Abortion In Ernest Hemingway's Hills Like White Elephants

At first glance, the characters in Ernest Hemingway’s Hills Like White Elephants seem to be part of an adventurous and wildly romantic journey together through Spain. As the story unfolds, however, the couple’s unexpected pregnancy reveals their tarnished relationship. The man and the girl, unmarried, are faced with the burden of a pregnancy that neither of them had planned on and together, they must find a way to best deal with the situation. The unasked question hangs heavily on the couple’s minds. The man and the girl are not in agreement about what to do with the unborn child at first. The girl is clearly not open to the idea of an abortion which is the man’s obvious first choice of how to handle the situation. Self-centered in nature, the girl’s accomplice is determined to convince her that his way is the only way for a successful outcome. The first step in sensing the man’s deception is to observe that the girl, known as Jig, is not entirely convinced of the operation to begin with. In the opening of the story, Jig displays an amount of assertiveness when requesting that she and her accomplice take part in drinking beer. A small gesture such as this insinuates that the girl is not afraid to speak her mind and let her own thoughts be known. Her later actions confirm this when she observes the similarities between
Jig begins to lean more towards the idea of getting the procedure but she still has hesitations. She wants assurance that if she follows through with his request he’ll still want to be with her. Jig asks him if he’ll be happy with her and if the abortion will take away their troubles. It’s no surprise that the man answers that it will. His word lacks any credibility not only because he misrepresented of the operation, but because he is willing to tell the girl anything she needs to hear to follow through with his