VCCS Litonline
by Rebecca Search
I have chosen to compare and contrast the way the elements of nature reflect the conflicts of the characters, who observe or experience these elements. To do so, I have selected to critique how the elements of nature in "Hills Like White Elephants" reflect conflict between its characters. In this short story by Ernest Hemingway, there are two main characters, a girl named Jig and an older American man. The opening of the story finds the two people sitting at a table in the shade alongside a train station. While waiting for their train, they drink beer and discuss an impending abortion. Their “bags against the wall of the station” bear “labels on them from all the hotels where they had spent nights.” Now they faced the dilemma of what to do about the consequence of that time together – a pregnancy.
The American doesn’t “want anyone else,” not even a child, to disrupt their duo. As a result he advocates an abortion – “it's perfectly simple.” Jig’s response is, “Doesn’t it (the baby) mean anything to you? We could get along.” Obviously she would prefer to not have the abortion. Thus, the conflict in “Hills” presents itself – should the pregnancy be terminated by an abortion. As the two sit at the table, the American states, “It’s pretty hot.” The train station sits “between two lines of rails in the sun.” Yet it is only the man who comments on the heat of the day. This is contrasted to the girl, who makes no mention about the heat. What does this reflect about the man? May it be because he “feels the heat” of the situation? He says, “I just can’t think about it. You know how I get when I worry.” Does he worry about the added responsibility of having a child or is it selfishness: “We can have everything. We can have the whole world. We can go everywhere. It’s ours.”
The American has been free in the past. Economically free to have whatever he wants, free of responsibility to go wherever he wants (he’s an American in Spain), and free to have whomever he wants (he’s picked up a girl along the way). This is contrasted to the girl’s thinking. While the American states that he can have and do everything, Jig responds by saying, “No, we can’t. No, we can’t. It isn’t ours any more. No, it isn’t.” While the man’s mind is on things and places, the girl’s is on the child she carries. During their conversation, each is speaking about something different. When the man realizes this (that Jig is referring to the child), he tells her to “come on back in the shade.” “You mustn’t feel that way.” Jig had “stood up and walked to the end of the station.” Even though she was now out of the protective shadow of the station, she does not refer to the heat of the sun. But the man does by calling her back into the shade. The heat reflects his worrisome attitude. Hemingway set the station “in the sun.” Light reveals the presence of objects. These same objects can be unseen in the absence of light. Not only does the sun give heat to the day, but also revelation of things. In the story, the glaring sun serves as a revealer – revealing the situation of the pregnancy and the conflict it presents to the man and girl. Even though they sit “at a table in the shade, outside the building;” it is a “warm shadow.” Even the cool of the shade cannot “cool” the heat of their opposition. Their conflict is intense, breaking out in argument at times: “Oh, cut it out.” “You started it." The intensity of their conflicting sides is reflected by the intensity of the sun – “it was very hot.”
Just as the heat of the day reflects the conflict between the man and
the girl, so does the location of the train station. The station is located “between two lines of rails.” At this location
in Zaragosa, Spain, the north-south railway track and the east-west track form a major crossroads (Background). The major railway crossroads that Hemingway has used as a setting reflects the major “crossroad” where the American and Jig find themselves. They are at a major crossroad of decision making, as to whether to abort the baby that has resulted from their carefree lifestyle. The extreme perpendicular juxtaposition of the north-south/east-west rail lines reflects the dipolar opposition of the two peoples' stand on the issue. The American advocates the abortion, “It’s really an awfully simple operation, Jig,” “I know you wouldn’t mind it.” At the same time Jig opposes the idea of losing the child, “Doesn’t it mean anything to you?” “We could have everything.”
At this junction the station is midway between Barcelona (where the couple has come from) and Madrid (where they are headed) (Background).
This location of midway between two points reveals the position of their
decision-making. They are teetering at the point of being able to decide
either way about having the abortion. Jig comments that, “I don’t care
about me,” and the American states, “I don’t want you to do it if you don’t
want to.”
The contrast of the two characters' conflicting viewpoints of the abortion issue is also illustrated by the station being between two sides of the valley. At the beginning of the story, the man and girl find themselves sitting at a table “outside the building.” “On this side (of the station) there was no shade and no trees.” “The country was brown and dry.” These elements of nature denote death and barrenness. The sterile emptiness is synonymous with the abortion promoted by the American man to terminate the pregnancy. “I know you won’t mind it, Jig. It’s just to let the air in.” At the same time the conflict of views on the abortion issue is contrasted by Jig’s response. She is looking “through the trees” at the “lovely hills” that look “like white elephants.” How totally different from the American! Jig is looking beyond the present circumstance and sees the good – life in the womb. This response is reflected by the natural elements in Jig’s looking beyond the dry barren surrounding environment beyond to the “lovely” hills. The fact that they look like “white elephants” to Jig reflects her vision of a full-term pregnancy. At that point, she too would be well rounded as the hills are. A change in the natural elements reflects the change in the couple’s perspective on the abortion. After a while Jig “stood up and walked to the end of the station. Across on the other side, were fields of grain and trees along the banks of the Ebro.” This shows Jig crossing to the “other side” of the issue, away from her earlier submission to the man. Here she finds life – “fields of grain.” Also, a river with life-giving water to cause trees to thrive reflects the life she has within her. “And we could have all this, …we could have everything,” she says. The American replies, “I don’t want you to do it if you don’t want to. I’m perfectly willing to go through with it if it means anything to you.” He is willing to by-pass the abortion--not because he wants to, but if that is what Jig wants. At least he is willing to consider the option of keeping life. This “other side” of the valley reflects the man’s new way of thinking also.
Now the American picks up the two bags and carries them “around the station to the other tracks.” The conflict is resolved. They’ve chosen another “track” in life. They’ve decided to see through the pregnancy and keep life – the child. Now there is harmony between the two characters. “’Do you feel better?’ he asked. ‘I feel fine,’ she said. ‘There’s nothing wrong with me I feel fine.’” All is settled between the two characters as the hills across the valley of the Ebro were “long and white” with life and purity.
"Background on the Setting: Zaragosa, Spain." Eric Hibbison. VCCS Litonline Introduction to Literature. 2002. 23 Oct. 2003 <http://vccslitonline.cc.va.us/ Copy_of_hills/Zaragosa.htm>
posted by permission of the author in Fall, 2003
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