"Hills Like White Elephants" is a story that is very difficult to understand, especially the first time through. I had to read this story three times before I even had a sense of what was going on and even then I had to do some side research to fully understand what was happening.
The theme that stood out the most to me was lack of communication. Sure, the whole story is a man and a woman talking about a pretty serious issue. . . but through out the story I didn't get a sense of them truly communicating. They were both saying things that the other didn't want to hear and it didn't seem like they were really trying to hear each other out. For example, the American man tries and tries to convince the woman to have the "operation". He tells her that he loves her and that she can make the decision, but then goes on to say that things will be easy and back to the way they used to be if she would just have the "operation", The woman goes back and forth, indecisively, but obviously upset because she doesn't want the operation, but also wants the man to be happy. She gets to the point where she agrees to a\have the operation just to get him to stop trying to convince her. "Would you please please please please please please please stop talking?" (Hemingway 371). And with that the conversation was over and nobody is going to get what they want. The woman is going to get the operation and likely, things will still never go back to normal.
The hills like white elephants is the huge symbol in the story. These hills symbolize something nobody ever wants-- In this particular story, the unborn child. At the beginning of the story, the woman says, " They look like white elephants." (Hemingway 368), referring to the line of hills she was looking at. You think at this point that it is just a casual remark, but later realize it is the beginning of the conversation about possibly aborting their unborn child. Later in the story she takes back her comment and says that the hills don't really look like white elephants-- this seems like a hint towards the fact that she actually wants to keep the baby. Because of their communication issues that I mentioned before, the man doesn't seem to understand that she changed her mind about the abortion. Actually, she even says that the hills only seemed to look like white elephants at first glance, and that they're actually quite lovely. This is a clear metaphor, comparing the hills to the baby. . . saying, at first finding out that she was pregnant seemed like a tragedy, but then it seemed like a blessing. You might also say that Hemingway chose to use elephants referring to the common idea of a "huge elephant in the room" known as something no one whats to talk about.
"Hills Like White Elephants" is truly a sad story once you finally understand what is going on. This poor woman is baring and child and she knows her baby daddy wants her to abort the child. The man doesn't even try to understand the other side of things and try to see that she wants to keep her child. I think the part that saddens me most is that I know things like this happen more often than you'd think. . .
Works Cited:
Hemingway, Ernest. "Hills Like White Elephants". 1927. The Story and Its Writer: An Introduction to Short Fiction. Ann Charters. Boston: Bedford/St, Martin's, 2011. (368-371). Print.
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