Honest communication is vital for everyday contact with another person. It enables broad understanding of others perspectives, while also getting the chance to be heard. There is nothing worse than manifesting your heart and feelings only to feel dismissed and disappointed each and every time; it takes two for communication to be insightful and have purpose. In his story, “Hills Like White Elephants,” Ernest Hemingway demonstrates a woman named Jig’s conflict of choice: whether or not she should have an operation that is insinuated as an abortion in order to keep her lover, referred to as “the American,” happy and maintain the relationship as it was before, or if she should go on with the pregnancy to keep herself happy. Talking without communication
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This is made clear in the story as Jig questions every statement the American makes. She not only has the inability to speak Spanish to the waiter serving their drinks, further showing dependability on the American, but she also has difficulty with expressing her ideas to him as well. Jig asks her lovers opinion on everything which seems to impact what she says and believes. They seem to dance around each other with meaningless conversations and are incapable of understanding and comprehending one another’s perspective of the situation. Any communication Jig and the American have are often awkward and seemingly dismissive in order to avoid bringing up the actual issue. For instance, when she tells him how the hills “look like white elephants” he responds with, “I’ve never seen one.” She counters with, “No, you wouldn’t have.” He responds, “I might have. Just because you say I wouldn’t doesn’t prove anything.” He does not seem to understand what she is trying to convey to him, yet he keeps pushing the idea of going through with the operation, even if she does not concede. She eventually gives in to the idea of the operation and tells him, “Please, please, please, please, please, please stop talking” (478) just to shut him up about the situation. She realizes the futility of their conversation and decides it would be easier to stop talking about the
This is made clear in the story as Jig questions every statement the American makes. She not only has the inability to speak Spanish to the waiter serving their drinks, further showing dependability on the American, but she also has difficulty with expressing her ideas to him as well. Jig asks her lovers opinion on everything which seems to impact what she says and believes. They seem to dance around each other with meaningless conversations and are incapable of understanding and comprehending one another’s perspective of the situation. Any communication Jig and the American have are often awkward and seemingly dismissive in order to avoid bringing up the actual issue. For instance, when she tells him how the hills “look like white elephants” he responds with, “I’ve never seen one.” She counters with, “No, you wouldn’t have.” He responds, “I might have. Just because you say I wouldn’t doesn’t prove anything.” He does not seem to understand what she is trying to convey to him, yet he keeps pushing the idea of going through with the operation, even if she does not concede. She eventually gives in to the idea of the operation and tells him, “Please, please, please, please, please, please stop talking” (478) just to shut him up about the situation. She realizes the futility of their conversation and decides it would be easier to stop talking about the