She is pregnant, and they both know that there is a baby on the way. Drinking alcohol is the last thing that she should be doing. He has so much power over Jig, as implied by the author, that he has convinced her to wait for the train near the bar and drink with him even though it could harm the baby.
I also discovered that the "curtain made of strings of bamboo beads [that] hung across the open door into the bar" (757) is also symbolic. This piece of the setting symbolizes one's strength to believe in something and act upon it. Jig and her boyfriend were arguing about white elephants. Then, "the girl looked at the bead the curtain" (758), and she changes the subject to Anis Del Toro because she could not hold her ground in that argument. It happens again after they have had a few more drinks. She brings up the past argument about the white elephant hills; she begins to defend her point, and quickly backs down on her suggestion that the hills looked like white elephants. Again, "the warm wind blew the curtain against the table" (759). This time, he changed the subject to the abortion and she just went along with him. The American was trying to persuade her to go through with it, and she was skeptical. Then, once again, "the girl looked at the bead curtain, put her hand out and took hold of two of the strings of beads" (759). This symbolized her playing with the idea of having the surgery. Jig is considering it more seriously because instead of just looking at the beads: she now holds them in her hand. Jig then believes that if she crosses through that beaded doorway, in other words, has the abortion, that her and the American would be happy again. She then fantasizes about how content they"d be without the baby, drinks some more, and lets the American know that she doesn't care about herself and would do anything for him. Jig expresses to her love some of her imaginations about having lots of land and how happy they would be.
