Hills Like White Elephants

University Degree Linguistics, Classics and related subjects

We are faced with decisions on a daily basis, ranging from simple ones like picking out lunch off the menu, to more significant ones that could ultimately affect our future. How do we distinguish the right ones from wrong ones? In Hemingway’s short story “Hills like White Elephants”, the couple is in midst of a crisis. They girl, Jig, has a decision to make, be selfless, keep the baby and deal with the consequences or choose the easy path, abortion.

Ernest Miller Hemingway was born July 21, 1899 in Oak Park, Illinois. He was the first son and the second child born out of six children. His father was a strict doctor and his mother a music teacher. On the day he was born, his father blew a horn on their front porch to announce the birth of his son to the neighbors. Ernest excelled in school both academically and athletically. He played football, boxed and wrote articles for the school paper. After graduating high school he did not enroll in college, but instead he got a job as a cub reporter for the Kansas City Star. Although he only worked for the Kansas City Star for six months, he adopted their style guide as a basis for his future writing: “Use short sentences. Use short first paragraphs. Use vigorous English. Be positive not negative” (Literary Traveler). After quitting his job, he attempted to join the United States Army to be part of the World War I action. He was denied due to his poor eyesight, so instead he joined the Red Cross Ambulance Corps. While driving an ambulance, he was wounded. To stop the bleeding, he stuffed his wounds with cigarette butts and cigarette rolling paper. In spite of his own injuries, he dragged an injured Italian soldier to safety. For this brave act he was awarded the Silver Medal of Military Valor by Italian Government. He served as a war correspondent in both the Spanish War and World War II for which he was awarded a Bronze Star (War Correspondent-Military Irregular in WWII). While he was visiting Africa he was involved in two plane crashes after one of them some newspapers falsely printed Hemingway’s obituary. Injuries sustained from the plane crash left him in poor mental health, which eventually took its toll. Ernest Miller Hemingway committed suicide on July 2, 1961 at his home in Ketchum, Idaho using the shotgun he purchased by Abercrombie and Fitch. His father, brother, sister, and granddaughter all committed suicide. Hemingway married four times, often falling for one woman while still married to another one.

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His adventures life inspired many of his novels: “A Natural History of the Dead”, “A Farewell to Arms”, “Death in the Afternoon”, “The Green Hills of Africa” and “For Whom the Bell Tolls”. “A Natural History of the Dead” was about his first encounter of the dead, where the ammunition factory blew up near Milan, and he was responsible to gather body parts, mostly female. “A Farewell to Arms” was inspired by his first love in Italy. While he was recovering from his wounds in the hospital he fell in love with a nurse six years his senior who ended up leaving him for an Italian officer. For his novel “The Old Man and the Sea” he was awarded the Pulitzer Prize, and later he received a Nobel Prize in Literature for lifetime literary achievement. During his lifetime, he wrote over eight thousand letters.

“Hills like White Elephants” takes place at a train station in the Ebro River Valley of Spain sometime in the 1920’s. Two main characters are a man, who is referred to as the American and the girl whom the American calls Jig. Since it’s clear that the man is an American, the girl is probably some other English speaking nationality. The couple is faced with two choices, keeping the baby or having an abortion, a decision symbolized by the two rail lines passing through the train station. The story’s setting plays an important part of the conflict they face through its vast symbolism. Jig is unsure of the decision she’ll choose, while the American is pressuring her to have an abortion, describing it as a “simple operation” like letting the air in (254).

He is manipulating the girl in order to preserve his lifestyle. The labels on his bags from all the hotels they’ve been to (256) suggest that he is fond of travel and adventure, therefore, he is not ready for a change just yet. He keeps assuring her that the surgery is safe and that she’ll be fine, although at that time abortions were illegal in Spain (they were legalized in 1985) and many women died from having them. The American is as hollow as the bamboo beads that hang across the bar door (253). This pregnancy is an obstacle that stands in a way of his needs and abortion would be the ultimate solution, “air it out”, like a damp room that needs to be “aired out”. Although his interest is for her to have an abortion, he still does not want to feel responsible for it so he tells her that if she doesn’t want to go through with it if she doesn’t (256).

Jig’s name is only her lover’s nickname he calls her by. “Jig” is an older slang word for sexual intercourse, but also is a word for a tool, a whiskey measurer. The American considers her no more than someone to have a good time with, his “tool”. “The jig is up”, she’s pregnant. The girl appears as if she has already made her decision considering that she’s consuming the alcohol; she was the one that suggested they have a beer (253). She continues to drink throughout the story and even tries “Anis Del Toro”, an alcoholic beverage that was illegal in most countries because it was fatale when consumed in large quantities. The girl compares the hills to the white elephants (254). The hills resemble n enlarged belly, while a white elephant customarily is considered a troublesome possession, something one wants to get rid of. To the American the “white elephant” is the unwanted lover’s pregnancy. For Jig it is a lovely gift, a gift that the American wants her to get rid of. She is tired of their current lifestyle “that’s all we do, isn’t it – look at things and try new drinks?” (254). She is split between his pressure of having an abortion, and her heart that leans towards keeping the baby.

The story’s setting is divided between the green fertile side, and the dry, rigid, sterile side. When she looks over to the green side of the station, she thinks of her life if she would choose to keep the baby. However, there is a shadow of a cloud moving across the fields, representing the obstacles she faces if she indeed chooses “life”. When she goes back to her table after exchanging words with the man, she looks at the other side, the rigid, dry one that represents sterility, the side that her lover prefers. The girl seeks assurance from the American that once she goes through the abortion things between her and her lover will remain the same, as they were before. She doubts her decision, and grows frustrated to the point where she says she doesn’t care about herself and she’ll go through with her decision so that things remain the same between them (255).

The man is well aware that the decision is entirely in the girl’s hands but is unsure which one she’ll choose. At the end, he carries out the bags up the tracks and looks as if the train is coming. The bags represent his question and the train her answer. Other passengers waiting for the train are not as impatient as he is, since the “answer” will have no impact on their lives. He goes back to Jig and asks her how she feels, hoping that there will be some reassurance to his worries. She responds with a smile, “There’s nothing wrong with me. I feel fine” (257). With her smile she is reassuring him that she has made her decision to go through with the abortion but at the same time she is pointing out to him that her pregnancy is not an illness that requires treatment.

The theme of the story is love and life choices. Jig’s love for the American influences her final decision. Whichever one of the options she picked it would have had an impact on both her lover’s and her own life. In the end, she compromises and picks what she thinks it’s best for them both. The bottom line is we have to make our own decisions to avoid any further regrets. If our decision results in failure, we have no one to blame but ourselves.