Hills Like White Elephants

Hills Like White Elephants

An Analysis of Ernest Hemingway?s ?Hills Like White Elephants?

?Hills Like White Elephants?, by Ernest Hemingway, is a short story published in 1927, which is set at a train station in Spain. In this story the reader eavesdrops on a conversation held by ?the American and the girl with him?. Most of the story is predominately dialogue between the two characters. During this conversation, the reader may determine that the couple is at a critical point in their lives when they must make a life-or-death decision on whether the woman should have an abortion. Although this short story crosses timelines to become relevant to both the early twentieth century and today, Hemingway uses setting and symbolism throughout the story to show that making a decision on whether to have an abortion or not is indeed a difficult decision to make.
The setting of the train station symbolizes the decision that the couple must make. On one side of the station, there is vegetation and ?fields of grain?; the other side is dry and barren. The fact that the station divides these contrasts of environments represents each choice in the abortion decision. The choice to have

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