Hemingway’s Hill’s Like White Elephants is undoubtedly a product of its time. However, the story manages to cleverly discuss issues that were not only considered offensive, but also potentially illegal around the world. The central issue of the story is whether or not Jig will get the abortion she appears to desire. This desire puts her at odds with her boyfriend, known only as The American. In Ernest Hemingway’s Hill’s Like White Elephants, abortion is not only taboo because of poor medical treatment, but also because of women’s inability to control their own bodies in the time period in which the story is set, the 1920s, and the story’s location, which is somewhere outside of Spain.

In the 1920s, part of the reason that abortion was so taboo was because many considered it to be a death sentence. 15,000 women died every year from abortion in the late 1920s (Solinger 8). Popular techniques for abortion included drinking turpentine, controlled falls down steps, squatting over a steaming pot of water, and inducing lead poisoning (Solinger 13). Even relatively advanced surgical techniques were more fatal than childbirth until into the 1930s (Solinger 15). Abortion pills containing mercury, arsenic, and other poisons were advertised in newspapers, but they only promised to cleanse of ‘impurities’ or restore regularity.  In a time where abortion really was talked about in a hushed tone, the ambiguous nature of the conversation in “Hills Like White Elephants” makes a lot of sense. The tone of the conversation was likely necessary for the story to even make it to publication, when even simple advertisements can’t break the silence. The tone of the conversation is also a clever way to call everyone’s attention to the attitude in which they already approach the topic of abortion. Although the story was fictional, the situation surrounding it was all too real for many. While more than half of the western world was made up of women, they were still subjected to speaking in code about a topic that impacted each and every one of them. 

The hushed tone in which abortion was discusses effectively communicated that the world in which Hemingway wrote Hills Like White Elephants was still very much unequal. This is also reflected in how Hemingway portrayed the interactions between the American, the girl, and the world around them. Jig is the one getting the abortion, yet the man she is with seems to have strong ideas of his own. It's really an awfully simple operation, Jig," the man said “It’s not really an operation at all” (529). Knowing the history of abortion, this seems like a bit of an exaggeration. Even if Jig isn’t going in for actual surgery, the other options can be just as deadly. Avoiding the word operation doesn’t lower the mortality rate, but the man believes that by stretching the truth he can attract her to his side. He does not have her best interests in mind. Another, subtler sign of the American’s attitude towards Jig is in their interactions with the waitress. Jig communicates what she wants to the American, “Could we try it?”, and he relays that message to the waitress, “The man called ‘listen’ through the curtain. The woman came out from the bar. ‘four reales’. ‘We want two Anis del Toro” (528). The American speaks for Jig in this instance. He is her voice. Although she is fine with this arrangement when ordering drinks, when it comes to taking control of her body, Jig resists. This creates tension between the two.

Hemingway’s choice of location is very interesting in the context of this story. Beginning in 1923, Spain was transformed by the Sexual Reform Movement. Inspired by Freudian psychology, this movement focused on erasing gender inequality, legalizing abortion, and allowing both men and women to initiate divorce proceedings (Glick 54). Of course, these widespread changes were met with a lot of resistance by those satisfied with the status quo, and as a result the finalized goals of the movement were more conservative when compared to other countries undergoing similar changes (Glick 19). While Spain wrestles with the topic of abortion, Hemingway makes the argument more personal, memorable, and sympathetic by narrowing its focus to only two people. In Hills Like White Elephants, Jig and the American are having a child, but there is no evidence that they are married. This awkward ambiguity is an important aspect of their relationship. They are only referred to as “The American and the girl with him” (527). Like abortion, having a child out of a wedlock was similarly taboo, and Hemingway dances around both the subjects of wedlock and abortion expertly. The right to have children out of wedlock, and the right for women to initiate divorce proceedings were prophetically also a major topic of focus in the Spanish Sexual Reform Movement (Glick 33). The movement in Spain was, “stimulated in particular by the writings of Havelock, Ellis, and Sigmund Freud” (Glick 71). It is no stretch to imagine that Hemingway had similar dreams, to influence social change with his writings. That may have been why he chose to tackle a controversial topic like abortion.

The central issue of ‘Hills Like White Elephants” is whether or not Jig will get the abortion she appears to desire. This desire puts her at odds with her boyfriend, known only as The American. In Ernest Hemingway’s Hill’s Like White Elephants, abortion is not only taboo because of poor medical treatment, but also because of women’s inability to control their own bodies in the time period in which the story is set, the 1920s, and the story’s location, which is somewhere around Spain.
