooth and convince the girl of