Have you ever, in your life, had to make a difficult decision and deal with whatever consequences it brings? I am sure that everyone could answer yes to this question. If I said that you would be killing another living thing could you still relate to it? Abortion is a very difficult subject that everyone hears about, but not too many people really know what goes one inside of the one or two people's minds making the decision to have it done. Ernest Hemingway relates this to his short story, "Hills Like White Elephants." He also relates a communication problem between the two main characters, an American man and a woman, who are in a relationship and this story is told through a dialogue. It is from the dialogue that we pick up what the type of point of view that the story is told in. A theme is the central idea or though or an abstract concept made concrete through representation in person. In order to understand the theme, you must also be able to pick out other areas in the book such as point of view, structure, imagery and symbolism and setting and atmosphere. .
First we have to take a look at the setting and atmosphere. It takes place over seas in Spain at a Train station and the American man and the woman with him have heavy suitcases with labels from all the hotels from where they had spent the night during their traveling. This shows that the couple is into seeing new sights and being free to go where ever they want to go without being responsible for anything or anyone. Then you can tell their ages when they talk about the "operation" and how simple it is (Hemingway- 249). They must be in their prime ages and they go back and forth throughout the conversation arguing over whether or not to do this "operation." They are also easily amused with different drinks while they are away from their everyday lives. They love to try new things and relax with two nice cold glasses of beer or Anis del Toro.