Hills Like White Elephants by Ernest Hemingway was written in 1927. The short story takes place at a literal cross road between an American man and his companion in an unknown area of the world, most likely a Spanish speaking country. When reading this story, you see major gender role conflictions between the couple while also looking into a deeper meaning of love and relationships through the choice of words Hemingway uses and the type of writing style that is portrayed. Hills Like White Elephants can represent conflicts in our own lives and the sometimes unsettling solutions we may face. 

The choice of words used throughout the short story play a huge role in how the image of the story is portrayed. From the very beginning we don’t know exactly the status of their relationship. The conflicts between their gender roles is very evident throughout the whole story. The first and most noticeable conflict between them is the unsaid operation that the man is pushing for the women to get. The man keeps repeating that “it’s really an awful simple operation, Jig. It’s not really an operation at all (Hemingway 528). The timid and soft spoken women seems to be too afraid to speak what she really wants to the man. She ignores most of his remarks and at one point tells him to stop talking.  The dialogue between the couple continues as he keeps mentioning how simple the operation is and how it will all be okay after. The unknown operation they are speaking of is possibly and abortion. However, it is never clearly stated between the two but can definitely be inferred. 

Respect within their relationship is another clear conflict within this story. We don’t know the status of the couple’s relationships but we can tell that they don’t seem very comfortable with each other. Their conversations consist of talking about beer and the operation. The choice of words shows that they don’t feel comfortable with each other to talk about anything else, or don’t have anything else to talk about. I would assume they haven’t been together very long, if at all. One evident reoccurring conversation is her phrase “the mountains look like white elephants”. His first response indicates that he was listening to what she said. However, she repeats the same phrase two more times and each time his response gets less until he just ignores her. I think this is symbolizing how much he actually cares about her and her thoughts. Even when she tells him to “please please please please please please please please stop talking” he doesn’t even have the respect for her to drop the conversation and care about her feelings. 

Hills Like White Elephants is a prime example of the issue of genders roles back in that time period. The man is described as an American man, the women with him isn’t even given an identity. The title women had were based on their husband or the man they were with. Hemingway says “The American man and the girl with him” showing she isn’t even worth a description (Hemingway 527). The American man calls the girl “Jig” we don’t know if this is her name or a nickname all we know is that the name she is given is strictly given by the man. Throughout the whole story the man speaks for the women as to what drink she wants or about the train. He clearly doesn’t even give her the time to acknowledge something she continuously repeats. Another play on words is the description of the weather and backdrop and how it changes throughout the story. It starts off as a long white valley with no shade and no trees at a train station in the sun. As the story goes on far away clouds begin to roll in. I think this shows how at the beginning of their talk it was sunny and no confrontational, however, as they begin to talk their conversation gets more heated and just like the weather it gets cloudy and confusing. Hemingway does a very good job of using word choice and symbolism to help the reader catch hints without him stating his facts straight forward. 

Hemingway does another play on words using metaphors to indirectly express how the man and woman feel. On page 528 Jig says, “Everything taste like licorice. Especially all the things you’ve waited so long for, like absinthe.” I think Hemingway says this to show that the girl is hinting that everything ends in disappointment. Obviously not everything taste like licorice but the fact that there’s no excitement and that no matter what you taste it’ll lead to disappointment. A second play of words is the use of “white elephants”. White elephants can represent something that has great value but is not wanted by anyone. In this story the white elephants is the unwanted baby. The women repeatedly brings up the white elephants because of how insecure and unsure she is about the abortion. However, once the white elephant is gotten rid of, the relationship between the couple is over.

Hemingway uses description words and repetitive conversations to portray the conflicts of gender roles and underlying relationship issues between this couple. The lack of straight forward information helps the reader really engage into what he is saying to create your own image of what the story means to you. 
