Hemingway short story, “Hills Like White Elephants” is a dialog between a fiancé and a fiancée while waiting for a train in a Spanish rail station. In the story, the man is only described as an American man. The surroundings of the rail station are hills. The woman refers to these hills as white elephants. Although not exactly specified the type of operation being referred to, the American man wants the woman to have an operation. The woman is ready to have the operation done on her, as long the man will be happy with it. Equally, the operation is intended to bring joy to their life. From a careful analysis, the operation being referred to here is abortion. The phrase white elephant is perhaps used to refer to the unborn baby who by virtue of being born will be a burden. The conversation between the couple ends with the arrival of the train (Hemingway, 2014).

The American

All through the story, the American acts as per Hemingway’s inflexible origination of manliness. Hemingway depicts the American as a tough’s man—learned, common, and dependably in control of himself and the current circumstance. Notwithstanding when vexed or confounded, he keeps up his cool and fakes aloofness, for example, when he tells the young lady he couldn’t care less whether she has the operation. He at first dodges talk of their issues, however when forced, he handles them head on by misrepresenting the operation and tirelessly pushing her to have it. Thinking of himself to be the more sensible of the two, he disparages the young woman and neglects to give the sensitivity and comprehension she needs amid the emergency. Uncompromising, he appears to distinguish more with alternate travelers holding up sensibly at the station than with his own better half toward the end of the story, which proposes that the two will go their different ways.

The Girl

Contrasted with the American, Hemingway’s excessively manly character, the young woman is less confident and influential. All through the story, the young woman seems vulnerable, confounded, and uncertain. She alters her opinion about the appeal of the encompassing slopes, for instance; cases to magnanimously watch over the American, and appears to be questionable about whether she needs to have the operation. Truth be told, the young lady can’t even request beverages from the barkeep all alone without needing to depend on the man’s capacity to communicate in Spanish. Incidentally, the young lady appears to comprehend that her association with the American has viably finished, notwithstanding her claimed yearning to make him cheerful. She realizes that regardless of the possibility that she has the operation, their relationship won’t come back to how it used to be. From multiple points of view, the young lady’s acknowledgment of this gives her control over the American, who never truly comprehends why they still can’t have “the entire world” like they once did.