The stark, arid landscape of the Ebro valley in Spain, punctuated by the distant, tantalizing hills, serves as more than just a backdrop in Ernest Hemingway's short story, "Hills Like White Elephants." It becomes a powerful visual metaphor for the internal and external barrenness facing the American man and the girl, Jig. Their strained conversation, conducted over lukewarm drinks at a train station bar, revolves around an unspoken procedure, a stark choice that threatens to sever their connection. The story masterfully employs setting and dialogue to illustrate the profound chasm that has opened between them, a chasm carved by fear, expectation, and the weight of an impending decision about an abortion.
The "hills like white elephants" themselves are the initial spark of symbolic tension. Jig, gazing at them, finds a fleeting beauty, comparing them to "things that didn't really exist." This comparison hints at her own internal state – a longing for something pure and perhaps unrealizable, a stark contrast to the practical, clinical reality of the procedure they are discussing. The man dismisses her observation, seeking to ground her, perhaps to distract her, in the immediate, tangible world. His insistence that the hills are "perfectly simple" and "nothing to do with the hills" reveals his desire to control the narrative, to steer Jig away from imaginative interpretations and towards his own pragmatic, albeit self-serving, viewpoint. He wants the procedure to be as simple as ordering another drink, a quick fix to a perceived problem.
The setting of the train station bar further amplifies the story's themes of transition and indecision. They are literally in a place of waiting, suspended between destinations. The two sides of the valley—one fertile and green, the other dry and barren—mirror the opposing paths they face. The fertile side represents potential life, growth, and the possibility of a shared future, while the barren side signifies the sterile outcome of the abortion, a return to their previous, unfettered existence. The man repeatedly tries to frame the abortion as a simple, temporary solution, assuring Jig that "It's really an awfully simple operation... and you won't have to do it if you don't want to." Yet, his assurances ring hollow, undercut by his underlying desperation for things to return to their "previous" state, a state that implicitly excludes a child.
Jig’s repeated refrains of "And you think then we'll be all right and be happy" reveal her desperate hope that this procedure will somehow restore their relationship to its former ease. She clings to the idea that the man’s approval and desire for her happiness are genuine, even as his words and actions betray a deep-seated selfishness. Her willingness to consider the procedure, despite her clear emotional distress, is a testament to her love for him and her fear of losing him. The "white elephants" she sees, perhaps initially a symbol of something precious and rare, become a symbol of a burden she feels compelled to shed to maintain their relationship, a relationship that is, ironically, already crumbling under the weight of unspoken resentments and incompatible desires.
The story concludes not with a resolution, but with an uneasy truce. Jig, seemingly resigned, tells the man to "Please please please please please please please stop talking." The repetition underscores her exhaustion and her final withdrawal from the debate. The man, having seemingly won the argument, carries her bags to the other side of the station, a gesture that could be interpreted as either helpful or as a symbolic act of moving her away from him, towards the barren side. The ambiguity of their future hangs heavy in the air, mirroring the unspoken truths that have fractured their connection. Hemingway leaves the reader to ponder whether their relationship can survive this moment of profound divergence, whether the barren landscape they have chosen will ultimately define them.