Keshav Sharma-Blog Post #2

In the short story “Hills Like White Elephants” by Ernest Hemingway, Hemingway depicts a story of a man and a girl who are both simply referred to as the “American” and the “girl.” In the story, the American and the girl are depicted as waiting for a train somewhere in Spain and eventually decide to drink some beers in the train station’s bar to pass time. As implied through the conversation the two characters have in the bar, the girl is depicted as being younger and more immature compared to the “American,” who takes up a dominant position in the conversation.

Hemingway mainly depicts two kinds of conflicts in this text: character vs. self and character vs. character. On one side, the “girl” suffers an internal struggle on how to handle the implied abortion the “American” suggests she have done. On the other side, the girl suffers an external conflict when she argues with the “American” on how to handle the supposed abortion. Possibly due to her age and her inexperience with such serious matters, the girl attempts to reason with the American regarding their future if this abortion were to actually be done. The kind of response the girl gives the American when he brings the topic up suggests a sense of uncertainty and perhaps even apathy.

It is important to note that although the American attempts to convince the girl, referred to as “Jig” in the text, to have an abortion, the girl is in a sense already undergoing an abortion by consuming alcohol. Many guidelines in the real world strongly advise pregnant women to avoid the consumption of alcohol in order to prevent serious defects from occurring during development. If the “girl” really cared about her child, she would not be consuming alcohol and she would also not demonstrate such a degree of apathy towards the seriousness of an abortion. With the common worldview on abortion being almost unanimously negative in today’s real world, it is amazing to see how nonchalantly Hemingway depicted the seriousness of it in his short story. Perhaps at the time this story was written, abortion was not such a serious issue, however, the views in the story could also reflect the opinions of Hemingway.

In the end, the girl makes no definitive decision on the matter of having an abortion or not. It can be assumed from the conversation in the bar, however, that the girl’s immaturity and inexperience has likely led her to follow along with what the American suggested she do. The fact that she wishes to quickly dismiss the topic of conversation suggests that her internal emotions prevent her from making a decision or that she simply does not care enough to make a decision, judging from how her attention frequently went to the environmental surroundings rather than to the American.