HILLS LIKE WHITE ELEPHANTS ANALYSIS

“Hills Like White Elephants" from the 1927 collection Men Without Women is one of the most famous
American short stories ever, by one of America’s most famous authors, Ernest Hemingway. You’ve
probably heard of Hemingway. He won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1953, and the Nobel Prize for
Literature in 1954. Hemingway is considered to be one of the great innovators in 20th-century fiction.

SUMMARY
The story opens with a description of the view of the river Ebro, and the white hills (mountains) beyond it,
from a train station in Spain. An American man and a woman are having some beers outside the station bar
as they wait for the train from Barcelona to Madrid.

As the couple drinks, the woman tells that man that the hills in the distance remind her of "white
elephants." This sparks a little argument between them, which the woman sidesteps by pointing out that
something has been painted on the beaded curtain that hangs over the doorway of the bar. The painting
advertises a liquor called Anis del Toro, which they decide to try.

Their conversation remains tense, and soon the man begins trying to convince the woman, Jig, to have an
abortion, but only, he says, if she wants to. She wants to know if this will solve their problems, and get
their relationship back on track. He tells her that their relationship is on track, but that he is distracted
because of his "worry" over the pregnancy. She agrees to have the abortion, but says she is only agreeing
because she no longer cares about herself. The man says she shouldn’t do it for that reason.

She expresses despair over the situation and a feeling that all is now lost. The man tries to reassure her
that this is not the case, and finally tells her (without actually saying it) that he is willing to marry her
instead, but makes it clear he would prefer that she have the abortion. She becomes anxious and asks him
to stop talking. He responds by saying he doesn’t want her to have the abortion if she doesn’t want it. Jig
threatens to scream.

The woman who has been serving their drinks tells them that the train will soon arrive, and the man gets
up and takes their luggage over to the train stop. Then he goes into the bar and has another Anis del Toro.
When he gets back to Jig, sitting at the table outside, she gives him a smile. He asks her if she "feel[s]"
better," and she responds by insinuating she never felt bad in the first place. And that’s the end of the
story.

 The story begins with a description of the atmosphere.

 We are told that the view, looking across the Ebro River, is of some "hills." Those hills are not only
"long," but also "white."
 Apparently, you can see the hills from the train station.
 At the train station there is a bar, with beaded curtains covering its doorway.
 Outside the bar, in the heat, a man (know as "the American) and a "girl" (whose name you will learn
in a moment) sit at a table.

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 They have about 40 minutes to kill, waiting for a train coming from Barcelona and headed for
Madrid.
 The man and the girl decide to have a couple of beers, and the man orders them in Spanish ("dos
cervezas") (5).
 When the woman who works in the bar brings the beers, the girl is looking at the white hills, and
she says, "They look like white elephants" (9).
 The man claims never to have seen a white elephant, and the girl expresses a lack of surprise.
 So the man says he could have seen one, regardless of what she might think.
 Then the girl changes the subject by pointing out that words are painted on the beaded curtain
hanging over the bar’s doorway. She asks the man what they mean.
 The man tells her that they say Anis del Toro (an anise flavored liquor.)
 She wants to give it a shot, so the man orders each of them one.
 The girl says, "It tastes like licorice" (25).
 (Anise is often used to flavor black licorice candy; anise and licorice root have similar flavors.)
 The girl says that lots of things, including absinthe, taste like licorice.
 The man tells the girl to quit goofing around, and she says she was just trying to make lighthearted
conversation, to keep things pleasant.
 He agrees they should keep things pleasant.
 Then she asks him if it was smart what she said about the hills looking like white elephants, and he
says it was.
 The girl makes a remark about how all they do is drink and see the sights.
 He half-heartedly agrees. The girl looks at the hills again, and admires them, saying that they don’t
actually exactly look like white elephants, but that their skin looks like white elephant skin.
 They decide to get another couple of beers, and the man admires the beers.
 Suddenly, he brings up the topic of some kind of medical procedure he’s trying to convince the girl
to have.
 He also calls her by her name, Jig, for the first time.
 When Jig doesn’t respond, he continues attempting to persuade her to have the procedure, which
he claims is "to let the air in" (44).
 (This is clue number one that the man is most probably talking about Jig having an abortion.)
 Jig remains unresponsive, and the man continues trying to convince her to have the procedure,
saying he’ll accompany her, and will stay with her.
 She asks him what will become of them after the procedure. He tells her that everything will go
back to the way if was "before" (48).
 She questions his logic, but he explains that the situation is their only problem.
 Jig is not convinced.
 He claims that he has known many others who have had the procedure (though he doesn’t say
whether or not they were happy after).
 The girl says she too has known others who have had the procedure, and insinuates that at least
some of them had issues after.
 Now the man says he doesn’t want her to have the procedure if she doesn’t want to, while
stressing how easy and harmless it will be for her to have it.

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  In turn, Jig asks him if he truly desires for her to have the procedure.
 He says he feels that "it’s the best thing to do," but only if she feels the same way (57).
 Jig asks if it will make him "happy," (52) and make him "love" her (58), prompting him to say that he
already does love her.
 She wants to know if he will find her clever again, if saying clever things like what she said about the
hills and the white elephants will amuse him again.
 Her repeats his affirmation of love.
 Finally, she says she’ll go ahead with the operation, because she is no longer important to herself.
 The man says she shouldn’t do it, if she has that attitude.
 So Jig stands and walks off a little, admiring the view of the river, and says they could have "had
everything," but that their actions are making having everything "impossible" (71).
 The man argues that they can, in fact, still "have the whole world" (74) and go wherever they
please.
 She argues back that no, somehow the world no longer belongs to them, and that they can never
reclaim it.
 (This conversation is rather subtle, to say the least. You aren’t supposed to be able to squeeze a
literal meaning out of it. Just trust your instincts and you can understand the feeling the characters
might be having as they talk.)
 Now the man seems to be trying to convince her not to have procedure.
 Jig seems to doubt his sincerity, and requests another foamy, alcoholic beverage.
 The man starts to talk, but she cuts him off, suggesting that they stop talking for a bit.
 But, the man continues, suggesting (most readers and critics agree) that they could get married
instead.
 Jig seems to warm to the idea, and he tells her that she is his one and only.
 When he goes back to talking about how easy the procedure would be, she expresses some
irritation, and then asks him to stop talking.
 (She says "please" seven times.)
 Now he tells her that he does not wish for her to have the procedure.
 She threatens to "scream" if doesn’t stop (101).
 The woman working in the bar brings them their drinks and informs them that the train is near.
 Jig asks the man what the woman said and he tells her. (This is a slightly confusing moment because
what the woman says, presumably in Spanish, is essentially translated once for us, then for Jig).
 The news brings a smile from Jig, and then the man gets up to move their luggage over to where
the train will arrive. This also brings a smile from Jig.
 On his way back from leaving the bags, he goes inside the bar and has another Anis, then goes back
to Jig.
 He wants to know if she "feel[s] better" (109).
 She tells him that she "feel[s] fine" (110), and says there isn’t anything the matter with her.

THEMES

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LANGUAGE AND COMMUNICATION
"Hills Like White Elephants" is a rich study in human communication. Intense, focused, and
concentrated, the story depicts a couple at a crisis point in their relationship. They struggle, in public,
to communicate their opposing views on the course their relationship should take. Because the story
ends without clear resolution, we will never know how or if they manage to find common ground. It is
significant that the story takes place in Spain but is written in English. A close reading of the text reveals
all kinds of translation games, which both disorient the reader and comment on communication in the
story.

CHOICES
The couple in Ernest Hemingway’s "Hills Like White Elephants" faces a difficult situation – how to deal
with an unplanned pregnancy. To further complicate the issue, it's pretty clear that one partner wants
to settle down and have the baby, while the other partner doesn’t. What we see in the story is a public
discussion of the matter. Since we don’t learn what the characters actually decide, the story is mostly
about how they discuss the issues, what choices they explore, and even what choices they don’t
explore. Written in 1927 when sex education and discussion of birth control were federal crimes in the
U.S., the story also comments on what little was known about reproductive issues in those days, and
how this lack of information impacts the options the characters consider available to them.

IDENTITY
All of the sudden, the two characters featured in "Hills Like White Elephants" are faced with a whole
new identity: that of being parent. This very short story explores what can happen when one parent
wants to reject the new identity, while the other wants to accept it. Much more so than today, in the
late 1920s, when this story was written, there was a stigma attached to having children outside of
wedlock. As such, the possibility of yet another new identity, that of husband or wife, is also raised,
though very subtly. Again, one character wants to embrace the new identity, the other wants to reject
it. The way the two characters deal with all this in a public conversation also raises the question of
public versus private identity.

FOREIGNNESS AND 'THE OTHER'

The first sentence of "Hills Like White Elephants" contains the name of a river that might only be
familiar to the geography wiz or the wearied traveler. This is a little disorienting for many readers, and
might be similar to the feeling of being "a stranger in a strange land." The story is set in Spain, which
puts us and the globe trotting characters in a bilingual atmosphere. The question of foreignness is
woven into the bigger issue the characters face – what to do about an unplanned pregnancy when one
character wants to keep the baby, and the other does not.

DRUGS AND ALCOHOL

Alcohol is more than just a prop in "Hills Like White Elephants" – it seems to be a major part of the
main characters’ relationship, though it’s not clear what effect the alcohol is having on their
conversation. Unlike some Ernest Hemingway stories, the characters in "Hills Like White Elephants"
seem to drink relatively little, but there are dozens of references to alcohol in this very short piece.

Characters
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JIG

Jig is one of the most unusual characters in literature. The lack of physical and biographical details about
her makes her seem like a blank slate onto which we can project whatever we want.

She’s often seen as a victim of the man – a woman forced into having an abortion against her will. Since
the ending is wide open, and we don’t know what either of the characters does in the long run, such
interpretations miss the point of the story. This is very much a story about the way people and stories
communicate. To get at Jig’s character, we can ask this question: what is being communicated to us about
Jig? We’ve made you a list of things we think are being communicated about Jig. She:

 speaks English
 doesn’t (or pretends not to) speak any Spanish
 relies on the man to translate for her several times
 has seen white elephants
 drinks beer
 has had absinthe
 is willing to try new things
 wants to settle down
 tells the man what to do
 communicates directly, and through simile and hinting
 is aware of nature and her natural surroundings
 is the only character in the story who has a name (or maybe a nickname)
 is pregnant
 doesn’t want an abortion
 is young enough to be called "a girl"
 has been traveling with the "American" man and staying in hotels with him
 doesn’t say she loves the man
 doesn’t call the man by his name
 wants the man to think she’s smart
 feels that she can only have an abortion if she no longer cares about herself
 knows women who have had abortions, and implies that things didn’t turn out well for them
 threatens to scream in public
 shuts down completely when the conversation with man seems to be going in circles

We can squeeze out lots of information on Jig, but none of it gets us closer to knowing what she finally
decides to do, or really knowing her the way we might know some other fictional characters. You could
probably make an even longer list of things we don’t know about Jig.

Things Left Unsaid

With Hemingway, what isn’t said is often as important as what is said. This comes into play with our theme
"Choices." Jig and the man only talk about two choices – in their conversation it’s either abortion or
marriage, the two most drastic options.

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Obviously, unless one of these two has a change of heart, neither of these two options is going to serve Jig
well. She’s made it clear that abortion is not for her. At the same time, marriage and children with a man
who doesn’t want marriage and children is a recipe for disaster. But, they don’t talk about the possibility of
Jig having the baby on her own, adoption, or some other solution. It’s possible, though, that they could
come up with something. The story is open enough to allow for both optimistic and pessimistic predictions
of their future.

Also left unsaid are the words "birth control." If Jig has an abortion and continues having unprotected sex
with the man, she’ll more than likely get pregnant again, and then we’ll have "Hills Like White Elephants,
Part Deux." This silence about birth control reflects the legal silence about birth control in the United
States. While abortion was legal with a doctor’s referral, birth control was not, and to make matters worse,
discussion of birth control (and anything we would now think of as sex education), was considered
pornography and was a federal crime.

We’ll leave you with some questions: why is Jig’s nationality not given, while the man’s is given? Does she
sound American to you? Why or why not? Where might she be from? Where might she have seen white
elephants?

THE AMERICAN MAN

Often vilified as an insensitive, uncaring man who bullies Jig into an abortion, the American is another
unusual character. It's possible that we know even less about him than we do about Jig, and perhaps he's
even more mysterious. To keep things consistent, we’ll follow the same strategy we did in Jig's "Character
Analysis." This way we can compare lists, and see if this guy is really a villain or not. We’ll look at what the
story expresses about the character. He:

 speaks English and Spanish, at least

 translates for Jig several times

 has not seen white elephants, but could have, no matter what Jig says

 drinks beer

 gets irritated when Jig brings up absinthe

 doesn’t want to marry Jig, but claims he is willing to do so

 is trying to convince Jig to have an abortion

 communicates this to her directly, but minimizes the reality of an abortion

 seems oblivious to the natural surroundings

 is identifiable as an American (by the narrator)

 is the father of Jig’s child

 has been traveling with Jig and staying in hotels with her

 tells Jig he loves her

 calls her by name (or nickname)

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  claims to be very worried by the situation

 doesn’t seem to think the abortion is a big deal

 knows women who have had abortions, and implies that things turned out well for them

 claims to think that the unborn child is the only obstacle to their happiness

 persists when Jig asks him to stop talking, but eventually does stop

Like Jig, the man seems to feel that there are only two options available to them, marriage or abortion. He
doesn’t appear to want any part of marriage and babies, but he doesn’t seem to take into account how
difficult a decision this is for Jig. This might mean that he’s uninformed, or it might just mean that
conceiving a child means something very different to him than it does to Jig. Also remember that the man,
like Jig, probably hasn’t received much in the way of sex education.

As with Jig, we’ll leave you with a few questions: why does the narrator identify him as American? Does
this imply that the narrator has seen the man around, and knows a little about him? Is there something
that identifies the man as American? What are some things that could identify him as American? Does
anything within the conversation between the man and Jig identify him as American?

SYMBOLISM, IMAGERY, ALLEGORY

WHITE ELEPHANTS, MARRIED LIFE, BABIES, AND WILDLIFE
Elephants are wildlife. Jig and the man have been living the wild life, but now it could all come to come to a
halt – like it has for the white mountains. But are mountains happy in their stability?

Who knows, but the man doesn’t want to be a mountain, be married and settle down (and he thinks that
Jig having the baby will mean he must). Jig, on the other hand, thinks they can only remain in motion, wild
and free, is if they do have the baby and get married.

THE BAMBOO BEAD CURTAIN

This symbol is overshadowed by the hills and elephants, but the bamboo curtain is still powerful. It sets us
up to think about boundaries, thresholds, and separations – all the issues the couple is facing.

As we emphasize throughout this guide, the social, legal, and informational boundaries the couple faces in
terms of birth control, sex education, and stigmas about having children without being married, act as
curtains that help limit the couple’s options, and their conversation.

And because Jig wants the baby and the man doesn’t, the pregnancy itself acts as a curtain between them,
through which only simple things (like what they want to drink) can be communicated clearly. By the end
of the story the "curtain" between the man and Jig seems to have turned into a wall.

But let’s backtrack a little and look at some passages where the curtain appears. The curtain is first
mentioned in the opening paragraph of the story:

Close against the side of the station there was the warm shadow of the building and a curtain, made of
strings of bamboo beads, hung across the open door into the bar, to keep out flies. (1)

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At this moment we anticipate going through the curtain to the inside of the bar, but the narrator pulls us
back to the table outside the bar. Right away we have this feeling of being kept out, stuck outside with the
flies.

On top of that, you could write an entire paper just on bamboo as a symbol in "Hills Like White Elephants."
Some very old accounts claim that human life was born from a bamboo stem, among other interesting
things. That could connect to Jig’s pregnancy for sure. If you want to dig deeper.

Hemingway, a real humorist, is also using the curtain as a comedic prop. We see it in the first paragraph
one, with the remark about the flies. His humor is even more evident here: "Dos cervezas," the man said
into the curtain" (5).

There is something subtly funny about the man talking into the curtain because we don’t know (though the
man obviously does) that someone is waiting on the other side. This through-the-curtain conversation is a
little uncomfortable, so much so that we almost miss the humor. Maybe because, although they are
communicating well through the curtain, this moment still foreshadows the figurative curtain between Jig
and the man when they try to communicate.

The curtain is also a comment on advertisement and communication, and an homage to the sport of
bullfighting, which so fascinated Hemingway. It can also be seen as an homage to the other pastime that so
fascinated him – drinking. Anis del Toro (booze of the bull) is painted on the curtain, layering on a bit more
symbolism.

As we know from Hemingway’s A Sun Also Rises, Americans are often in Spain for the bullfighting. It’s a
major industry and part of Spain’s draw as a tourist destination. It’s only natural that a train station bar
would advertise a drink that advertises bullfighting and appeals to people attracted to the sport.

That said, it’s doubtful that an observant person like Jig could have avoided knowing that toro means bull.
Like she does with the hills in the distance, Jig draws this symbol into their personal story by pointing it out.
As we know from The Sun Also Rises, Hemingway's male characters who were in Spain for the bullfights
weren't exactly inclined to get married and have children. If the man is anything like these other
Hemingway characters, it seems unlikely that he would give Jig the kind of life she seems to want. If the
man is a bullfighting aficionado, then for Jig the bull might represent a major obstacle to her wishes.

THE TRAIN STATION AND THE LUGGAGE

These are symbols of bodies in motion, of travel and maybe even transience. Since the man and Jig's
suitcases have stickers that give a record of their travels, the luggage can be seen as a map of the journey
that brought them to this point. The train station is a midpoint between that time and the future time that
they will move toward on the train. Train stations, airports, bus stations, and ports, when found in stories,
give us the sense of transition, of being between worlds, between experiences.

SETTING
A train station, overlooking the Ebro River, somewhere between Barcelona, Spain and Madrid, Spain

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Modified Setting: Spain was very important to Hemingway, and there are lots of tours of ‘Hemmingway’s
Spain,’ and even study abroad programs at universities where you can study Hemmingway’s works. Though
the exact location of the train station is not given, it is often thought to be in Zaragoza, Spain. In any case,
we don’t experience much of Spain in the "Hills Like White Elephants," though the fact that both Spanish
and English are being spoken is important to the theme of "Language and Communication."

One way of understanding the setting is to make the connection that the white hills are supposed to
represent the pregnancy. Let's check out two passages from the story that describe the hills.

The girl was looking off at the line of hills. They were white in the sun and the country was brown and
dry. (8)

The girl stood up and walked to the end of the station. Across, on the other side, were fields of grain and
trees along the banks of the Ebro. Far away, beyond the river, were mountains. The shadow of a cloud
moved across the field of grain and she saw the river through the trees. (69)

On one side of the hills we have life (lush, green vegetation), and on the other side we face death (brown,
burnt landscape). This description of the hills can be seen as a visual representation of the choice with
which the couple is faced.

It’s important to remember that the hills (and the rest of the setting) existed before the couple came on
the scene, and will remain after they leave. The landscape only represents choice in the context of the
story. Many readers resist or reject this limited interpretation. Another part of why the interpretation is
resisted is because it doesn’t mean anything. It isn’t significant outside of the story. Unless, that is, we take
it deeper.

For example, if we consider that the analogy between the setting and the situation is created by Jig,
understood by the man, and artistically rendered by the narrator, we can see this as a comment on the
projection of a problem. When we have a problem, we project it onto everything we see. This story could
have taken place anywhere, and we guarantee that Jig would have found something in the landscape on
which to project her concerns. The symbolism of the setting can be seen as a comment on the
phenomenon of projection. It can also be seen as Jig’s creative and intelligent (though not necessarily
effective) way of trying to overcome communication difficulties.

NARRATOR POINT OF VIEW

Third Person (Objective)

The third-person narrator takes the fly-on-the-wall technique to extremes in "Hills Like White Elephants."
We can see both the journalist and the storyteller in Hemingway working together to construct the story.
The journalist side doesn’t tell us what the characters are thinking, only what they do, see, and most
importantly, what they say. The journalist also provides a bare minimum of context: the scenery (Spain, the
river Ebro, some white hills), the weather (hot), and the train schedules. The fact that the story is told in
the past tense means the narrator is putting it together after the fact, from memory, so to speak, and
rendering it in symbolic terms, using simile and metaphor.

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This all points to our theme "Language and Communication," but also to "Foreignness and the Other." If we
combine those two we get translation. The narrator is sometimes translating the dialogue for us (his
English speaking readers) from Spanish to English. Likewise, the man translates various things for Jig. But
while it’s obvious when the man is translating for Jig, it’s not obvious when the narrator is translating for
us. We’ll show you what we mean with two brief examples:

First, look at this passage from near the end of the story:

The woman came out through the curtains with two glasses of beer and put them down on the damp felt
pads. "The train comes in five minutes," she said.

"What did she say?" asked the girl.

"That the train is coming in five minutes." (102-104)

This passage is often cited to show that Jig doesn’t speak Spanish, but what’s more interesting is that
it’s twice translated – once for us by the narrator, and once for Jig by the man. So, the big question is, why
didn’t Hemingway choose to say, "The train comes in five minutes" in Spanish, and then let the man
translate it for us when he translates it for Jig? (Remember that the man originally orders the two beers in
Spanish.) As with most questions in this story, there are many answers. One possibility is that Hemingway
wanted to call attention to the narrator a little bit, to show us that the narrator speaks Spanish, and to
make us aware of the fact that the characters are in a situation where a variety of languages are being
spoken.

This next passage also plays with this reality, but is less easy to pin down than the one above:

"Dos cervezas," the man said into the curtain.

"Big ones?" a woman asked from the doorway.

"Yes. Two big ones." (5-7)

Here the man orders the beer in Spanish. (It doesn’t seem likely that the man ordered in English and that
the narrator translated it to Spanish.) Even if the man didn't speak great Spanish, he still could have pulled
off his order. In the late 1920s, when the story was written, the word cerveza was part of the global
vocabulary. The question here is whether the narrator is translating into English the woman/waitress’s
speech (and the man's subsequent reply). We just can’t say.

Anyhow, this switching back and forth between languages is part of why this story can be confusing to
read. Keep in mind that just because a given dialogue might be written in English, it doesn't mean that it
was spoken in English. Once you are aware of the translation situation, it becomes much easier and a lot
more fun.

GENRE
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Literary Fiction, Realism, Modernism

This story is very much about how stories are told. Even though we get a fairly realistic conversation, set in
a fairly real place, "Hills Like White Elephants" is an experiment in how a fictional story can be told. This is
where Modernism enters into the picture. Hemingway is often considered part of the Modernist school.
Though different Modernists go about it in different way, the basic idea was to find new ways to express
the new kinds of existence being experienced as a result of both World War I and the advances in
technology. Because Hemingway’s experiment in realistic Modernism was successful and influential, we
can also call it literary fiction.

TONE
Controlled, Frantic, Subdued

The narrator is very controlled, giving us a bare minimum of information outside of the conversations
between the man and Jig, or between the man and the woman serving the drinks. This narrator controls
the tendency in narrators to tell what the story means. This is giving the readers lots of credit for being
intelligent, but can also make for rough reading. We aren’t used to stories being told mostly in dialogue.

Speaking of dialogue, both Jig and the man are having a rather controlled conversation. The fact that they
are having this conversation in a public place might or might not contribute to this control. Even today,
when it comes to sex, abortion, and relationships, we might all exercise some control when talking about
these intimate details in public. If you were having this kind of conversation in public, what would it sound
like? Unless you are much more blunt than these folks, you would probably be having a conversation
similar to what we see here.

Like these characters, you and your conversation partner might lose that control at points in the
conversation and become frantic, like when the woman says, "please, please, please, please, please,
please, please stop talking" (98), or when the man says, "I might have. Just because you say I wouldn't have
doesn't prove anything" (12) when Jig insinuates that he’s not well traveled enough to have seen white
elephants. Though they are both able to get their respective positions across, neither of them is able to
articulate why they feel the way they do. As a result they both feel threatened, bullied, accused, and
misunderstood. At this point, the tone become subdued, which is what we see in the final two lines of the
story:
"Do you feel better?" he asked.

"I feel fine," she said. "There's nothing wrong with me. I feel fine." (109-110)

Since they can’t get past what they want, to talk about why they want it, there is a complete
communication breakdown.

WRITING STYLE
Classic Hemingway: Sparse, Simple, Unornamented

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In "Hills Like White Elephants," everything is boiled down and condensed. The extreme shortness of this
story makes its point all the more powerful. Hemingway's writing is journalistic and no-nonsense; he
reports dialogue cleanly and directly, without any fluffy adjectives or fancy descriptions. This tight
economy of words is one of the things that made Hemingway so famous in the 1920s, and his distinctive
style is still much admired to this day.

While the narration might seem cold and detached, emotion is present – it's just below the surface. The
more we explore this story, the more we feel what Jig and the man might be feeling, and the more our
own emotions try to come to the surface.

TITLE
The title is a huge focus for most people interpreting this story, in large part because the title is layered
into the story in various places. First, we should notice that the title is a simile (a comparison of two or
more things using "as" or "like"). This suggests that simile will be involved in the story. The simile is ‘free-
floating’ in the title. We don’t really have enough information to understand why it is significant, even
though it might bring to mind an image of white hills, maybe with trunk and tusks, possibly charging
through an exotic landscape. The title doesn’t really give us a clue that we will be entering a story which is
essentially about a man and a woman discussing the future of their unborn child and their own futures.

Let's look at the word, hills. We all have a certain image when we hear this word. Maybe the hills you
imagine are green and rolling, or maybe they are brown and dusty. In this case "hills" means "mountains,"
though "hill" is often used to refer to a geologic formation that isn’t quite as high as a mountain. A hill is
any raised mound of earth, or mound of chocolate pudding, or of whatever. As readers and critics of this
story often note, a pregnant woman’s stomach can also be consider a hill.

You could also think of "hills" figuratively, as a barrier that isn't easily crossed or overcome. Among other
things, this figurative meaning could apply to the inability of the two people to communicate in such a way
as to come to an agreement with which they both feel comfortable.

So, now let’s look at what the hills are like. We can think of the literal definition of "white elephant." Since
elephants are usually grey, we can assume that white or albino elephants are rare, but they do exist.

According to the Oxford English Dictionary, a white elephant has a more figurative meaning: "A
burdensome or costly possession. Also, an object, scheme, etc., considered to be without use or value." It’s
easy to see how this could be discussed in context of an unplanned pregnancy that at least one of the
parents wants to terminate.

We should also consider whose simile this is. It’s Jig’s. The fact that she speaks the title, in some ways,
suggests that the focus of the story is on her.

ENDING
Have you ever been in a public place and overheard an intimate conversation between a two people?
Eventually you have to walk away. You can’t follow the couple through the rest of their lives. Even if you
were curious about their lives, you probably won’t walk up to them and say, "Hey, here’s my number. I’d

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be really interested in hearing whether you guys decide to get an abortion or get married, and either way,
whether you stay together in the long run. So, be sure and give me a call. Bye now."

Those are the basic questions most readers have after finishing "Hills Like White Elephants," and most
readers don’t predict very happy answers to them. In the story, Jig seems to want to get married and have
the baby. However, the man seems to want her to have an abortion, and for them to then continue the
relationship as it was before the pregnancy. Neither of these options seems acceptable to both parties.

This tangle leads to the communication breakdown shown in the final two lines of the story. The man
knows Jig does not "feel better," but asks her anyway. She responds by pretending not to know what he’s
talking about. In light of her previous request that they not discuss it, her response is not out of character,
but it doesn't seem to be getting them any closer to a solution.

On the other hand, maybe it is. She now knows what the man’s stated position is, and she has to decide for
herself what to do. She has to think, and she can’t do this when they are talking.

This silence might also be helpful for the man. The conversation we have overheard was in the heat of the
moment. We can’t assume that anything either of them has said is set in stone. Maybe there are things
that bind them together that will allow them to work together toward some kind of mutually acceptable
solution.

Or maybe not. If the fact that that the story is part of Hemingway’s 1927 collection Men Without Women is
any evidence, they won’t work it out. The breakup of their relationship could occur in several forms: 1)
they get married, have the baby and then break up, 2) that they don’t have the baby and then break up, or
3) that they break up and Jig has the baby on her own. Interestingly, that third possibility (not that these
are the only three possibilities) isn’t brought up by the characters, but even in the 1920s that was an
option, though a relatively less socially accepted one that it is today.

One way to look at the ending, though, is as a tool to get the readers to do what the characters don’t:
motivate discussion. Did the ending expose your feelings on abortion, marriage, relationships, sex, and
communication in general?

PLOT ANALYSIS
Initial Situation

A man and a woman are outside a bar having some drinks and waiting for a train
The initial situation is really a view of some hill, but we thought we’d just skip right to the bar, which is
where we will stay throughout the story. There isn’t much more to the initial situation than that. The exotic
Spanish setting and all the stylistic frills are incidental. The conversation that makes up this story could
have happened anywhere, anytime.

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Conflict

A simile
Jig’s seemingly innocent statement that the hills are like white elephants quickly turns into a competition
with the man over who has traveled more. But that’s just the top layer of the conflict cake. Underneath
this conflict lies a major complication.

Complication

Pregnancy…
Turns out the hills are a metaphor for pregnancy, which is a little more important than previous travel
experience. The man complicates the already complicated situation by saying that an abortion is not an
operation. Well, Jig seems to think differently, which leads to the climax.

Climax

The seven pleases

If the seven pleases aren’t climactic enough for you, then toss in Jig’s threat to scream. It’s an intense
moment, maybe even a little shocking. We suspect she means it, too, and we wonder if things might have
escalated further if the woman serving their drinks hadn’t intervened with an update on the train’s arrival.

Suspense

Carrying suitcases
When the man walks off with the suitcase, we wonder for a moment if he will disappear, just keep on
walking, bags and all. When we see him headed back we wonder if Jig will still be there waiting. The story
doesn’t give us much time for suspense, but it’s definitely there.

Denouement

Another drink
The action is winding down when the man has a drink at the bar, and when he’s walking back to Jig, and
then when he walks through the curtain. At the same time, all closure is suspended; we don’t know quite
how things will end.

Conclusion

A little more conversation, but not much else

Not a very dramatic finale, unless you pay attention to the undertones of the mini-conversation Jig and the
man have at the very end of the story. It’s also rather dramatic to leave us hanging about absolutely
everything.

"Hills Like White Elephants" is a revolutionary approach to story writing, and perhaps even a reaction
against stories that fit into traditional plot structures, it makes sense that our hands are tied with this one.

Part of the problem is the complete lack of resolution at the end of the story. But that’s not the entire

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problem. We aren’t missing only the ending, but also the beginning. We can deal with missing one, but not
both. In other words, if we could have seen the couple’s life before they got to the train station, and then
seen their relationship falling apart, we might have something.

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