Hemingway's "Hills Like White Elephants"

Ernest Hemingway's "Hills Like White Elephants" is the story of a man and a woman whose relationship is troubled if not doomed by her pregnancy and by his urging her to have an abortion. The story portrays the man's refusal or inability to see or acknowledge the woman's suffering, and the woman's changing attitude toward the man because of his self-centered lack of compassion. Her suffering comes from the man's insistence that she have an abortion, and his taking that abortion so lightly, saying it will be "perfectly simple" (Hemingway 617). In fact, he says, "It's not really an operation at all. . . . It's just to let the air in" (Hemingway 616).

The impact of the situation on the woman may be greater because the story takes place in the early twentieth century---before abortion was legal and socially acceptable. It may be that they have made plans, or will make plans, for an abortion under circumstances far more safe than would be available to a less wealthy couple. Still, at that time, abortions were in general illegal, dangerous, hard to obtain, frightening, and socially unacceptable, and these factors probably made her situation more difficult. However, even if the operation were legal and socially acceptable, the attitude of the woman indicates that she would have been miserable in any case. She is with a man who is selfish and shallow, she is pregnant by him, and he is utterly unwilling or unable to understand the turmoil she is going through. It is not clear whether

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owness of her life with the man into the stark glare of reality. When the man claims that he has "known lots of people that have [had abortions]," the woman responds, "So have I," and adds sarcastically, "and afterward they were all so happy" (Hemingway 616). She goes on to question him about loving her again and everything being "nice again" if she has the abortion. She says she doesn't care about herself, and he says that he doesn't want her to do it in that case. Neither is being honest. She is hiding her fear (at the abortion and at their life afterward) and her rage (at him, perhaps for not wanting to have the child, certainly for being so ignorant of and uncaring about her feelings). He is trying to shift to her as much as he can of the responsibility for the abortion: "You've got to realize . . . that I don't want you to do it if you don't want to" (Hemingway 617). If he were honest, he would say that he is going to do whatever he needs to do to get her to have that abortion. At this point in his life, all he wants is for her to have that abortion so they can resume their life of leisure and travel. She sees, however, that their relationship will never be the same after the abortion. He claims that he doesn't want the ba

Category: Literature - H