"Hills Like White Elephants" by Ernest Hemingway

“Hills Like White Elephants” is a short story by Ernest Hemingway that takes place in a train station overlooking the valley of the Ebro. Though the characters in the story do not notice their location, it becomes apparent to readers that they are seated directly across from the centre of two very opposing sides of a hill. The story begins where two people are casually chatting and drinking as they wait for their train. Ironically, this “casual” conversation they are having in public is actually a very serious discussion about whether or not they should get an abortion. As we read further on, it is illusive that the girl is much younger and far less experienced than the man is.  She questions everything, such as when the woman at the bar asks if she would like her Anis del Toro with water. The girl responds, “I don’t know… is it good with water?”

Hemingway was very creative in how he used the setting to reveal important details and help us understand the situation the characters are in. There are so many symbols in this short story that show readers the options they have and the choice they make in the end. The man and young woman are sitting in a train station, which is often symbolic of where people go to run from their problems. With the girl being so young and inexperienced, it seems that they may be trying to run away from having a baby and have found themselves at a train station not knowing where they should go: neither geographically or with their futures. Readers can sense tension between them, and it appears that they may have different opinions as well as their own interpersonal questions due to their different lives.

Another huge symbol to readers in this story is the two sides of the hill that the station is facing. One side is barren, with no trees, vegetation or life, while the other side is green and fertile, “like white elephants” as the woman describes, with a river flowing and vast mountains in the background. As they sit admiring the two sides of the hill, little do they know that these two sides symbolize the two options they are deciphering between.

At the end of the story, we know that they make the decision to have the baby. The side with no life or vegetation represents the choice to have an abortion while the lush, green side represents having the baby because of the flowing river: a river symbolizes the birth canal and birth. The woman also compares this side to “white elephants”, white being the color that represents growth and fertility, and elephants representing wisdom on the eve of birth. We know the man and woman have agreed to have the baby because the man gets up and moves their luggage to this side of the station.

Image from
http://turtola.edublogs.org/files/2009/06/2008-07-30-00046_hills_like_white_elephants.png