
Ernest Hemingway’s “Hills Like White Elephants” was published in 1927 and explores many arguable concepts still evident today. These include abortion, women’s rights and commitment. The story is an extremely broad conversation between an American man and his significant other, Jig, at a train station in Spain awaiting a train to Madrid. He is pressuring her to undergo an operation, which he plays down as no big deal. The two dance around the subject and never truly address the problem or come up with a plan. In the end she explains she is fine, but the reader does not know what the woman decides to do about this operation, which is interpreted to be an abortion, or what will happen next in their relationship. Through deep interpretation and analyzing the historical context, we can get a clearer understanding as to why the American man has succumbed to Spanish culture, the true fears of abortion he may be trying to soften, and the contradiction of gender norms. 

Ernest Hemingway has written numerous short stories, many of which arguably reflect his experiences with war as an ambulance driver in Italy during WWI (“Ernest Hemingway Biography” 2). “Hills Like White Elephants” takes place in Spain and was published in 1927, only nine years after the end of World War I. Spain remained neutral during the war, providing France and it’s allies (including America) with goods to help them succeed in war (McEvoy 1).  Knowing this information is helpful, as it a different perspective for why the man acts how he does in the story.

The man in “Hills Like White Elephants” is very assimilated in the Spanish culture. He understands the Spanish language, local transportation, artwork and Spanish cultural norms. With this information, one can assume that he has been there for a while. His lifestyle is described by Jig as consisting of drinking, looking at art, and traveling. This shows he has a very lavish lifestyle with no commitment or huge sense of responsibility. This type of routine is most often portrayed in young adults. This information is vital when looking into why the American man is in Spain and how he has become so acclimated to Spanish culture in a completely different perspective. 

With Spain being neutral during the war, it could support the idea that the American was a soldier who went to Spain after or during the war to avoid going back to the states. This theory, suggested by Margaret D Bauer in an article titled “Forget the Legend and Read the Work: Teaching Two Stories by Ernest Hemingway,” could explain why the man does not want his lover to have a baby. She teaches this story alongside Ernest Hemingway’s “Soldier’s Home” and her students undeniably see resemblance between the American man and the soldier Kreb’s in “Soldier’s Home.” Additionally, with young soldiers fighting during World War I the age of the man makes sense. As previously stated, the lifestyle of the American is most commonly associated to that of a young man, which had he been a soldier nine years ago he would be around his twenties or thirties during the piece. Perhaps as a soldier, he feared the commitment that would come with a child: the needs to move back to the states, settle down, and raise a baby would inevitably end his current lifestyle. The idea of a man being a soldier who is not ready to take on the life of a committed man could help explain why he tries to view the abortion as nothing serious. He does not want to change his life, so he tries to convince himself and her that the procedure is not risky and that doing so will allow them to go back to “normal,” and he could continue on with his ways. Undoubtedly, without knowledge of the war and the theory of him being a soldier, it is extremely difficult to sympathize with the man. 

During this time, men were the gender who received most educational opportunities. However, in the story the American man is very naïve when discussing abortion. The American tells Jig that in the abortion procedure, “they just let the air in and then it’s all perfectly natural” and that afterwards they would be, “just like [they] were before” (Hemingway 3). The reader, however, gets the sense that the woman is more aware of the risks the procedure has. Abortion in Europe in the 1920s had legal, medical, and religious limitations and consequences. After analyzing these risks, the reader understands the gravity of Jig’s decision.

Legally in the 1920s many countries in Europe followed England’s “severe restrictions on the performance of abortion at any stage of pregnancy” (David 3). This article is called “Abortion in Europe, 1920-91: A Public Health Perspective” and it discusses many of the horrors that occurred with abortion.  David P. Henry, discusses the religious restraints, writing that in 1895 the Roman Catholic power, “explicitly and publicly condemned” abortion (David 3). This meant that the religious community saw women as murdering their fetus if they had an abortion, an act that would be punished by God. Later in the article he also writes about both the legal and health risks the procedure imposed on women.

Irrefutably, the procedure had vast medical risks in the 1920s. The procedure used “vacuum aspiration,” was passed throughout Europe in the 1920s. This form of abortion included inserting a tube into the women and scraping out the uterine contents, a technique that was not safely executed until 1973 (“History of Abortion” 1).  Another risk factor that threatened the health of the pregnant woman was that one out of three operations in European hospitals resulted in death during this time because of common post operational infections (David 3). Lastly, it said that many doctor’s forged “abortionist” roles, resulting in dangerous procedures with unequipped doctors which further increased the risks on woman (David 3). On the other hand, Europe passed a law a year before the story was written stating that people who had abortions could end up with a legal sentence from one day to five years and the service preforming the procedure could face one to fifteen years (David 3).

In the story, the “educated” male overlooks all these hazardous factors that could affect him and his lover. Knowing the information about abortions makes it extremely difficult to take the very broad conversation in the story lightly. By making the man either truly naïve about the surgery or having him come across as downplaying it, Hemingway is touching on how the gender expectations are actually reversed in the story because the woman is more educated about the procedure and it’s risks than the man. In the 19th century both Europe and North America had understood gender roles. Men were expected to live publicly, working and socializing with other men in public places. On the other hand, women were expected to live at home, cooking, cleaning, and taking care of children. Due to these expectations, many women did not get an education, for doing so was seen as rebellious and wrong (Sailus 1). 

Although there seems to be a sense that the man is giving Jig an option, when looked at closer he is not. He says things like, “but I don’t want you to do it if you don’t really want to” which give a sense of choice (Hemingway 3). However, he uses “I” and “you” as if to separate them if she does decide not to. He does not use “we” which signifies that they are in it together unless he is talking about going through with the abortion. This signifies that there can be no “we” if she does not get the abortion. On the other hand, when he talks about getting the abortion he tells her, “we’ll be fine afterward. 

Just like we were before” (Hemingway 3).  On the other hand, the American’s intelligence could be questioned as he describes the surgery as no big deal to his lover. Whether he truly believes this or not, Hemingway is arguing that men during this time always had the power in the relationship and the last say in decisions, even if they were not fully informed in the choice or personally affected by it.

All in all, many different aspects of the story can be examined through different perspectives to help the reader understand the entire story and all the problems that Hemingway is touching on. Through analyzing the significance of the story taking place in Spain, we can argue that he is an American soldier who moved there to dismiss the expectations he’d be required to live up to back in the states. This gives the reader a different perspective of his push to get his lover to get an abortion, in order to avoid growing up and moving forward in responsibility. However, this perspective still does not allow much sympathy to be held towards the man, as he ignores all the different religious, legal, and health threats that the procedure had in the 1920s across Europe. Finally, Hemingway touches on the social norms expected from men and women in both America and Europe when the story was published. The woman is probable to follow the man’s wishes, as this was her developed role. At the end of the story, the woman shakes the subject off with a smile, and we can assume that she is going to go through with the procedure, because that is what her lover wants her to do. Hemingway is showing that unmarried pregnant women should have a say in what they will do with their child, but in the 1920s the man held all the power. It does not matter how much pressure the man puts on Jig, or how he tries to mask the pressure by telling her she has a choice, the woman 

will always adhere to the man for he has more power. This issue as well as all the others raised in the story are extremely problematic matters that are still present today, but luckily less so.  
