Hills like White Elephants

 1/11/23


This is my favorite even before reading the rest of the stories for this unit. 

Everything about this work is clever, from the title to the body. Usually, I feel that I can grasp what is going on in a book early. For this one, I didn't know until I did. All of the mentions of the operations were utterly ambiguous until Hemingway mentioned the "hold of two of the strings of beads." Suddenly it clicked. An American man was traveling through Europe, met a girl, got her pregnant, and was now pressuring her to get an abortion. And the girl was trying to make her decision while fingering what was most likely her rosary. Which culturally, makes sense, as a large portion of Madrid is Catholic. 

I do wonder, rereading the story a couple times, if the girl had made her decision before they caught the train. Firstly, I think the author made no mistake in referring to the protagonist as a girl, the guy as a man, and the bartender as a woman. Leading me to think that the girl is underage, and if not, most likely barely legal. She also asks a lot of questions at the bar about the drinks, as if she has little to no experience with alcohol at all. She then proceeds to drink all of them, knowing she was pregnant. The conversation, more than anything, seemed like a chance for her to pick the man's brain about what he wanted her to do. He then basically gaslights her, making her seem like she's crazy for maybe having second thoughts; and repeating how simple the procedure is. 

The white elephant metaphor is so cleverly done, in my opinion. The baby being the elephant in this story, an incredibly expensive thing that almost isn't worth the money is very socially relevant to me. I think if you changed the setting of the story, and even switched out the second language spoken, we'd find this same scenario happening in different parts of the world. Especially considering the political state of the world, people may even be having these discussions much sooner. 

This story to me is just timeless. Incredibly sad, but so realistic and relevant. 

Comments

  1. Alicia C.February 3, 2023 at 10:55 AM

    Amanda, I do agree that Hemingway very subtly broached such an intense and important topic. Today the drinking to us is seen as troublesome but for that time period they didn't really dwell too much on alcohol and pregnancy. Its only in the past few decades that people have really started to pay attention to what they do when pregnant, like smoking, drinking, and even prescription drugs. I will say though, that your notice of her ignorance when drinking is very important. The girl is so dependent upon the man, not just for translation, but for understanding of everything they are doing. She relies so heavily on him that when he tells her the abortion is no big deal she wants to believe him, even if she is internally struggling to do so.

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