Hills like Elephants by Ernest Hemingway

Gangadaye Seema Ragbir

Professor Racquel Corona

English 102    

4 September 2014

Hills Like Elephants by Ernest Hemingway

 Question 2: Research the phrase “white elephant.” What is the significance of this phrase in the story’s title?

The phrase “white elephant” according to Wikipedia means a possession which its owner cannot dispose of and whose cost, particularly that of maintenance, is out of proportion to its usefulness. In the story “Hills like White Elephants” written by Ernest Hemingway, he uses this phase many times. The phrases’ significance in this story title is referring to a baby.

The man and the girl who are a couple are traveling from Barcelona to Madrid to have an abortion. The man seem to have his mind made up about having this procedure done, whereas the girl does not know exactly what she is feeling. She looks around and tries to have a conversation about the situation at an outdoor train station bar. She said to the man about the country’s scenery “they look like white elephants.” She was talking about the baby. The man however, did not quite get what she was saying at first but when he realized what she meant, he changed his answer to seem more literal. He said he never saw a white elephant, but then stated after, that maybe he might have seen one. The girl persists on talking about this abortion but the man is freezes out her emotions. The conversation between the man and the girl becomes more serious. The girl is questioning herself. She is worried that if she does the procedure, would she be happy with the man. She’s worried if their love would be like it was before they got pregnant.   She is not comfortable with doing this procedure. She’s questioning the man if they will be happy like they were before. She also questions his love to her. After being reassured of the man’s love, she asked him if she could say things like white elephants without him being worried.  The man said yes she could say thing like that to him just not then or he would get worried. After a more serious conversation between the man and the girl, they came to the conclusion that everything will be fine. The girl said “I feel fine, nothing is wrong with me. I feel fine.”

In conclusion the phrase “white elephant” throughout the story represented a baby. The baby was the unwanted possession in the story. It was the topic of conversation that the man did not want to discuss with the girl in too much detail. The man clearly did not want to have this baby and was trying to persuade the girl in seeing how simple the procedure was going to be. However the girl wanted to explore what was going on the man’s head and maybe see if she could try to convey him from not having the abortion.