Abortion In Hills Like White Elephants By Ernest Hemmingway

     Abortion is the ending of a pregnancy before birth. An abortion results in the death of the embryo or fetus and may be either spontaneous or induced. For years, abortion has been an extremely controversial subject. The history of abortion reaches back not just decades, but centuries, and even milleniums. Today, policies regarding legal abortion in the U.S. is being debated everywhere. Many myths and misconceptions confuse this issue. A better understanding of the history of abortion in America can help provide a context for an improved policy in the future.

As humans, we tend to rely on others to guide us in choosing “right” decisions. In “Hills Like White Elephants,” Ernest Hemingway tells a story of an American man with a girl, named Jig, having a conversation about whether or not Jig should undergo this “operation,” which we could assume is abortion. Jig looks to the man to tell her what she should do and what would happen afterwards, basically looking for a “right” decision. The girl is torn between listening to the man, who pushes her to have an abortion, or separating from the man, to instead, keep the baby. Hemingway uses setting and symbolism to interpret the girl’s struggle with abortion.

Most men side with the men, and most women side with women. In the short story Hills Like White Elephants, Ernest Hemingway explores a power dynamic through a situation that is still controversial today. While this short story explores the decision-making process between a girl and a man, the controversy arises: whose decision is it? This power struggle for a decision that, arguably, mainly affects the life of the girl. While the man may choose to wish to be a part of the child’s life, the pregnancy and abortion is solely affecting the girl, not the man. Hemingway strips the girl of any authority and knowledge by differing between girl and woman, yet by closely examining the interactions between the girl and the man, it is the girl remains authoritative over the decision of a possible abortion.

Abortions were widely used in the early eighteen hundreds and kept secret due public scrutineer. Not only were they considered against the law in some places but were risky due to high risk of infection from unsterile equipment used to perform the actions.” Without today’s current technology, maternal and infant mortality rates during childbirth were extraordinarily high. “(National abortion Federation, 2016) as time contained states changed and modified their laws to accommodate political agendas, these opposed to legal abortion had begun to fight absent any stated funded abortion clines. Then there was Roe v. Wade this was the first major Supreme Court battle based on abortion laws and ethics. Roe v. Wade decision of the courts said that they “considered the constitutionality of a Texas statute made it a crime to obtain an abortion except when it was necessary to save the life of the mother”. (Harris, 2014) There was another Supreme Court case that changed the views of the courts based on how they judge the frame work of decision on the trimester model. The ethics involved in this are not just solely left to the mother of the potential life but in the network of people

The Walls are Talking by Abby Johnson is an important book that every person considering abortion should read. As the women in the book account the tales of their abortions it is hard for the reader not to be horrified by the grotesque and dangerous actions taking place in abortion clinics. The Walls are Talking not only terrifies the reader of the true nature of abortion but also makes them empathize with the emotional turmoil that these women are thrown into. This can be seen particularly in one of the stories where a woman who already had nine abortions asked to see the ultrasound of her baby being aborted. The sight of her baby’s murder was so powerful that she decided she would no longer advocate for abortion.

The short story “Hills Like White Elephants” by Ernest Hemingway, is about a man trying to convince his girlfriend to have an abortion. The couple sits in a train station waiting for their trip to Barcelona, and are staring outside at the scenery—the line of hills “like white elephants”, as the girl, Jig, remarks. They sit and drink and they try to keep conversation light and to enjoy themselves. As the story progresses, however, cause for their underlying tenseness boils to the surface.

Its unabashed treatment of the “abortion debate” is passionate and memorable that defies most of the expectations for the genre. Though abortion has been safe and legal for decades now, the subject still remain a taboo in popular media. According to Lauren Rosewarne in her book

Abortion is a very sensitive controversial topic. Wallace’s “Good People” and Hemingway’s “Hills Like White Elephants” provide a bird’s eye view of the how abortion was viewed from different time periods. The two short stories show that decisions about abortion are very different. The characters in the stories and the time era had influence on the couples’ relationship and the final decisions of their unborn child.

In Ernest Hemingway’s short story, “Hills like White Elephants” and Tillie Olsen’s short story, “I Stand Here Ironing” there is a theme of pain caused by children. Although the children spoken of in both stories are not the same age or at the same point in their lives, we can see the pain that mother is facing due to her children. Children are prominent in parents life, whether they or born or not born yet, therefore it makes very much sense that parents would feel a lot of pain and stress related to their children when they are trying to be the best parents that they can be so their child can grow and mature properly. In the short story, “Hills Like White Elephants” Ernest Hemingway presents a situation of a potential abortion.

Ernest Hemingway’s short story, “Hills like White Elephants,” is centered on a couple and the potential abortion of their child. Although the abortion is unmentioned throughout the story, readers can infer toward an abortion by the characters’ mention of a “procedure” (Hem-ingway, 553). Writers analyze the state of the baby’s future and the American man and the girl’s relationship. While the authors reach a consensus concerning the couple’s relationship, there are different ideas as to what the woman, “Jig,” decides to do with her child. Stanley Renner, author of the article “Moving to the Girl’s Side of ‘Hills like White Elephants,’” concludes that Jig keeps her baby; he reaches his conclusion according to the physical movements of the woman

In the story “Hills Like White Elephants,” Ernest Hemingway uses his in-depth ability of foreshadowing to provide the reader with little information on the stories background or future events to come. At first glance, the discussion that takes place in story seems like a minor argument between a couple at a train station in Spain. However, upon deeper analysis, this piece takes a stab at one of the touchiest subject’s world-wide - abortion. The female protagonist in this story, Jig, is pregnant and her partner, an American man, wants no part of the typical settled-down lifestyle. For some time the two have traveled around Europe with no true home and no set future. To him, this is the only way to live. The woman, however, sees a future at some point in time with a husband and children. Getting pregnant, to her, is a sign that the transition point in her life has come and she is ready to embrace it. The man, however, is unable to embrace this passage and uses his power to manipulate the woman in the direction of acquiring an abortion. The ways in which he abuses his power and coerces Jig to obey his will are devious and wobbly.

An American man and a girl, are waiting at a Spanish railway station for the train to take them to Madrid. They drink beer as they discuss the “simple operation” the American wants the girl to have completed. The man continues to urge the girl to have the operation, but also states she shouldn’t do it if she doesn’t want to. The girl clearly puts on a brave front, but is not convinced that she should have the operation like the man is suggesting. They speak to one another over beers but it seems as if neither of them is really communicating.

One of America’s greatest known authors, Earnest Hemingway, creatively uses symbolism to reveal the theme of abortion in the short story, Hills like White Elephants. What appears to be meaningless dialogue over drinks involving a women and her American male companion, is in reality the couple discussing a major crisis in the relationship. Hemingway purposefully leaves out a lot of important information, but instead implies the details through the clever use of symbolism. The use of these symbols informs the reader of the real issue at hand, an unplanned pregnancy. Without these symbols the reader would be left with many unanswered questions and the theme would be difficult to understand.

In the short story “Hills like White Elephants” Earnest Hemingway deliberately has the setting located in Spain on the Ebro river in the mid-1920’s. In the barren valley, in between hills they wait at a train station trying to make an enormous decision. This day of age abortion was greatly frowned upon, in fact, it was rarely talked about because the idea of killing a child was preposterous. “During the 1920’s, the child assumed unprecedented importance at the center of the American family”

It takes great strength and literary merit as a writer to discuss taboo topics brought about during their time period. This is exemplified by Ernest Hemingway in his short story, Hills Like White Elephants. While the actual “operation” in the story is never completely discussed, the reader is able to conclude that the couple presented is talking about, or rather around the subject of getting an abortion. The stylistic choice of not specifically naming the operation shows an immediate and growing disconnect between the two major characters in the story. Through the use of many relevant and appropriate literary devices, Ernest Hemingway depicts a struggle over life and death.