Hills Like White Elephants Conflict Essay

Ernest Hemingway’s story "Hills Like White Elephants" revolves around a conversation with a man and a girl at a train station while they are waiting for their next train. The man and girl fall in love and they travel unchaperoned. The girl compares the nearby hills to white elephants. The pair indirectly discusses an operation that is inferred to be an abortion. It’s illegal, so girl will find someone from the street to do, thereby endangering her life and future fertility. The story describes a couple at a troubled point in their relationship. They struggle to communicate their opposite views on the direction their relationship should take if they go through with the operation. The story is about communication and ends without a for sure ending, the reader will never know how or if they to fix their relationship but it doesn’t look like they will. Throughout the
They argue “We can go everywhere." "No, we can't. It isn't ours any more." "It's ours." "No, it isn't. And once they take it away, you never get it back." "But they haven't taken it away." "We'll wait and see" and you can tell by the word choice they are hinting at the abortion procedure. The man tried to see if he can convince the girl to get the procedure. He wants to live his life freely and not be tied down with a baby or marriage. The Internal conflict was the girl doesn't really want to and know if she should do the operation or not. She wishes to go back in time and wonders if her choice in having the abortion will allow her relationship and her life to go back to what it was. She asks the man if "things... like they were." In this statement the girl wants to bring the past back instead of facing the uncertain future. They both have to do about the future of their relationship and what path the abortion will take them. The story ends in a cliffhanger, the reader isn’t given the satisfaction of an answer to the