“The White Elephant” is the story of a couple who are waiting for a train to Madrid and they talk about her having an abortion. The two fight over it and she believes that their lives will go back to being the same as before if she gets the abortion. The constant changing of tone by the characters, how they use mainly simple and short sentences, and the contentious nature of the twos relationship show the emotional struggles that come with pregnancy and the difficult decision of abortion.

The character’s change tones very quickly between the last few paragraphs the girl goes from saying “I love you” to “We could have all this” to asking him to stop talking. I think this represents the effect that a pregnancy can have on a person’s mind. Pregnancy is very stressful and there is no I would expect anyone to always be calm. I can’t imagine than what it would be like if I was trying to decide whether to have an abortion. I think that the girl changing attitudes very quickly represents the stress than just talking about abortion can do on a person.

I believe that short and simple sentence structure reflects the emotional stress that abortion has taken on their lives. They don’t want to talk much and are now at limited communication. This reflects on the stress and shows us just how difficult pregnancy can be when the two parties don’t agree on something. Pregnancy is a difficult time in anyone’s life.

All in all, the constant changing of tone by the characters, how they use mainly simple and short sentences, and the contentious nature of the twos relationship show the emotional struggles that come with pregnancy and the difficult decision of abortion.

