"Hills like White Elephants," do I baby or not?

     In simple terms I feel that “Hills like White Elephants” by Ernest Hemingway is about an unstable love affair between the woman protagonist and the young man in the story. The “American” man does not seem to want the relationship to develop into something longer than a passionate romance. A more developed relationship at the time would traditionally result in marriage and a family. When I was younger I never thought there’d be a day that I’m just a little bit older, or at least old enough where he decision to have a family becomes an issue of time. When you’re 18, it’s hard to imagine that time will start to run out.  I’m excited to be in a place in my life where I’m embarking on that journey and as a happy man. But many of my years were spent in an unbalanced place, especially when I first read this story as an 18 year old(I loved Hemingway since reading the Nick Adams stories.). Conversely, the strategic badgering of the girl to complete an abortion as a result of their love affair is difficult to read, but only because my sympathies have shifted as my very few but essential years have passed. (I’m still very young and maturing by all accounts—35). 

I feel the imagery of the “White Elephants” is significant. There are different definitions these days of “White Elephant gifts.” I first heard the term at a Christmas dinner party where blind gifts are exchanged off a table, among friends, as you count down numbers chosen from a bowl. In this case I believe it refers to a gift that, though expensive and fanciful, is too expensive for the receiver to maintain. That seems to echo the implied viewpoint of the young man, who doesn’t seem to be looking toward the child with any though of joy—bu instead a burden to carry. The short, terse nature of the prose and the fact that most of the story is in dialogue makes it feel like you are in the tent, quietly observing an intimate, heartbreaking moment, probably a defining one for both these characters. Each character seems relatable and human. Hopefully we’ve all embarked on journeys and had that uncomfortable, sticky experience of walking down a path that ends in bramble and doesn’t come to a clean resolution. It’s a part of being human. The drama and universally of the story is increased by its subject matter—the literal creation of life. Another human baby that will grow up to take similar camping trips, and have differing concurrent desires to the other humans with whom they interact. It’s especially poignant in asking the question, should I bring a baby into this world?