Spain while a man and woman wait for a train. The story is set up as a dialogue between the two, in which the man is trying to convince the woman to do something she is hesitant in doing. Throughout the story, Hemingway uses metaphors to express the characters' opinions and feelings. "Hills Like White Elephants" displays the differences in the way a man and a woman view pregnancy and abortion.

The woman looks at pregnancy as a beautiful aspect of life. In the story the woman's pregnancy is implied through their conversation. She refers to the near by hills as elephants, "They look like white elephants" (170). She is comparing the hills to her own situation-- pregnancy. "They're lovely hills. They really don't look like white elephants. I just meant the coloring of their skin through the trees" (171). Just as the hills have their distinct beauty to her, she views pregnancy in the same fashion making the reference to the hills having skin-an enlarged mound forming off of what was once flat. The man views pregnancy as the opposite. When the girl is talking about the white elephants and agrees that the man has never seen one, his response is,

Abortion and pregnancy are two issues that people view differently, and the main characters in "Hills Like White Elephants" are examples of this. The woman sees pregnancy as a beautiful fact of life and a wonderful experience. She feels that losing that experience would take away from her freedom. The man, on the other hand, looks at pregnancy as an inconvenience that happens, and getting an abortion is an easy way to overcome the inconvenience and continue on with life without complications.

At the end of the story, the main points are reinforced. The man returns from taking the bags to the tracks and asks if the woman is ok. Her reply is, "I feel fine. There is nothing wrong with me. I feel fine" (173). Here she reiterates that she sees the pregnancy as an experience that is not necessarily bad (as the gentleman is implying). The man, on the other hand, feels nothing has been accomplished. He picked up the two heavy bags and carried them around the station to the other tracks. He looked up the tracks but could not see the train. Coming back, he walked through the barroom, where people waiting for the train were drinking. He drank an Anis at the bar and looked at the people. They were all waiting reasonably for the train. He went back through the bead curtain. She was sitting there and smiled at him. 'Do you feel better?' (173) This is a major metaphor in the story explaining the man's situation at the end. He took t

Some common words found in the essay are:
White Elephants, It's It's, Ernest Hemingway, white elephants, Hills White, hills white elephants, hills white, pregnancy beautiful, looks pregnancy, 171 woman, throughout story, woman implies, views pregnancy, feel fine, woman feels,
Approximate Word count = 963
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)