Hill like White Elephants

I Want My Baby

Hills Like White Elephants by Ernest Hemingway (Reprinted in Arp, Thomas R and Greg Johnson, eds. Perrine's Literature: Structure, Sound and Sense, 11th Edition, [Boston, Wadsworth, 2012] 294-298) is a short story telling about a conversation of a girl, named Jig, and an American at a bar in a railroad station while waiting for the train. By going through the conversation, we know that they are talking about their relationship, and should the girl get abortion to continue their exciting journey, or they should stop their trip to take care the baby. The metaphor "White Elephant" is a term using for metaphor that the baby is very important to Jig, but it is meaningless to the American. Her mind was changing through the story, but the theme and characterization of the story lead the reader believe that she will not get abortion.

The setting of the story is created tend to deny abortion. The conversation is at a station that is between 2 lines of rail. Which way they decide to go is also the decision that she will get aborted or not. The end of the story, the American carried the luggage to his direction, but the train was not coming yet (298). This is the way to hide the meaning that the train will not come, or the girl will not get abort. In addition, she looked to the landscape in order. In her mind, the fertile land is always come before the sterile land. This is the order of decision in her mind; the fertile land is what she will be with her baby, and the dried land is her body after abortion. She is always prior the baby prior to her life.

The strong character of the girl also lead the reader believes that she could convince the American. By expressing that" [They] could have everything" (297), she want to convince the man that the baby is their new world. Without the baby, everything is meaningless. Even they can have everything, they can have the whole world, and they can go anywhere (297), but everything is nothing compare to the new creature. The American think that they do not need any body between their life, and the operation is very simple. However, he does not know that she does not care about her, she only care of the baby. She tried to persuade him that the baby will not bring any trouble as well as the hill does not look like white elephant as they said before; only the color of the skin make them think so (296).

Overall, the author is very successful to use the setting and characterization to point his view of the conversation. The beginning of the story leads the reader believe that the girl is depend on the American. Through the conversation, however, the girl is much stronger; she is not the one who get convince; on the contrary, she is the one who convinces him. At the end of the conversation, the girl said that she feels fine and nothing wrong with her (298) implicate that for the whole conversation, she doesn't feel