Blog #1 Connor McInnis

"Hills Like White Elephants" is a story within a story, after skimming over it the reader will understand the events of the story, but will not obtain it's true meaning. Like myself I did not get what the story truly meant after reading it once, but when it came to finally understanding the metaphors Hemingway used, the story became much clearer, which made it very interesting. The underlying meaning to Hemingway's "Hills Like White Elephants"is that its about a couple who are on vacation in Spain, and are sitting at a train station discussing how the woman is pregnant with the man's baby, but the man wants the woman to get an abortion. This was made clear when the "White Elephants" which are considered rare gifts, but are also considered burdens, meant a newborn baby in the metaphor of "White Elephants" As the story progresses the man keeps persisting that the woman goes through with the "operation" which is the abortion. But since he is a man, he doesn't understand where the woman is coming from when it comes to the abortion, when the woman refers to "absinthe" which is a type of alcohol that can make people hallucinate, as which the man is doing when he thinks getting an abortion is no big deal. All along as they discuss this matter a train is coming. This train symbolizes the baby, in that its a one way thing and it'll be there soon. When the train is only 5 minutes from arriving the man picks up the woman's "two heavy bags" which could symbolize the baby and brings them over to the far side of the station. He then returns to the woman and asks," Do you feel better?" And she replies, "I feel fine." The story ends with the reader on a limb, not knowing if the woman went through with the abortion. But I believe she did when the man brought her bags over to the other end of the station. Or in other words took care of the baby and helped the woman to get the abortion, and now everything is fine with her and their relationship.