Who Is Gendered In Ernest Hemingway's Hills Like White Elephants?

“The Jig is Up”: A Gendered Analysis of Ernest Hemingway’s, “Hills Like White Elephants” Gender has been an issue in society since the beginning of humanity. We have lived in a male dominated society until recently, in the last hundred years we have had a promotion of equality. In Ernest Hemingway’s, “Hills Like White Elephants,” it tells the story of a couple who are introduced with the problem of pregnancy. In an effort to convince his partner to have an abortion, the male uses his patriarchal powers. However, Jig, his partner, will not easily yield to his charm and manipulation. Ernest Hemingway demonstrates how Jig silences her partner’s patriarchal pressure to have an abortion. Using literary elements of setting, character, and symbolism,
Her thoughts were consumed with the vision of what it would look like. While the couple was drinking, Jig compared the hills to white elephants. Jig stated, “They’re lovely hills. They don’t really look like white elephants. I just meant the coloring of their skin through the trees.” (592, 36). There was symbolism between the baby and the hills. The white hills looked wrinkly like a baby’s skin, and the milky white color reminded her of the color of the baby’s skin. According to a tale, on the eve of Buddha’s birth, a white elephant presented the mother with a lotus flower in a dream. The white elephant has a connection to giving birth, so there is another example of symbolism. After her observation of the hills her partner calmly said, “It’s an awfully simple operation. It’s not really an operation at all.” (592,42). Jig’s partner tried to downplay that having an abortion was hardly an operation at all. There he used patriarchy to manipulate Jig into thinking it was no big deal. It clearly was to her, because she couldn’t stop comparing the hills to the baby. He knew that she was decisive, therefore he reassured her when he explained, “I’ve known lots of people that have done it…I know it’s perfectly simple.” (592, 53 & 55). While Jig and her partner argued she referred back to the hills and how lovely they were. She subtly hinted that having a baby wasn’t a bad idea. I believe she wanted her partner to
The author gave the male the title “The man,” while the female character was given the title “the girl” and “Jig.” The equal opposite name of man is woman, but the female is given a younger title as “the girl.” She was also given a simple nickname called “Jig.” The name of the characters placed the male character in control, and throughout the story he tried to use manipulation and dominance to convince Jig to have an abortion. Jig’s partner calmly tried to convince her when he said, “You’ve got to realize, that I don’t want you to do it if you don’t want to. Imperfectly willing to go through with it if it means anything to you.” (593, 91). Jig’s partner had been telling her that the abortion was simple and no big deal, and then he turned the table and said that he didn’t want her doing anything she wasn’t comfortable with. It is apparent that he really didn’t want the baby, but if he said it so bluntly he knew he would hurt her feelings and would look like a bad guy. Instead he told her that it was a simple operation, but she had the choice to do whatever she wanted while subtly hinting that there was nothing wrong with the operation. Jig eventually silenced his patriarchal pressure and decided not to have the operation. Jig asked her companion, “Would you please please please please please please please stop talking?” (593,98). From this quote it showed that she wouldn’t allow him to tell her what to