In Hemingway’s short story, “Hills Like White Elephants,” reader discover a

female character, Jig, who came to a point of her life, when she has to make a choice, a

difficult choice, which will affect her life from now on. Hemingway's “Hills Like White

Elephants” explores the ability of people to talk their way back to health and happiness,

once they reach certain points in their life and in their relationships. Down one path is

the abortion her partner wants her to have; the other road leads toward motherhood, but

also to the loss of her lover, the American. The choices Jig is facing are in the scenery

around her. Hemingway uses the setting of the train station, the valley landscape, and the

hills to show the consequences of the decision Jig is forced to make.

The story is set in a train station in the Ebro valley in Spain. The train station

setting is significant because it gives the reader an idea where the relationship between

Jig and the American is at this point. The train station is a place of transition. Jig and the

American are also at a crossroads. Just as they are sitting at a station between two sets of

barren railway station and the fertile mountain area shows a growing gap in what once

is the bamboo bead curtain on the bar doorway. Critic Kenneth G. Johnston believes that

Weeks, Jr., Lewis E. “Hemingway Hills: Symbolism in ‘Hills Like White

have the future she desires. We all come to a point in life when we are forced to deal with

shows the deterioration of the bond between Jig and American (Maynard 274). Each side

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