"Hills like White Elephants" by Ernest Hemingway is a conversation set between a couple, an older experienced man referred to as "The American" and a girl who is referred to as "Jig". The setting of the story takes place in the mid 1920's in a train station bar in Spain. While waiting for the next train to Barcelona, the two have an awkward discussion over the girl's pregnancy. This concept is the conflict in the story by Hemingway. The couples try different alcoholic beverages and discuss about an abortion.
             Although the word "abortion" is not mentioned by Hemingway, there are many clues and hints to understand what issue the story tackles. The story contains much sarcasm by the female character "jig" which portrays and helps support the differences of opinions between the two characters. The girl wants to keep the baby and the guy does not. Even though the girl never states it clearly in the story, it is obvious that she has a different opinion over "The American". The reason she does not clearly state what she wants is maybe she is afraid of losing "The American" or she might get him upset or hurt him by completely denying his wants. Basically she cares about him. On the other hand the guy pushes through out the story to proceed with the abortion.
             He does this in a complete innocent, calm, caring, yet fraudulent way. At first he explains the operation process to the girl as if it was an unpainful "simple" procedure. "It's really an awfully simple operation, Jig...It's not really an operation at all". No matter what kind of operation it is, an operation is always physically and mentally challenging but in this case "The American" makes it seem like its nothing. He is trying to convince the girl and himself that the procedure was the right thing to do.
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