Hemingway's short story "Hills like White Elephants- shows communication problems in one couple's relationship caused by unexpected pregnancy. In order for a relationship between a man and a woman to exist and grow, both people should be mature and honest with each other. The story covers one episode in the lives of two main characters, but it shows that the relationship between them is not particularly deep or meaningful. The hills referred to in the title can be seen in the distance, and resemble the swell of a womb, and white elephants, representing an idiom of something useless and unwanted, which in this case is the fetus growing inside the girl. The plight is further complicated by the inability to convey their different opinions to each other.
Rather to admit the fact that he doesn't want the responsibility of a baby, Jig's lover tries to flatter her by saying, "I don't want anybody but you-. He tries to make the girl think that his decision is correct, simple and the best way out. He chooses his words very carefully, when trying to convince the girl that an abortion is an easy surgery. He tells her it's "really an awful simple operation . . . not really an operation at all." He tells her she "wouldn't mind it it's the best thing to do" and "it's perfectly simple" and she doesn't "have to be afraid-. Each time he tells the girl he wants what she wants, he cares more about what he wants. "You've got to realize that I don't want you to do it if you don't want to. I'm perfectly willing to go through with it if it means anything to you-. He feels the additional responsibility would limit his opportunities and thus his freedom. When the girl says, "It's ours," referring to everything the world has to offer, the man replies "No, it isn't. And once they take it away, you can never get it back". He is telling her that once they take it' "their freedom "away they will not be able to reclaim it.
