Hills Like White Elephants
Ernest Hemingway
Plot summary

The story takes place at a train station in the
Ebro River valley of Spain. The time setting is
not given, but is almost certainly contemporary
to the composition (1920s). This particular day
is oppressively hot and dry, and the scenery in
the valley is barren and ugly for the most part.
The two main characters are a man (referred to
only as "the American") and his female
companion, whom he calls Jig.

While waiting for the train to Madrid, the American
and Jig drink beer and a liquor called Anis del Toro,
which Jig compares to Licorice, showing how young
she really is. Their conversation is mundane at first,
but quickly drifts to the subject of an operation which
the American is attempting to convince Jig to
undergo. Though it is never made explicit in the text,
it is made clear (through phrases of dialogue such as
"It's just to let the air in" and "But I don't want
anybody but you," among numerous context clues)
that Jig is pregnant and that the procedure in question
is an abortion.

After posing arguments to which the American
is largely unresponsive, Jig eventually assents
to the operation, giving the final justification:
"I don't care about me." She attempts to drop
the subject, but the American persists as if still
unsure of Jig's intentions and mental state. As
the train approaches, he carries their bags to
the platform and has a drink alone before
rejoining Jig. She smiles at him, assures him
that she is "fine", and the story ends.
Themes and recurring elements

"Hills Like White Elephants" is thematically
rich, given its short length and sparse
narrative. On the surface, it deals with
concepts such as the conflict between personal
responsibility and hedonism; rhetorical and
psychological manipulation; coming of age;
and the dynamics of the romantic relationship
and its metamorphosis into the family.

Jig's reference to white elephants could be in
reply to the baby. The American could see the
baby as a white elephant and not want to raise
it because of the cost, while Jig could see the
child as an extraordinary addition to her
mundane life of drinking and mindless
traveling.
Symbolism and setting

The title of the story refers to an aspect of its setting which is
symbolically important in many ways. Jig draws a simple
simile by describing the hills across the desolate valley as
looking like white elephants. The implication is that, just as Jig
thinks the hills in the distance look like white elephants, the
American views the couple's unborn child as an approaching
obstacle, a hindrance to the status quo or status quo ante---a
white elephant. To avoid this impending responsibility, he
hypocritically attempts to manipulate Jig into having an
abortion by presenting the operation as a simple procedure that
is in her best interests, a panacea for all that is ailing her and
troubling their relationship.

Furthermore, this symbolism combined with Jig's
question "That's all we do, isn't it--look at things and
try new drinks" and her statement that even exciting
new things she has waited a long time to try, like
absinthe (sometimes valued as an aphrodisiac),
merely end up "tasting like licorice," implies that the
couple's perpetually ambling, hedonistic lifestyle has
become something of a metaphorical white elephant
to her. It appears that she seeks more stability and
permanence in life; "It isn't ours anymore," she
complains of the carefree lifestyle she and the
American have been pursuing from one hotel to the
next.

The symbolism of the hills and the big white
elephant can be thought of as the image of the
swollen breasts and abdomen of a pregnant
woman, and to the prenatal dream of the
mother of the future Buddha in which a white
elephant (in this case, a symbol of prestigious
leadership) enters her womb.

Apart from the eponymous hills, other parts of the
setting provide symbolism which expresses the
tension and conflict surrounding the couple. The train
tracks form a dividing line between the barren
expanse of land stretching toward the hills on one
side and the green, fertile farmland on the other,
symbolizing the choice faced by each of the main
characters and their differing interpretations of the
dilemma of pregnancy. Jig focuses on the landscape
during the conversation, rarely making eye contact
with the American.

At the end of the story, the American takes the
initiative to pick up the couple's luggage and
port it to the "other tracks" on the opposite side
of the station, symbolizing his sense of
primacy in making the decision to give up their
child and betraying his insistence to Jig that
the decision is entirely in her hands.

Jig's name is symbolically significant, as is the fact
that her real name is never given, that "Jig" is only
her lover's pet name for her. In addition to being a
dated slang term for sexual intercourse, the word jig
can mean a sprightly Celtic dance or any of several
different kinds of tools (whiskey measurer, fishing
lure, woodworking tool, etc.); this implies that the
American views Jig as more of a loving object or
tool---a "fine time," to use his own words---than a
person with feelings and values to be respected.
Dialogue

"They look like white elephants," she said.
"I've never seen one," the man drank his beer.
"No, you wouldn't have."
"I might have," the man said. "Just because you say I
wouldn't have doesn't prove anything."
The girl looked at the bead curtain. "They've painted
something on it," she said. "What does it say?"
"Anis del Toro. It's a drink."
"Could we try it?"

The third-person narration reveals very few
facts about the characters; it never explicitly
states what it is that the couple is arguing. The
reader must interpret their dialogue and body
language to infer their backgrounds and their
attitudes with respect to the situation at hand,
and their attitudes toward one another. From
the outset of the story, the contentious nature
of the couple's conversation indicates
resentment and unease.

Some critics have written that the dialogue is a distillation of
the contrasts between stereotypical male and female
relationship roles: in the excerpt above, for instance, Jig draws
the comparison with white elephants, but the hyper-rational
male immediately denies it, dissolving the bit of poetry into
objective realism with "I've never seen one." She also asks his
permission to order a drink. Throughout the story, Jig is
distant; the American is rational. While the American attempts
to frame the fetus as the source of the couple's discontent with
life and one another, the tone and pattern of dialogue indicate
that there may be deeper problems with the relationship than
the purely circumstantial.

As usual, Hemingway here prefers to leave details of
character to the sensibilities of the reader, allowing
the characters to speak for themselves free of an
omniscient narrator's subjective observations. This
ambiguity leaves a good deal of room for
interpretation; while most critics have espoused
relatively straightforward interpretations of the
dialogue (with Jig as the dynamic character, traveling
reluctantly from rejection to acceptance of the idea of
an abortion), a few have argued for alternate
scenarios based upon the same dialogue.