Irene Bayona González

Hills Like White Elephants by Ernest Hemingway

Having read this short story several times, as I could not quite understand what was
going on in it, I think the main theme of this text is abortion. During the whole play
we can see how two people, a man and a woman, talk about an operation but never
get to say which one exactly. I think this is because this work is located at the
beginning of the 20th century, when abortion was completely illegal as well as
immoral and quite dangerous, so surely it would have been risky to even mention
the name of the surgical intervention (an abortion). In addition, I think that the
protagonists of this story are young characters, at least the woman since the author
continually refers to her as "the girl". The man, in my opinion, is a little older than
her since he is no longer considered “the boy” but “the man”. All this helps that
throughout history we can see how, although it does not seem at first, the man is
manipulating or somehow pressuring the girl to end her pregnancy. [p.2 "It's not
really an operation at all.”], [p.2 “I think it is the best thing to do. But I don’t want you
to do it if you didn’t want to.”], [p.2 “I know you wouldn’t mind it, Jig. It’s really
not anything. It’s just to let the air in”]. The man tries to persuade the girl by
downplaying the surgery, telling her that he will be there to support her or by
camouflaging his orders with simple advice. This has caught my attention since I
think it is obvious that the woman is not quite sure about wanting to abort, in fact I
think she ends up doing it to please the one I guess is her partner, maybe for fear of
being abandoned or the social criticism she would receive for continuing with the
pregnancy. In the end, and as in most literary works, it is not difficult to see reflected
the sexist or patriarchal society in which the stories are located (and in which
unfortunately we continue to live today). Therefore, although I am angry as a reader,
I am not surprised that this poor girl, still making it clear throughout the work that
she is not convinced or that she is afraid to have an abortion, ends up yielding to a
man’s desire.