Hills Like White Elephants
Hills Like White Elephants is a short story by Ernest Hemingway.
Spoiler warning: Plot or ending details follow.
The story takes place in the Ebro river valley in Spain. A man and a woman make casual conversation while waiting in a small train station for their train to arrive. The women's name is Jig but the man's name is never mentioned, we only know that he is an American. The two are apparently a couple. The two drink beer and another drink called Anis del Toro till their train comes, and the story is over.
At first glance the story is anticlimactic and not particularly intresting. However, if and when the reader discovers that the topic that is being discussed by the two is actually an abortion, the story begins to make more sense. Hemingway uses the plain language to disguise the topic but also to show the characters inabillity to cope with the issue.
The name of the story comes from a comment made by the women about the hills she sees looking like white elephants. The white elephant is also possibley a metaphor in the story for her unborn child.
