Hills Like White Elephants

            Analysis of "Hills Like White Elephants" by Ernest Hemingway.
             In Hemingway's short story, "Hills Like White Elephants," reader discover a.
             female character, Jig, who came to a point of her life, when she has to make a choice, a.
             difficult choice, which will affect her life from now on. Hemingway's "Hills Like White.
             Elephants" explores the ability of people to talk their way back to health and happiness,.
             once they reach certain points in their life and in their relationships. Down one path is.
             the abortion her partner wants her to have; the other road leads toward motherhood, but.
             also to the loss of her lover, the American. The choices Jig is facing are in the scenery.
             around her. Hemingway uses the setting of the train station, the valley landscape, and the.
             hills to show the consequences of the decision Jig is forced to make. .
             The story is set in a train station in the Ebro valley in Spain. The train station.
             setting is significant because it gives the reader an idea where the relationship between.
             Jig and the American is at this point. The train station is a place of transition. Jig and the.
             American are also at a crossroads. Just as they are sitting at a station between two sets of.
             tracks heading in opposite directions, their relationship could also go in two opposing.
             directions. One way is toward Madrid, toward the abortion. This is the path the man.
             would like to take. The other direction is Jig's choice. She wants to have the child and.
             have a family. They are sitting outside a bar in a shadow of the building. The shadow .
             gives the reader a sense of darker things to come. Another noteworthy piece of the setting .
             Yeremuk 2.
             is the bamboo bead curtain on the bar doorway. Critic Kenneth G. Johnston believes that .
             these bamboo beads are suggestive of a rosary. When Jig "put her hand out and took hold .
             of two strings of beads" (Hemingway 24), she is clinging to her faith and morals for .
             strength. Maybe Jig realizes that she is going against her beliefs and living a sinful life .