Abortion In Ernest Hemingway's Hills Like White Elephants

738 Words2 Pages

What if you had to make a decision that would affect you for the rest of your life? Could you decide between keeping your significant other and losing your unborn child or losing your significant other and keeping your child? In Ernest Hemingway’s “Hills Like White Elephants”, an American man and his girlfriend, who he calls “Jig”, argue about whether she should have an abortion or not. The couple tries to discuss the “elephant in the room”, but fail to ever really understand and accept each other’s point of views as they wait for the train to come. Although the ending results of Jig’s unborn baby are unknown, her decision to have an abortion can be supported by the persuasion from the man, her care for the man, and the unwanted child. Throughout …show more content…

Because I don’t care about me.” (Pg. 3) This quote proves that Jig is leaning towards the decision of doing the operation. Jig shows that she only cares about the American being happy. If aborting her unborn baby will make the American happy, then she will do it. Jig continuously questions the American man with the hopes that he might change his mind about the baby, but she is unsuccessful. As they continue to drink while they wait for the train, the man claims that any decision she makes will be okay with him. “Well,” the man said, “if you don’t want to you don’t have to. I wouldn’t have you do it if you didn’t want to. But I know it’s perfectly simple.” “And you really want to?” “I think it’s the best thing to do. But I don’t want you to do it if you don’t really want to.” (Pg. 3) It seems that the abortion is not up to Jig to decide, but up to the American. Although Jig may want the baby, she can’t persuade the man to want the baby too. Any pregnant mother would realize that their relationship would not work out without the father’s want for the baby. Jig is too dependent on the American to be able to survive with the baby on her own as a single

Open Document