Because he writes about what he knows, Hemingway forces the reader to look beneath the text to find more meaning to the story. When the couple is in Spain and the railroad tracks are mentioned in “Hills Like White Elephants,” it symbolizes the crossroads for the couple, and since Hemingway writes what he knows, he was also at a crossroads once in Spain. He was stuck between the decision of choosing between his first wife Hadley, or his second wife Pauline Pfeiffer (Reynolds). He based “the girl and the American” off of his marriage to Pauline. In this marriage, Pauline put Hemingway above everything, sometimes including her children’s needs. This is a parallel to the girl always doing things and questioning herself to please the American. She
