Hills Like White Elephants Feminist Essay

The ever gaining power and strong push for equal rights for women has just recently become popular in recent years. Many women have push out of the ‘house wife’ class of people, moving towards a more power holding position. One idea that is debated worldwide is the right for a woman to get an abortion on her own accord. In 1927 Ernest Hemingway composed a short story titled, “Hills like White Elephants”. The story expressed a strong focus point of feminism and abortion. Through the development of the stories characters, and the ability for jig ,the women in the story, to make her own decision even though her boyfriend was really pushing for her not to get the abortion. This suggests a robust theme of feminism in the society that is manly dominated by men. “The personal evolution of the female protagonist, jig, can be divided into four major steps (Renner 1). The first revolves around the typical submissive and passive behavior expected of women” (2). Even through the way the drinks are ordered, Hemingway shows, the roles of genders at the time are that the male is dominate and the females submit to them. The very first line of the short story is jig asking her partner “What should we drink?” (Hemingway 475). The male character ordering the drinks for the …show more content…
Jig expresses earlier in the story the hills in the distance look a lot like white elephants. “Elephants are thought to be one of the most powerful animals on earth, as well as being rare and precious.” (Weeks 1) This image of the elephants also represents a fetus, which is an unborn child. Either side of the hill represents the conflict of abortion in the story. One the side with the train station, which the couple is at, it is described as barren, no trees, dry, and brown. While on the opposite side of the hill it is described as having much life with trees and color,” symbolizing the chance to have a family and to keep the baby.” (Weeks