In reading Karen Horney's "The Distrust between the Sexes" and Ernest Hemingway's "Hills Like White Elephants", it is apparent that Horney's piece sheds light on Hemingway's piece. Horney describes why men and women act the way they do in love relationships, in regards to distrust. This helps to better understand what is happening between Jig and The American in Hemingway's "Hills Like White Elephants".
In the beginning of "Hills Like White Elephants" Jig and The American are discussing the option of aborting their unborn child; however, neither Jig or The American are willing to be direct about the topic. The closest either of them came to being direct is when The American tells Jig "It's really an awfully simple operation, Jig. It's not really an operation at all" (Hemingway 2). The American also says " I know you wouldn't mind it, Jig. It's really not anything. It's just to let the air in" (Hemingway 2). In "The Distrust between the Sexes" Horney explains the reason for indirectness between partners. Horney says, that like children, "they find it hard to express their desires directly, and where they do, they are not taken seriously" (362). People in general are afraid to give of themselves, whether it is physical, emotional, or verbal. Horney describes it this way, "The fear of love will always be mixed with the fear of what we might do to the other person, or what the other person might do to us" (363).
Throughout "Hills Like White Elephants" Jig displays a fear of losing The American. She repetitively questions him about his intensions after the operation, if she chooses to go through with it. Jig asks, "Then what will we do afterwards . . . And you think then we"ll be all right and be happy And if I do it you"ll be happy and things will be like they were and you"ll love me" (Hemingway 2 &3)? Horney would say Jig is acting this way because an .
