Ernest Hemingway’s short fiction story, “Hills Like White Elephants,” has a vague, ambiguous plot which can be interpreted in multiple ways. One reader may argue “Hills Like White Elephants” simply consists of a couple having a nice drink and conversation about their surroundings. Another reader could depict the short story as Jig going to Madrid for a chemotherapy “operation.” However, the true underlying plot of “Hills Like White Elephants,” is Jig and the American man having a conflicting conversation about whether or not Jig should have an abortion. To portray the obscure plot of “Hills Like White Elephants,” Hemingway uses the literary element of symbolism by parallelling the symbolic meanings of the setting with the couple’s conflict.
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The start of their conversation reveals the miscommunication in their relationship and how they use alcohol and drinking as a barrier to avoid directly talking about their conflict. Also, the American man repeating the weather condition, after Hemingway described it in the first paragraph, emphasizes the couple’s uncomfortable tension. After their first exchange of words, Jig describes the white hills in the “brown and dry” country as “white elephants” (Hemingway 115). The white hills being in the brown and dry country indicates how barren Jig would be if she went through with the operation and aborted her “white elephant.” Also, by associating the white hills with white elephants, Jig initiates a subtle conversation about the operation to the American man and how the unborn baby is currently unwanted. As observed by literary critic, Abby Werlock, “instead of having a significant, rational conversation about the issue at hand, Jig says only that the hills of Spain look like white elephants.” After initiating a conversation about the operation, the American man replies by saying he has never seen a white elephant, in which Jig sarcastically replies, “No, you wouldn’t have” (Heminway 115). As indicated, when the couple talks about the operation, their “tension increases and it is apparent that an argument is about to erupt or re-erupt” (Weeks). Jig’s initial descriptions of her surroundings in the beginning of the story signifies her baby is unwanted by both the American man and
The start of their conversation reveals the miscommunication in their relationship and how they use alcohol and drinking as a barrier to avoid directly talking about their conflict. Also, the American man repeating the weather condition, after Hemingway described it in the first paragraph, emphasizes the couple’s uncomfortable tension. After their first exchange of words, Jig describes the white hills in the “brown and dry” country as “white elephants” (Hemingway 115). The white hills being in the brown and dry country indicates how barren Jig would be if she went through with the operation and aborted her “white elephant.” Also, by associating the white hills with white elephants, Jig initiates a subtle conversation about the operation to the American man and how the unborn baby is currently unwanted. As observed by literary critic, Abby Werlock, “instead of having a significant, rational conversation about the issue at hand, Jig says only that the hills of Spain look like white elephants.” After initiating a conversation about the operation, the American man replies by saying he has never seen a white elephant, in which Jig sarcastically replies, “No, you wouldn’t have” (Heminway 115). As indicated, when the couple talks about the operation, their “tension increases and it is apparent that an argument is about to erupt or re-erupt” (Weeks). Jig’s initial descriptions of her surroundings in the beginning of the story signifies her baby is unwanted by both the American man and