About

Ernest Hemingway

“Hills Like White elephants.”

Is abortion a solution in a relationship as a way to free oneself from the responsibility of a having a child? In “hills like white elephants,” closer examination shows that Hemingway writes this shorts story to let us know his relationship was his second wife Pauline Pfeiffer.He uses abortion as a metaphor for threats to his relationship with Pauline. Throughout the story, the word abortion was never seen; however, the reader clearly knows what the couple is talking about, or what the discussion in throughout the story. The unmentioned abortion in “Hills like White elephants” is both a metaphor for the fate of the protagonist ‘love affair and an allegorical vehicle for Hemingway’s response to a series of terminated relationships in his life. In other words, Hemingway has had a lot of failed relationships before self-inflicted a gunshot wound into his skull and later died. According to Hennefeld, close examination of “Hills like white elephants” reveals that jig and the American man are in a moment that teeters on the border between comic and tragic. They are at a moment of decision, one that will push them one way or the other. The landscape around them reflects both possible futures. On the other side of the station, the land is fertile and green. The water from the river nourishes new life. This is the comic landscape, the landscape of regeneration (Hennefeld). Hemingway begins to see his wife in the same way the Americans see the pregnant jig, as a woman who imposes restraints and limited his freedom. He thinks he could continue to write and travel around the world without restraints. This careless life; however, was threatened by Hadley’s pregnancy. Hemingway’s goal was to travel from country to country to do what he always liked to do which was writing. He devotes himself to writing throughout his lifetime. He does not like to take the responsibility of parenting, for that reason he ended up marring a lot of woman throughout his lifetime.