Since Hemingway spent long years of his life in Spain he shows a preference for Spanish scenes. This can be observed in his short story entitled Hills Like White Elephants.

The story starts with a description of the landscape, which is rather depressing, as we have a railway station in the middle of the desert with no shade. Starting reading, one cannot understand the author's aim of choosing this very place. Later on - especially when you have finished the story - it turns out. Even the scene suggests the reader to think about infertility and emptiness of the couple's future.

After the introduction the whole story is a long continuous dialogue, which is rarely interrupted. The dialogues are made up of short sentences, which say nothing. We cannot find out facts, we are left alone with our feelings, which are made by the characters' ambiguous sentences.

After reading the story the reader's almost feel like being pressured to go through the whole once more. It is not because you cannot understand its meaning for the first read, but because we do not believe our eyes. Although we do not know the proper time of the story takes place either, we know it can be around the 30s, when having an abortion was a taboo and a very restricted, illegal action. Being a woman, this is the point when I started to feel sorry for the "girl". Without wanting to have emotions or make judgements, a female reader feels sympathy for the girl and finds the man disgusting. This emotional flow flooded me although I do not know anything about the characters' previous lives, the row of happenings that threw them into this sad situation.

Human relationships are very important in our lives, all of us need a mate in whom we can trust, on whom we can count, in every kind of situation. We need someone with whom we can share our thoughts, happiness, sadness, dreams and of course our whole life. These are the base of relationships. I did not find all this in this short story. Their dialogues did not show any harmony, but the pure subordination of the girl who does what the man tells her to do. The way the "American" tried to convince the girl about the insignificance of the abortion is really made me mad. "It's really not anything. It's just to lead the air in... They just let the air in and then it's all perfectly natural... That is the only thing that bothers us. It's the only thing that's made us unhappy... If you don't want to, you don't have to. I wouldn't have you do it, if you didn't want to. But I know it's perfectly simple." We can observe that the man wraps his recommends into the gown of free choice. But the answer is already in his words. Not only the man's but also the girl's behaviour made me furious. Being a young independent female in the year 2000, I couldn't understand her point of subordinating herself completely to the man's will without a word. In her place, I would have told my opinion into my boyfriend’s face and would not have acted the way he wanted me to. I do not know why she acts this way but it can have several reasons. Maybe she is too young, maybe she is subordinated because of her social background -we do not know anything about her- and we are around the 1930’s,when the position of women was quite different… Maybe she is too in love with the man and that is makes her blind and subordinated to the man's will. She may not want to lose his love. She wants to believe in his words, she wants to believe that everything will be all right.. The main reason of her avoiding to talk about her pregnancy is that she feels very bad. I think she does not want to hurt herself with talking about the baby. If she does not speak about the "thing" it will not exist. She also realizes that there is no point in their talking about the baby, because the man is unable to understand her feelings, so she gives it up. But her feelings remain unspoken. Her unspoken words tell us everything about their relationship. Unspoken words are "more talkative" in this case. Their relationship is as empty as the landscape where their dialogue takes place.

The landscape itself is a metaphor. The railway station with the two lines of rails in the middle of nowhere. The "American" and the "girl" are just like two lines, they run together but are separated. We do not know they will continue their relationship paralelly or go to the opposite direction. The only thing that is sure is that at the very moment they are together.

The girl has the choice to direct and change her whole future life. The question is whether the girl or the man or either of them realize that this time it could be the girl who dictates. She has got the choice to choose, but she is too weak and coward to do it. She totally subordinates herself and it will surely and totally change her and their further relationship as well, she wants to remain the same - the girl she was before - but she will never be the same again.

It is like a frame around the story as we did not know the beginning, we do not know the very end of the short story either. It is left to the reader's fantasy. Unfortunately we all can be sure what her choice will be, either guided by her love for the man or by the fear of being left alone. She will have the abortion done.

The reason why I really enjoyed this story was that Hemingway let the readers to think over the story, he let them to have their own interpretation. Under the surface it is made every reader think differently. The gender of the reader determines what he/she feels about it and it is very interesting. Most of the men will never be able to understand how this situation would change a couple’s life. Motherhood for a woman begins with the conception, fatherhood for most man begins with the childbirth. I think, abortion and pregnancy are two of the most serious questions in women’s life and only women can feel how significant they are.