Analyse the ending of “Hills Like White Elephants” closely.

Discuss in what sense it

resolves the central conflict and reveals the theme of the story.

When we watch a film or read a book, we usually expect to have an ending which

unveils mystery and resolves conflicts that come up in the plot development.

Thus when it comes to Hemingway’s “Hills Like White Elephants”, many of us are

bewildered as the story’s open ending seems to raise more questions then it answers.

In fact, since the two protagonists are struggling with the issue of abortion, which was

a taboo back in the 1920s when the story was written, the ambiguous ending

portraying Jig’s enigmatic smiles and the American’s equivocal action may well be

the most possible answer to the unanswerable question. Together with the image of

people “waiting reasonably for the train” (108), the story ends with a melancholy tone

highlighting a great sense of powerlessness in life.

Though rather enigmatic, Jig’s reaction in the end actually implies she is willing

to make every effort to please the man, even at the cost of her own well-being. While

many people think there is a sudden and surprising change in her emotional response

towards the ending, such a change may indeed be regarded as a show she puts up for

the outside world so as to hide her sorrow. “I feel fine,” (110) she emphasises twice

and even smiles “brightly” (105) at the woman in the bar. Whereas it seems obvious

that Jig is distressed or even desperate within most of the forty minutes she spends

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with the American in the bar, since the man tends to ignore her feelings and deny her

longing for the baby and the stability in life. For example, the man keeps pressing the

girl for abortion and making hollow promises like “I’d do anything for you” (97),

which drives her to emotional breakdown highlighted by the seven hysterical

“please[s]” (98). It is very likely that Jig has been facing an internal conflict, a

dilemma: whether to insist on what she truly wants but run the risk of losing the man

or listen to the man and abort the baby. Then when Jig eventually makes the

hypothetic claim “I feel fine” and smiles twice at the man, she seems to have made up

her mind to surrender and forsake her true feelings and her hope for a better life,

reminding us of the painful remark she previously makes, “I dont’t care about me”

(66). In this sense, the central conflict between the American and Jig, ie. the dispute

over the topic of abortion, seems about to come to an end. Though no agreement has

yet been made, it is rather predictable what decision will Jig make for the sake of

love.

Moreover, the use of dictions reinforces that the American has gained the upper

hand in his relationship with Jig, and probably also in their debate on abortion. The

repetition of pronoun “he” in the third last paragraph suggests the American is always

in the active role to initiate actions: “He” carries their bags to the other tracks of the

station, “he” looks up the tracks but sees no train, “he” drinks Anis at the bar and

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finally “he” goes out through the bead curtain at the bar entrance. On the other hand,

Jig is the one who submits to the man and agrees on what he says. When the

American suggests “tak[ing] the bags over to the other side of the station” (106), Jig

simply says “[a]ll right” and proposes they finish the beer afterwards (107). In fact,

such inequality in power relation is already hinted from their first appearance, which

introduces them as “[t]he American and the girl with him” (1). This seems to indicate

that the girl is merely the property of the man who carries her around from one place

to another, and she can only gain an identity when she is “with him”, otherwise she is

just a nobody. Furthermore, Jig is referred to as a “girl” instead of a “woman”, which

implies she may be ignorant and thus has to count on the man. All these again imply

that the American is dominant in his relationship with Jig and it is very likely that he

can entice Jig to do abortion using his influence over her. In that case, the conflict

between the man and the girl can probably be “resolved”, unfortunately, not by

reaching an agreement but simply because the girl is doomed to lose in the battle.

In addition, the depiction of the other passengers waiting in the bar does not

only relate to Jig’s change of attitude but also reveals the theme of the story. When

portraying the manner of those passengers, a familiar word “reasonably” is used in a

rather unfamiliar way to describe their act of “waiting”. Whereas the word

“reasonable” may also be used to describe Jig’s smiles and her suppression of

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emotions, as hiding her disappointment and sadness seem to be the only way to keep

the man and his love. Accordingly, it may be reasonable to say that Jig is helpless

when confronting the American, while the people in the bar also feel powerless when

they are waiting for the train. In fact, this act of “waiting” is metaphorical, which

denotes the moments of “waiting” in life, such as waiting for a train or a bus, waiting

for the hard times to pass and the good times to come. Those mements are reasonable

and inevitable, thus one has no choice but to wait “reasonably”. After all, life must go

on and one has to face the unpleasant moments in life with reason, just like how Jig

claims she is “fine”, for she knows it is reasonable to pretend happy, especially in

front of a man who does not truly care about how she feels and what she wants.

To sum up, with the portrayal of Jig’s emotional change and the unequal power

relationship between the couple, it is hinted that Jig will probably bend to the man’s

will and abort her baby. To a certain extent, this may resolve the central conflict of the

story, despite the fact that the resolution is probably not obtained from mutual

agreement but the surrender of Jig. Meanwhile, the image of people “waiting

reasonably for the train” denotes that the moments of waiting are inevitable in life,

thus all we can do is to respond to those moments with reason.

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 Work Cited

Hemingway, Ernest. “Hills Like White Elephants.” The Norton Introduction to

Literature. Shorter 8th Edition. Eds. Jerome Beaty, et.al. New York: Norton,

2002.