What Is Abortion In Ernest Hemingway's Hills Like White Elephants?

In Hills Like White Elephants Ernest Hemingway describes a couple’s decision on whether or not they should have an abortion. The man wants the abortion while the woman is being pressured and going back and forth on whether or not she wants the abortion. Ernest Hemingway uses symbolism, introduces modernism, and uses the setting as a means to compare the life or death decision and the topic of abortion as a whole. Hemingway starts off by describing the setting. The couple is sitting at the bar in a train station that is settled between Madrid and Barcelona. On one side if the train station there are hills and the dry brown country. The opposite side of the train station is filled with trees, grain, and has a river in the distance. The dry country side represents the choice of death while the other side is filled with vegetation and represents the choice of life. Hemingway personifies the Hills as white Elephants, symbolizing the baby if they made the choice to have it. White Elephants historically are considered to be sacred and rare, but are not desired by man because they cannot commit any type of labor. This creates …show more content…
The couple brings up how some of the people they know have had abortions and are happier. Hemingway does not paint abortion itself as problem but more so having a baby out of wedlock. Today in the 21st century both having a baby without being married and abortions are very common. Abortions are accepted in some societies but are still frowned upon by some people. Hills Like White Elephants is a perfect example of how modernism. Even though abortion is less common in this time frame and people are doing it out in the open it is becoming a “simple procedure”. The couple is not looking at how people will judge them but how having a baby would change their personal lives. Abortion and taking part in sexual activity without being married is starting to come out of the taboo