Abortion In Ernest Hemingway's Hills Like White Elephants

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The young couple in Hemingway’s Hills like White Elephants has come to a bump in the road with their relationship. Their relationship seems foreign just like the new country they are traveling to. It seems to Jig that the American is no longer who she though he was. Is was apparent the relationship between the two characters was becoming more. In fact, it was stated that the only they can really do together is try different beers. To begin the conversation, they talk about beer. To avoid talking about the baby, they contemplate beers. They no longer have anything in common with each other. As they decide what to do with their child, the foreignness of their relationship is resembled in the foreign country, language, beers, their dance around …show more content…
The figure of speech “the elephant in the room” refers to the topic of conversation no one really wants to talk about but is too big to ignore and push aside. For the couple, their elephant is the baby and abortion. It is all they are thinking about but everything they never want to speak about. Another way one could interpret Jig’s comparison of the abortion to her comment “hills like white elephants” could be simply the white elephant. A white elephant is a way of saying something nobody wants. The fact that the American did not pick up on Jig and the double meaning of Jig’s comment could say that he was only half-heartedly into listening to Jig. The American is not putting the effort into the relationship. He only began to talk about the abortion once Jig had revoked her comment calling the hills white elephants and amending it to saying the hills do not look like elephants (showing her indecisiveness on the abortion). They are feeling like they barely know the other person. Jig is confused as to how the American could be alright with killing their own child. They are becoming so foreign they are unable to directly bring up the issues in their relationship to sort them