"Hills Like White Elephants"

"I'm perfectly willing to go through with it if it means anything to you" (555).

By this point he should know it means something to her. And it is fairly safe to say that he does know this. Does he only tell her this to make himself look better? The whole goal of his conversation with her seems to be to get her to have the abortion. I think the girl thinks that he is not interested in having kids with her, but merely continuing the fling they are having. Yet, in the end it seems that he changes his mind because the girl ends up smiling, seemingly happy.

This is a classic Hemingway story because of the minimalist style of writing and fast paced dialogue where the speaker can be confused. Hemingway does a great job of mixing up the dialogue and creating a sense of ambiguity in the reader, which forces him or her to go back and check more closely the details of the story. Focused in on the story, the reader can find many hidden meanings. One of my favorites was the idea that the different sides of the railroad station represent different endings for this couple. Do they have the kid or do they go through with the "operation?" If the side they're originally on represents having the abortion, because it is barren, devoid of trees, hot, etc. then in the end, when the man says, "I'd better take the bags over to the other side of the station," this must mean he is going to have the kid because they are going to the more fertile side, and after he says this the girl smiles at him. This was my interpretation of the story.