White Elephants

8 Pages 2067 Words

Abortion has been the subject of much debate for many years, and is many times linked to the feminist movement and the liberation of women. However, in the short story “Hills like White Elephants” Ernest Hemingway uses abortion not to represent the liberation of women but their oppression by using an argument between a couple to open our eyes to the exploitation of women, within American Society. Similarly, Russell Banks uses an argument about this same issue to expose the mistreatment of Minorities within society in his short story “Black Man and White Woman in Dark Green Rowboat”. Both of these authors creatively use disagreements about abortion to reveal some saddening truths about our society.
In “Hills like White Elephants” Hemingway writes a dialogue between a man and a women who are obviously involved in a relationship that is facing some trying times. It is never made clear what the exact problem is or what the argument between the couple is about, but it can be inferred that the couple is discussing abortion and it is clear that the man, known as “the American”, is for abortion and that the woman in the story, Jig, is against it. Hemingway is talking about an issue much deeper than abortion itself he is in fact using this relationship to represent the men’s exploitation of women in American society. His point is made clear through the way he withholds extemporaneous information, his portrayal of the characters, and his use of symbols.
When reading a story it is important to decide what issues the author is discussing, in his story Hemingway makes it clear that the only issue he wants the reader to focus on is the conflict between “the American” and Jig. He prevents the reader from focusing on the actually relationship or the couples past by giving the reader very limited amounts of information about the characters and their history. By withholding information he prevents the reader from focusi...