By looking at diction, metaphor, and imagery in Ernest Hemingway’s “Hills Like White Elephants” we are able to gather that both the girl and the American man have two very different ideas of what they should be doing with their expected child. The man is clearly the dominant figure while the woman has very little power over what happens to her child or her body.  At the end of the story, his decision is ultimately the only thing that matters. The story was written in 1927 and mirrors many other instances back then and some still today, in which the male is the dominant figure in the relationship. He possesses the power over both the woman and her choices. Abortion is still a highly talked about and controversial topic in our contemporary society. There is still debate over whether or not a woman has the right to choose, and even with that whether or not the woman’s right to choose truly ends up being her right. This is a seemingly timeless argument. While women have taken countless strides from when this story was written to today there are still many more barriers to break.  Hemmingway’s short story sheds an important light on the negative effects living in a patriarchal society can have on a woman and her body as well as her well-being, many which are still prevalent today.

Hemmingway chose very particular words to convey to his readers the large difference in power between the two characters, the girl and the American man. First, he chooses to say the American man. America is and was at the time an incredibly powerful nation. This is representative of the man in their relationship. He is powerful and dominant and in the case of whether or not the woman has an abortion at the end of the day is his decision. In contrast, throughout the story Hemmingway consistently refers to the woman as the girl. As we know, in our culture and most others, power comes with age. When we are younger boys or girls we have to answer to the older men and women around them. Hemmingway makes a point even to call another minor character in the story “the woman” but never the protagonist who is always referred to as the girl. This paints the character in a youthful and naïve way, letting us know that her opinion is rather insignificant. 

Secondly, Hemmingway’s word choice in the way which the girl talks to the American man is significant. She says, “fine” repeatedly as well as “can we maybe stop talking” (Hemmingway 4), and “I don’t care about me”(Hemmingway 3). These are all emotionless and bland statements. The choice to use the word fine lets us know that she is not in any way happy, but she feels to inferior to vocalize these feelings to the man. Additionally, rather than telling the man to stop talking harshly, she says, “can we maybe stop talking” (Hemmingway 4). The choice of the word maybe shows that her statement is a request rather than a demand. She is not forcing him stop or showing her anger in anyway, but instead politely asking the man to stop speaking. Lastly, choosing to say that she doesn’t care about herself shows that she puts the man’s requests before her own. The woman is seemingly neutral throughout the entire story, however, there are small instances thrown in throughout the text where it is clear that she does deeply care about keeping the child. A perfect example for this is the metaphor of white elephants. 

The repeated reference to white elephants is a metaphor for the baby. We know this for two main reasons. First, the color white is symbolic of innocence and purity, both characteristics a baby possesses. Secondly, we know this because it is similar to the expression “the elephant in the room”. The baby is the elephant in the room. At no point in the entire story does Hemmingway use the words abortion or baby. It is left for the audience to infer. However, it is made clear that the baby is in fact the elephant in the room. Both the man and the woman dance around the subject. This is because abortion and babies out of wedlock were a very sensitive subject back then, and often times are still today. The woman feels inferior to the man and therefore will not be the first to explicitly say the words baby or abortion. The man knows it is a topic which is never spoken about especially in public and he too decides to refrain from ever mentioning these words. 

Lastly, the imagery of the setting plays a large role in showing us where the couple is and where they each would like to be. Hemmingway writes, “The girl was looking off at the line of hills. They were white in the sun and the country was brown and dry”(Hemmingway 1). Here is another instance where the color white comes into play. The girl and the man are in the country together right now where he wants her to be having an abortion that he wants her to have. While they are sitting at the bar the girl cannot help but to gaze into the distance at the mountains which are described so beautifully. We know that this is a place that she would much rather be than in the country which is described as brown and dry, leaving us with a less than desired picture of where they are. This serves as symbolic too. The baby and the mountains off in the distance are both white. They are both what the girl wants and the man and the gross dark sad county are what the woman has. This contrast shows us how far the woman is from where she wants to be. The idea of a great distance from where a woman is and where she wants to be can be connected to women’s rights back then, and I would argue it can still hold true in many cases today. There is a large gap in equality between women and men in terms of opportunities, pay, and basic respect. There is a great contrast between where we are and where many people would like to be. 

As Margaret Sanger a woman’s rights and birth control activist once said, “No woman can call herself free who does not own and control her body. No woman can call herself free until she can choose consciously whether she will or will not be a mother”. We can be certain that this is true for the protagonist in “Hills Like White Elephants” as a result of Hemmingway’s intentional use of diction, metaphor and imagery. With the upcoming presidential election and all of the issues which have been going on surrounding abortion and institutions such as Planned Parenthood this 1927 the underlying message of this short story can still be applied and learned from in our modern world. 
