Hills Like White Elephants is the story of pair forced to make a decision affecting their future. Although defined by the Ernest Hemingway as an “operation”, the reader learns through context clues the couple is discussing whether or not the woman is going to have an abortion performed on herself. In the text the author uses many different strategies to communicate his message to the reader. Hemingway showed how choices, whether good or bad, can impact a person life drastically. By looking at the context of the story, structure of the text, and tone of the author, we see that each element contributes in its own unique way to the theme. These elements are vital in contributing to the readers understanding of the text. 

The context of Hills Like White Elephants is one of the most important contributors to the theme of choices. Hemingway created this short story back when abortion was extremely frowned upon. He did not come out and say abortion, however it is directly implied that’s what the characters are fighting about. The conflict is centered around how the author vaguely describes the situation within the story. If the characters had just come out at the beginning and blatantly told each other how they felt about the situation, then the message would not have been fully appreciated by the reader. Because the woman was uneasy about getting the abortion the two were reluctant to be straight with one another. The topic is avoided though and the woman starts to wonder whether they will be happy or not. She says, “And you think we’ll be all right and happy.” The quote continues to develop the theme because it is illustrating doubt in the character’s mind. Hemingway also implements alcohol into the story. By the characters consistently asking for drinks this shows that there is a level of stress going on throughout the conversation. Alcohol became relevant due to the author choosing to repeatedly bring it up between the characters. The very first words they said to each other were about getting a beer. This shows that before the conversation began they were both needing to blow off steam.  Making an important choice caused the woman to be stressed in Hills Like White Elephants. She was being influenced by another person and that’s why she continued to ask whether the love they had was real. The context provides all this information making it a key contributor to the readers understanding of the work as a whole.

Though context is an important part to Hemingway’s message in Hills Like White Elephants, structure can be just as meaningful at certain points in the story. The arrangement of most of the conversations between the man and the woman are very short. They tend to cut off at key moments when the conversation is beginning to take a turn towards discussing the abortion. This shows that the comfort level between the couple has not reached a level at which they can come straight out and say anything to each other. The hesitation between sentences plays a key part as well. The structure of the couple’s conversations develops the importance of choices in that, if a person has little comfort with their counterpart then a big decision will be hard to decide on. The choppiness of each conversation shows how Hemingway is luring the reader in so that they will wonder why the couple is acting uncomfortable towards one another. Each time they talk to one another a topic begins to build on itself. Throughout the entire story the conversation builds and builds, but the author never gives a solution to what they have decided. The suspense built by the author through the structure of his text is important because it makes the reader feel as if they are a part of the conversation. When the reader feels apart of the conversation, then they begin to understand the importance of choices in the character’s lives. 

The final theme that Hemingway emphasizes is the tone within his short story. The tone is the meshing point for the structure and context of the story. The reader knows what’s going on when reading the context and sees how the author wrote the story through the structure. However, the feeling that the author gives the reader is through the tone of the story. In Hills Like White Elephants, Hemingway begins with a sarcastic tone and slowly develops into a very serious tone. This is due to the avoidance of discussing the major choice the man and woman must make regarding the abortion. The man is very for the abortion and tries to present a positive tone by saying, “It’s really an awfully simple operation, Jig,”. This tone was effective by showing that the man doesn’t think the abortion would be a big deal at all and it is the authors way of giving the reader a more positive way of looking at the man’s opinion. The woman does not respond for another sentence and that is when the tone gets serious. The author then has the woman question the man’s love for her. This emphasizes the theme of choices in that if not for bad choices then the woman wouldn’t be questioning his love. However, since they are forced to make a decision regarding both of their futures, she must question everything that has gone on between them. 

All in all, many different strategies were used to communicate a clear understanding of the overall theme of choices. Through structure, context, and tone Hemingway used all of these elements to provide the reader with a clear interpretation the story as a whole. Whether good or bad choices affected the character’s life, the reader understands from reading Hills Like White Elephants that choices impact lives no matter what is happening.