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Ernest Hemingway and Hills Like White Elephants

5 Pages 1151 Words April 2018

“Hills Like White Elephants,” a short story by Ernest Hemingway, presents a deeper meaning hidden beneath its surface. Hemingway himself theorized what he has called the Iceberg Theory which states that the real and deep significance of a story needs to be hidden for not being obvious to the readers (Darzikola). In this story, the readers can see that hidden under its surface, Hemingway wrote about the delicate argument of abortion. The argument is reflected in the character of Jig and the indecision that she is having about aborting or not. In the story, the readers can see Jig’s indecision through the different settings in which the story is taking place.
Hemingway’s “Hills Like White Elephants” begins with a general description of the setting where the story unfolds. Jig and her husband, an American couple, are the two main characters of the story. They are waiting in a train station, set in a Spanish valley made by hills and trees. While they are waiting for their train for Madrid to arrive, they sit at a bar’s table outside the station, drinking some beer. The readers find them discussing an important decision that they have to make. Particularly, Jig seems not be incline on agreeing with her husband and his choice. In fact, to continue their relation, the husband is asking Jig to get an abortion and return to be the “happy” couple they were before her pregnancy (p. 275).
The two characters do not mention directly that Jig is pregnant nor that the operation they are talking about is abortion, but the readers can understand these from their actions. For example, Jig is reluctant in ordering a beer: she is not sure if she should take it, and when she decides to try it she is not sure if takes it with or without water. These actions reflect her indecision about the abortion. Being a pregnant woman means that she should not drink any liquor if she cares about the baby she is carrying. Since her husband wants her t...

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