Hills Like White Elephants by Ernest Hemingway is about an American man and a girl, Jig, who meet at a Spanish train station waiting for a train to Madrid. They are drinking beer and conversing in a very awkward and tense way . Although they didn’t mention it, they are discussing an “operation.” This operation is most certainly an abortion. The man attempts to persuade Jig that the operation is very simple and will solve all of their problems. However, Jig appears overwhelmed by the conversation and simply wants the man to stop.

I didn’t really like the American man in this story. Throughout the conversation he states terms such as, “I don’t want you to do it if you don’t want to.” However, this man is manipulative , putting intense pressure on Jig. On the contrary , I sympathized with Jig because she appears trapped. She looks at the hills and realizes that, regardless of her decision, nothing can ever truly return to the way things were.

This story relates to instances in which people fail to address the actual issue and instead appear to say that everything is fine. In addition, this story demonstrates the failure of communication between two people who have different goals in life and are too afraid to express those goals directly.