A setting is what makes most short stories come to life and in the short story, "Hills Like White Elephants," the setting is portrayed in a technique that enhances the reader's understanding of the story. Hemingway cleverly used the setting as a "cheat," informing the reader of what is actually taking place in the story. Throughout the entire writing not once will you hear the word abortion. However, the whole short story is based on a girl deciding to get an abortion. The narrator more or less used the setting to describe the conflict that was arising between the American man and the girl, named Jue. The beauty and dimness of the scenery, the train station, and the hills looking like white elephants to the girl are all major pieces of setting that represent the decision of keeping or feat rid of their child.
The narrator describes the landscape of the train station that they were waiting at with influential and descriptive words to show life and death. As Jue and the American man wait for their train to arrive they talk about the scenery in front of them. Jue sees the beautiful lit up landscape of the hills and also looks down to see the brown, burnt, and dark landscape down in the valley surrounding the train station. We can perceive that the narrator was trying to display something by going into detail about the darkness of the valley and the beauty and light up in the mountains. In comparison to their decision, the sunny hills represent life or deciding to give birth to the baby, and the murky valley signifies death or abortion of the baby. Since the narrator put so much emphasis on setting, there is a lot of symbolism just with a mountain and a valley. .
While the couple waits to move from that city of Spain, they are located at a two way train station. The train station went to Madrid, Spain but also could take you back into Spain. They were at a stopping point along their route into Spain, but also at a stopping point in their relationship.
