Hills Like White Elephants Critical Analysis

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Life is about a choice we take and its consequences."Hills like White Elephants" by Ernest Hemingway is about an American man and a girl named Jig who are traveling throughout Spain together. The story takes place at the railroad station between Barcelona and Madrid while waiting for the train to Madrid the American decides to have a beer with Jig (girl). Jig talks about the landscapes and describing the hills as white elephants, the American disagree with her. The American switch to talking about the abortion operation, at first the Jig agrees to do the operation to please him then she starts arguing about it. He pretends to support her decision while trying to convince her to do the operation until she begs him to stop talking. At the end, …show more content…

From the American’s point of view he chooses to have the abortion for selfish reasons like risking her life because during that time it was a dangerous surgery which shows how he doesn’t care about her, he is stubborn and keeps insisting on Jig to have the operation to keep him from responsibility. During their conversation the American tries to convince Jig how simple the operation is “It’s really an awfully simple operation, Jig,” (222), and he knew lots of people have done it “I’ve known lots of people that have done it.” (223) ; that clarifies to us that the American might have had other relationships like Jig before and had the same situation with other girls which represent his selfish personality and his point of view from life. Jig is unhappy and lonely, trying to choose between having the baby or not, consequences of her choice would ruin her life as she says “And you think we’ll be alright and be happy.”(223), Jig has doubts on her man of whether he might stay with her after the abortion or he would leave her. She knows that she will never have the happiness she wants which makes her depressed and ready to lose her life by agreeing to the abortion. The point of view from Jig shows that she is confused between having or losing the baby and the man keep it harder for her to make her decision, that leads her to ask him to “stop talking” as she can’t keep talking about it, she wants to differentiate between what she feels inside her conscience and the pressure he keeps putting on her by insisting on the abortion. She needs to clear up her mind and think of the decision that would change her entire life forever. In conclusion, Hemingway shows through “Hills like white elephants” that humans face through their life choices and their consequences. We have the choice

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