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 or how much the woman might truly want to bear the child, but it is clear that she is frustrated with the man's attitude, and it seems unlikely that she would actually want him to be the father of her child.
However, she is pregnant and has only two choices. Having an abortion seems like the only choice she is truly considering, but this does not make the choice easy or pleasant, as the man is trying to make it.
The man appears to care about the woman,...