«Hills Like White Elephants» is a short story by Ernest Hemingway. It was first published in August 1927, in the literary magazine transition, then later in the 1927 short story collection Men Without Women. Later the story was adapted for film in 2002. «Hills Like White Elephants» is a short 38-minute film; British actor Greg Wise played The American.

Summary

The story focuses mainly on a conversation between an American man and a young woman, described as a «girl,» at a Spanish train station while waiting for a train to Madrid. The girl compares the nearby hills to white elephants. The pair indirectly discuss an «operation» that the man wants the girl to have, which is implied to be an abortion, that was taboo to talk about.

Analysis

While there is little context or background information about the characters, several scholars have analyzed how the setting influences the story. The expatriate atmosphere is «a motivating factor in character action,» writes Jeffrey Herlihy in In Paris or Paname: Hemingway’s Expatriate Nationalism. Setting the piece in Spain «dramatizes the peripatetic subject» and allows the man to discuss abortion outside the «restraints from the behavioral prescriptions of his place of origin.» This use of a foreign setting makes Spain not merely a background but «a catalyst of textual irony» in the story.

Readers must come to their own conclusions based on the dialogue. This has led to varying interpretations of the story. One point of debate is whether or not the woman decides to get an abortion. Critics like Stanley Renner assert that the details in the story imply that the woman decides to keep the baby: «The logic of the story’s design enjoins the conclusion that she smiles brightly at the waitress’s announcement of the train because she is no longer headed in the direction of having the abortion that she has contemplated only with intense distress».

Other critics conclude that the woman ultimately decides to get an abortion. Furthermore, most critics acknowledge that the story has several possible interpretations:

The two organizing questions of the narrative—will they have the abortion or the baby?

Will they break up or stay together?—imply four possible outcomes:

1) they will have the abortion and break up;

2) they will have the abortion and stay together;

3) they will have the baby and break up;

4) they will have the baby and stay together.

There are many essays written which argue for all of these possibilities and more. There is no universal consensus because of the nature of the story; the reader is simply not given much information.

Symbolism

The description of the valley of Ebro, in the opening paragraph, is often seen as having deeper meanings: «It has long been recognized that the two sides of the valley of the Ebro represent two ways of life, one a sterile perpetuation of the aimless hedonism the couple have been pursuing, the other a participation in life in its full natural sense.» Critics also point to the various positions of the characters, with relation to the train tracks and the valley, to show a wide variety of possible symbolic interpretations.

Doris Lanier writes about the significance of absinthe (which the girl is reminded of when they drink anisette) in the story. Lanier explains the drink «was alluring not only because of its narcotic effects but also because of its reputation as an aphrodisiac.» Lanier asserts that every detail in «Hills Like White Elephants» is intentionally placed by Hemingway, and that the absinthe could have several possible connotations.

She postulates that «the addictive quality of the drink…is meant to emphasize the addictive nature of the couple’s lifestyle…It is an empty, meaningless existence that revolves around traveling, sex, drinking, looking at things, and having pointless conversations about these things». Another possible interpretation of the absinthe relates to its appeal and effects.

Like the man and woman’s relationship, it is alluring at first, but «it becomes a destroyer of the child, who is aborted; a destroyer of the girl, who endures the physical and emotional pain of aborting the child she wants; and a destroyer of the couple’s relationship». This interpretation assumes the couple have the abortion and end their relationship, as well as that the young woman wants to continue the pregnancy; none of these are certain, due to the ambiguity of the story.