Interpreting Hemingway's 'Hills Like White Elephants'

“Hills like White Elephants” by Ernest Hemingway is about a couple, the American and Jig, who contemplate whether or not to have an abortion. The premise of the story seems simple enough, but the outcome is highly debated. Critics argue that the baby was kept by the couple ( Renner ) and others claim the baby was aborted.( Fletcher ) Others have even simplified the story, claiming that the issue was not resolved because the couple was drunk by the end of the story. ( Sipiora ) Although the conclusion is in questions many have agreed with the idea that the couples relationship would be changed and would end prematurely. ( Wyche ) Dialogue is the main technique in conveying this argument but we can only understand the complexity of Hemingway’s work by looking at the story as a whole. By looking at the many symbols, intrinsically and

extrinsically, we are able to get a clearer picture of the couple’s decision.

There are many subtle symbols presented such as the train station, the felt pads, the train tracks and the time but the definitive symbols are the hills, the absinthe and the beaded bamboo curtains. These symbols give readers a clearer picture of Hemingway’s vision. Studying these symbols allow readers to view this story with a different lens and find a different conclusion. In fact, the symbols presented by Hemingway are more effective then the main dialogue at revealing the outcome of the American and Jig’s argument.

Stated in the title and repeatedly mentioned throughout the story, the hills looking white elephants is an important symbol. This symbol is mentioned in the first line, “The hills across the valley of the Ebro were long and white.” The color, being an important indicator of its meaning, as stated by Abdoo is similar to that of a still born child (Abdoo 239). This observation after knowing what the conflict is gives us direction from the first line. Lewis E. Weeks uses the image of the hills to embody the image of a pregnant woman lying on their back (Lewis) This is

interesting because of the side at which the hills are found. The hills are found on the dry, brown and barren side of the train tracks. The way Jig stares at the hills shows that she has a strong desire to keep the baby but the barren land around the hills represents the futility in her thinking. The being placed on the barren side by Hemingway also represents the idea that the baby was not born of love from Jig and the American but as a product of their current lifestyle. An apparent reference of the hills, once finding the conflict of deciding on abortion, is to white elephant sales (Weeks) In these sales, unwanted items were sold at a cheaper price in order to raise money. Jig realizing that the baby she is caring has become a white elephant, an irritant and unwanted, asks, “…If it dot it, then it will be nice again if I things are like white elephants, and you’ll like it?” Jig asks this as a form of self defense to protect the child inside of her. The man not looking at the hills is a sign that his stance on abortion has not wavered throughout the story. On the other hand, Jig spends the story looking at the long white plains, the Ebro, and the green, lush fields but she has one instance where she is noted as looking at the American instead. Jig “sitting at the table and smiled at him” at the end of the story, shows that she changed her perspective, not because she wanted to but because she gave in to the man’s ideologies.

Absinthe isn’t seen physically, but is brought to the readers attention after Jig tastes the Anis Del Toro, “It tastes like licorice……..everything tastes of licorice. Especially all the things you’ve waited so long for, like Absinthe”. (Hemingway) Absinthe is a green colored drink viewed as a narcotic with hallucinatory after effects that was banned around the time Hemingway was writing this story. Lanier claims that the addictiveness of the drink emphasizes the addictive lifestyle of the couple. ( Lanier) The American and Jig are portrayed as enjoying a damaging lifestyle full of booze and travelling. Jig is aware of their lifestyle slowly damaging them when she says, “That’s all we do isn’t it……..look at things and try new drinks” and “we could have everything”. Jig believes that the everything she refers to is the child and a different way of life that comes with raising one. Lanier’s main observation of absinthe as a symbol revolves around the idea of the drink as a destroyer, destroying the child being carried, the couple’s relationship and their way of life. (lanier) Absinthe, like many drinks, is advertised as a way to a better life, relating to it’s hallucinatory effects. This illusion relates to the views that the American and Jig have of their relationship. The American is under the influence that aborting the child will return their lives to normal. This isn’t true as critics believe that regardless of the outcome the relationship of the couple will end before it grows meaningful (Wyche). In his observations Lanier also notes the importance of the green coloring of the drink. Drinks nature relates with the dry, barren side representing aborting the child; the color green represents the fruitfulness of the fertile landscape (Lanier). The lush side of the tracks represent the couple keeping the baby; while absinthe represents destruction and an illusion. The absinthe aligning itself with both contrasting sides of the tracks shows that Jig’s desires are nothing but an illusion, because she fails to come to the conclusion that her pregnancy is merely a mistake, born from their current lifestyle.

One of the greatly debated symbols in the story is the beaded curtains that Jig and the American enter through. Gary Elliot claims that the way Jig holds the two beads are indicative of her religion, Catholicism. ( Elliot explicator 35). Although plausible, Jig’s religion doesn’t help us come to the conclusion at the end of the story. Many others as well have related the symbolism to Jig. The bamboo curtains are relate to the previous symbol of absinthe. When the couple enter through the curtain, Jig takes notice of the curtains and the sign on it advertising the Anise Del Toro. The American paid no attention to the curtain once again confirming the previous finding, that Jig knows something about the relationship and abortion that the American does not. David Gilmour relates the bamboo curtains to Jig. Jig taking notice of the bamboo curtain and walking to the end of the station that faces the trees by the river show a movement towards nature that represents her desire to keep the baby and letting nature take its course. ( David Gilmour). Although, many critics relate Jig to the curtains, Scott Consingy associates the bamboo curtain with the American and his desire to retain his way of life. Scott states that the hollow bamboo material, being cut, purged and dried from the land, represents the American’s desire to abort the baby leaving Jig barren (Consingy). The American wants his world to remain hollow where he can continuously, drink, travel and “look at things”. When the wind blows into the bar through the bar, the American begins to push the idea of the abortion. The American protecting the lifestyle he currently has is acting like the bamboo curtain protecting the bamboo curtained world of the bar. (Consingy). People have looked simply at the curtain as a divide between the two views on abortion in the story, but looking at the bamboo curtain as hollow, being stripped of the world and protecting the bar you gain a sense of the conclusion to the story.

Looking at these three symbols give readers a lens that allows us to see that the American got the outcome he desired. The hills being compared to white elephants by Jig gives readers an image of a pregnant lady laying on her back. Although the idea is plausible the fact that the hills are found on the dry barren side shows that Jigs dream to keep the baby will not come in fruition. The distinct color of the absinthe, green, resembles the lush green side of the train tracks. This resemblance shows that the relationship between the American is more “fruitful” when it is under the hallucination of the drinks they consume and their current lifestyle. This addiction is something they are stuck with and that is hard to escape, reflective of the addictive nature of absinthe. The symbol of the Absinthe is connected to the bamboo curtains which advertised the Anise Del Toro. The bamboo curtain as a symbol relating to Jig is an illusion to the readers because the bamboo curtain is a greater when representing the American. The material used to make the curtains, bamboo, is hollow, taken from the earth, cut, dried and prepared to use. The curtain acts as a barrier between the Americans ideals and Jigs, where the American wants a life that is similar to the bar you enter through the curtain. The materials used in the curtain and the bar it encloses represents the life the American wants to retain and the measures he is willing to take to protect it, abortion. These lenses acquired through understanding these symbols are greater than the dialogue in finding an ending, where the couple decides to get the abortion. Though the American believes the will save their relationship and lifestyle, David Wyche puts their decision in context, that “like an aborted fetus, the love affair has died before it had time to grow into a meaningful and complex life” (Wyche)