Hills Like White Elephant Meaning

The title of Hills Like White Elephants is a seemingly odd title however, when you look farther into it, it has a deep meaning. In the story, white elephants are first mentioned in a conversation between the girl and the American. The girl says, “’ They look like white elephants’” (in text). The girl is referring to the hills in the distance. The American replies, “’I’ve never seen one’” (). It seems simple enough however, if you look at the definition found in the Oxford English Dictionary, a white elephant a figurative meaning. This figurative meaning is, “A possession that is useless or troublesome, especially one that is expensive to maintain or difficult to dispose of” In the story, the woman and man are arguing about the woman getting
an abortion, thus with this title, you can deduce that the white elephant in the story is the baby. This story is written in third-person point of view. This point of view gives the narrator a ‘fly-on-the-wall’ feel in the story. In the story Hemingway uses the number two frequently. Ann example of this is when the girl reaches out and takes, “Two of the string beads” (). In my opinion, the use of this number symbolizes the girls want to get married and have a family, as they would be two people together. The central issue between the two people is that the woman is pregnant and the man wants her to have an abortion. He tries to convince her throughout the story by saying this such as, “’I’ll go with you and stay with you all the time. They just let the air in and then it is perfectly natural’” (). The girl doesn’t seem to want to go through with it. In my opinion, I do not think that the girl has the abortion in the end.