
Pregnancy is a miracle of life. When a woman becomes pregnant, she gains a new responsibility as well as a new part of her. It is a tremendous responsibility that requires great patience. In our day and age, humans have the opportunity to own up to this responsibility when a woman becomes pregnant unexpectedly or they can turn to a more heinous act which is abortion. Abortion is considerably the most debated topic in the 21st century.  Many state that it’s the woman’s choice because it’s her body, while others say that the baby’s life triumphs any other choice.  Having a baby is a tremendous, yet intimidating responsibility which leads many young women to try and have abortions. Harmless fun can turn out to be a life changer. In “Hills like White Elephants” by Ernest Hemingway the audience is presented with a young female and a male a couple of years older than her. Although it is not clearly stated, we can assume through close attention to detail that they are arguing about whether or not the female should have the abortion. Likewise, in Sylvia Plath’s “Metaphors” the author is describing her own pregnancy and how she is accepting the responsibility, although she believes that it will destroy her individuality. Both of these stories are similar in the sense that women are afraid of the tremendous responsibility that entails having a child and the future that goes with. They have to sacrifice their own personal lives to take care of a new one and that has the ability to scare anyone: male or female. Pregnancy has the ability to reshape a human’s character from what it once was, whether that is from good to bad or bad to good by a single act. If a person or couple go through the act of abortion they are taking the cowardice way out. Pregnancy should be a blessing and takes a lot of courage. We see in both these stories that the females are unsure of their pregnancies and what it will mean for their future. 

In Ernest Hemingway’s “Hills like White Elephants” we have two Americans, one is a young female and the other is an older male by a couple of years. They are in a Spain waiting on a train that will take them to Madrid. They casually drink beer and stare out into nature as they debate whether or not to go through with this so called “operation.” Through analysis and close-attention to detail we can assume that this operation is an abortion. The male is pressuring the female to have the abortion and that it is “perfectly natural” yet will make it seems like he doesn’t care about which choice she chooses as mentioned “if you don’t want to you don’t have to. I wouldn’t have you do it if you didn’t want to. But I know it’s perfectly simple” (CR 529).  The male doesn’t want the female to keep the child. Conversely, we can tell the female is conflicted and naïve. She doesn’t know much about the impact of this decision We can tell the girl is young because she doesn’t know much about alcohol and seems to be drinking it for the first time. This tells the audience that she has no idea the weight of the decision she is making and the male is influencing her to terminate her baby. Just like in this story, young girls these days are getting pregnant due to social media displaying sex as a common occurrence and is encouraged. This has led to more and more females getting pregnant at earlier ages, leading to higher occurrences of abortions. The fear of being a mother scares these young teenagers and young adults and causes them to terminate their child’s life. 

Similarly, in “Metaphors” by Sylvia Plath, the author is describing their pregnancy through nine lines. Each line represents a month of pregnancy with different metaphors configuring up those lines. The only difference between this poem and the story by Hemingway is that this woman goes through with the child, yet her feelings were the same as the females in “Hills like White Elephants.” The author Plath feels as if motherhood will consume her and take over her personality and life. The poem only describes what Plath cannot be, instead of what she can be as a mother. It is a humorous poem, yet the overwhelming feeling and tone from this short poem can be described as disheartening towards pregnancy. This poem directed towards the female population makes pregnancy seem as awful because the focus of this poem is the physical transformation of a woman’s body. She uses examples such as “a melon strolling through a ponderous house” and “This loafs big with its yeasty rings” (CR 532). Through all of the drabness, the last line is one of tremendous magnitude about how the other feels about the pregnancy. When Plath states “Boarded the train there’s no getting off” (CR 532). Plath knows that there is no turning back and that abortion is not an option for her. 

Side by side these two stories describe pregnancy as something that is terrible and unfortunate, when really it is something that should be celebrated. Both females in each story are uncomfortable with the situation because they didn’t plan for it to happen, but that is how life works. We may plan something to happen our life or an exact path but that is not how life will ever work. Pregnancy is what keeps the human race alive and is a moment in life that should be 

revered. The ultimate theme of both these stories and how they tie in together is pregnancy is scary and terrifying, yet it is one of the greatest and most enjoyable experiences that life has to offer and we shouldn’t bail on a child’s life when we selfishly feel like it conflicts with ours.

Overall, both authors were very bold and touched and very sincere and deep topic that not many authors or poets dare to do. They showed the dark side to being pregnant, instead of the good side. 
