In “Hills Like White Elephants”, by Ernest Hemingway, there is an unspoken conflict suggested within the text. Two characters, the American and the girl, are waiting for a train and clearly have a distant relationship. The girl looks towards the Ebro valley alined with white hills, referring them as “[looking] like white elephants’’ (Hemingway). However, trying to liven the mood the girl’s tactic fails for the American brings up an operation saying that it is, “perfectly simple” and “perfectly natural” (Hemingway), which makes the girl uneasy. The operation is never specified, but readers can assume the American is agitating the girl to receiving an abortion. Out of context, a ‘White Elephant’ is an idiom symbolizing an unwanted object. The
