Abortion In Hills Like White Elephants, By Ernest Hemingway

In his short story “Hills Like White Elephants”, Ernest Hemingway brings the reader to a train station somewhere between Barcelona and Madrid. An American and a girl are having an argument that could be seen as trivial on the surface, but is actually a painful discussion about aborting their child. The much older American tries to persuade the young girl to give the baby up in hopes that he might be able to leave her without any obligations left behind, but she seems to want to keep the child and start a life together. Hemingway uses symbolism, dialogue, and language to convey that the American is manipulating the girl into getting an abortion.
Throughout the short story, the girl is dependent on the American. Hemingway uses dialogue to convey that there is an obvious language barrier between the girl and the waitress; the girl relies on the
Although nothing he says is outright negative, the implied meaning of his words are clearly understood by the girl. When he says that he “[He does not] want [her] to” and that he “[does not] care anything about it”, after urgently trying to convince the girl that the operation is ridiculously simple and that she has nothing to worry about, he is trying to make himself look kind and understanding; he is really just trying to get what he wants.
Hemingway uses multiple literary techniques such as symbolism, dialogue, and language to convey that the girl is being manipulated. “Hills Like White Elephants” shows the reader that there is much more to a conversation than what is on the surface; Hemingway’s iceberg writing style leaves much to the imagination making his work analytical masterpieces. Women are pressured into things they do not want to do every single day. This short story goes to prove that even men had an understanding of this sort of