Theme Of Abortion In Hemingway's 'Hills Like White Elephants'

The hip-hop song, Lost Ones by J. Cole was released in 2011. In today’s politics, the freedom for a woman to be able to choose abortion is a pretty big factor. The right for a woman to be able to choose whether she wants to carry out a pregnancy or not is very important, especially depending on the situation. In this song, J. Cole gives two very different perspectives in this song. I believe he was attempting to appeal to young people who get involved in relations too quickly and do not think about the possible outcomes or consequences. The strategies he uses to draw in the audience are appealing to emotions, using different points of view and picking such a strong social and political topic.

I am reminded of two sisters who found themselves in a similar situations to Jig and Sheri, with an unwanted pregnancy. The eldest of the two, in a relationship with man with the attributes of the American and the youngest with a man with the attribute of Lane Jr. The youngest decided not to have the baby because of her desire to follow her career path, as I believe Sheri did in "Good People". The Eldest chose to carry and have the baby despite the odds stacked against her, as I believe Jig did in "Hills Like White Elephants", they both were faced with a decision that would affect the remainder of their lives. The younger would wonder what it would have been like to raise and see the progression on the child she so willingly aborted and the eldest knowing that she made not only the right decision but also the best decision, to allow life to come forth because of love, which may be rocky but it is still

Ernest Hemingway among the best of authors of his time, uses a quite different approach to his writings. His style to of writing is often vague and unclear. Hemmingway only gives a bit of content about the story, and the rest is hidden or missing entirely. The audiences are therefore forced to read more carefully and piece together the story. The style of writing he uses is known as the iceberg theory. This minimalistic style of writing is very abundant in his short story Hills like white elephants. In this short story Hemmingway uses many forms of symbolism as clues to illustrate and get a reader to think past the simplicity.

World wide Abortion has been a controversial issue. Whenever the topic of abortion is brought up their are mixed emotions, from all types of people, all over the world. People pro-life think even if abortion was made easy or painless for everyone, it wouldn’t change the bottom line problem, that abortion kills children. Meanwhile people pro-choice think being pro choice is trusting the right decision for herself and her family, and not entrusting that decision to anyone wearing the authority of government in any regard. Who is right though? Or should there even be a such thing as deciding what is right, what is wrong ? In “Abortion”, Aspen Baker argues abortion is a hard decision to make, if a person is going through with it, the support to help a person not feel bad

The dialogue between the couple tangibly represents the mindset of what has been called The Lost Generation in the “Roaring Twenties”. Set in the 1920ies, individualism and materialism was on the rise (khanacademy.org, par. 9). The time period was also characterised by a post-war emptiness and cynicism (www.telegraph.co.uk, par.14). As such, the modernist story (Keshmeri & Darzikola, p 99) deals with loss of meaningful life, with the sterility and vacuity of the modern world and with the crucial

Throughout their conversation, you can decipher a tone where the conversation sheds light on his feelings towards the procedure and her feelings. He says “It’s really an awfully simple operation, Jig. It’s not really an operation at all” (Hemingway 124), in an effort to persuade her to in fact have the abortion. She, on the other hand, seems silent at first, but then questions how their life will be better after this procedure. Her uncertainty shows in her responses, and in other findings “… the sensuous beauty of a love relation that is quickly deteriorating, now that she has become conscious of her lover’s selfishness” (Maynard 273). The decision is not an easy one to make, and it’s clear that she is struggling with what to do for herself and their

The setting (7) of the story, the train station, is a symbol for the place where Jig and the American man are at in their relationship and what lies ahead for them. This symbol also portrays the theme (8) of choice and consequences. They are at an impasse due to the pregnancy, and the train tracks are the futures that could happen based on Jig’s decision about the abortion and the baby. For instance, Jig could agree politely to the American man and go ahead

The landscape in the story represents choosing the abortion or choosing to keep the baby. The setting of the story is at a train station. On one side of the train track the landscape is “brown and dry” (Hemingway 123) and the other side is green and has rivers and mountains. The discussion that the man and girl are having is whether or not she wants to and will have an abortion. When the girl mentions the landscape she expresses that by going through with the abortion and trying to “drift through life they are choosing emotional and spiritual desiccation” (Holladay) meaning life will not be the same after it, therefore the dull and dead side of the track represents the abortion while the other side represents keeping the baby because it is obvious that the girl does not want to have an abortion as much as the man does. In the same way that the baby will be alive if she chooses not to abort it the green side of the track is lively and if she aborts the baby the baby will be dead just like the dead side of the track.

According to Smiley, “The dialogue contains the essence of the story's power; for to read Jig's and the American conversation is to recognize the powerless frustration of parallel interchanges” (2). The girl's character passes changes throughout the story. It appears that “Hemingway works out the story's conflict, which revolves around the development of his female character” (Renner 28). The girl gains power and frees herself from the following the American man. In the beginning of the story, the girl take the initiative to speak which leads to the discussion: “'what should we drink?' the girl asked. She had taken off her hat and put it on the table.” She opens the crucial issue in an implicit way when she describes the “hills like white elephant”. Which suggests her imaginative way of thinking: she relates to the hills as the physical shape of her pregnancy, and the white elephants is “something she cannot just throw away but for which, in her present circumstances, she has no use; something that is awkwardly, burdensomely in the way” (Renner 30). The girl faces difficulties in expressing her feelings, but she does not surrender and keeps

If analyzed in a more generic view, the short story can be used to show how a male and female stereotypically understand a subject. The American speaks more literal and materialistic as Jig is seen to speak in a more figurative and abstract manner. Ernest Hemingway’s use of symbolism gives the reader a more visual effect to the conflict between the man and the girl as well as the idea of their inner thoughts. The white rounded hills, the beads on the curtain hanging from the bar’s doorframe, and the cool shade and blazing light all represent different aspects of the two choices that the American and the girl have to decide on, just like the railroad tracks on either side of the

Symbolism plays a fundamental role in Hemingway’s “Hills Like White Elephants”. The different symbols used throughout the story are capable of subtly conveying intricate concepts to the readers of this recognized literary work. It then becomes essential for them to detect all these symbols, and discern the deep meanings which they hold in order to truly grasp the story’s message which the author intended to transmit. Without this insight, many first-time readers may view the story as a simple and casual dialog between two people, a man and a woman, waiting for a train from Barcelona to Madrid. Thus, they become unaware of the intense conflict the two main characters are actually facing, haunted by the difficult decision of terminating a pregnancy

Pro-life is defined as being opposed to legalized abortion. Pro-choice is to believe that individuals have unlimited autonomy with respect to their own reproductive systems as long as they do not breach the autonomy of others. A pro-choice affirms that celibacy and abstinence, contraception use, emergency contraception use, abortion when it is done in the first two trimesters of pregnancy and childbirth must remain legal. (Christian,2011) When we think of abortion, the first thing that we think of is killing of an unborn innocent child. I am against abortion, but I guess everybody has the right do to whatever they want and whatever they feel is best for them. When I hear of girls that had abortion and they act like they did nothing wrong it makes me

If taken literally, Hemingway’s story is one in which very little happens. The story takes place in a train station in Spain where a couple argue about a vague event over drinks. From the very start of the short story, there is an overbearing uneasiness felt in the text as the unnamed male and the girl, Jig, hold what seems to be—on the surface—an innocent conversation. By using a limiting third person point of view that consists mostly of dialogue, Hemingway creates an obstacle in the way of understanding as there is no clear insight to what is going on inside of either party’s head. The conflict that the pair seem to be discussing is never named and it becomes the metaphorical elephant in the room much like the white elephants that Jig sees in the mountains.

A white elephant signifies something that has a high value but is not quite beneficial. When this proverb is placed in context, it would be possible to assume that Jig’s pregnancy might be a ‘white elephant’, considering a human life is very valuable but the couple is not ready to have a child at the moment. According to Joseph M. Flora, a white elephant in nature is rare (44) and this can signify that maybe it would be the only chance for the girl to get a baby, for the reason that a woman can get possibly infertile after an abortion. The question arises what the hills might have to do with white elephants. The hills can be seen as a boundary between the couple. It is obvious from what the American says to Jig, that perhaps the hills could stand for the unborn baby. Further in the story, the girl suddenly calls these hills ‘mountains’. (252) In my interpretation, it seems that she also might have realised that the baby would be a barrier between them. Well, in this case she has to ‘move mountains’ and make that difficult decision. If we observe their relationship, it seems like it is not going too well either. With attention to Jig’s view and the man’s view we can say that they both have a different attitude towards the abortion and their relationship. Remarkably, the girl’s thoughts change through their conversation. Renner divides the stages of the decision-making process into four – what he calls – ‘movements’. (28) Along with these movements Jig also changes her mind about her relationship with the American. In the first stage Hemingway creates the impression that the girl still has to make the decision about the surgery. This idea is created by the description of the scenery in which the station is amidst the two lines of rails and what the girl sees on the other side. (251) The dryness and the brown colour of the country refer to a lack

As the plot unraveled, it became evident the main character, Jig, was pregnant, but her significant other, the American man, wanted to persuade her to have an abortion. The man first mentioned the abortion when he stated, “It’s really an awfully simple operation, Jig. It’s not really an operation at all” (Hemingway). Jig did not respond, therefore the man continued to persuade her to get an abortion by oversimplifying the operation. She questioned what they would do post-abortion, so he explained that they would be happy, just like the couples they knew. The man put on a facade about how he wanted Jig to be happy and make the decision herself, yet he continually tried to convince her to have the abortion. Undoubtedly, the man did not want to take any responsibility for their relationship and the baby, and wanted the easy way out. He did not respect her view on the subject, therefore he forced the idea that the abortion would be their best option. Since Jig was submissive and dependent, she agreed, “Oh, yes. But I don’t care about me. And I’ll do it and then everything will be fine” (Hemingway). She was not concerned about herself or whether she would be happy; her interest was in the man and whether he would continue to love her. If Jig had voiced her opinion by actually discussing the matter with the man, he would have silenced her thoughts and convince