Setting the Scene for Conflict: A Structural Analysis of “Hills Like White Elephants” Ernest Hemingway’s short story, “Hills Like White Elephants,” is a short story that takes place in Spain and is centralized upon the two main characters. Hemingway is able to focus this story on the current conflict in the lives of these characters through many means. The way the dialogue is presented contributes to the setting, ultimately contributing to the conflict, which is abortion. Hemingway has structured this work in such a way that the setting presents both sides of the abortion conflict, while also enhancing the sensory environment of the story. The binary opposition Hemingway presents throughout “Hills Like White Elephants” is immediately apparent in the first paragraph of the story. The names the characters have been assigned show their inequality, seeing as they are “The American and the girl” (335). By making this distinction, Hemingway is giving the American more personality, in the sense that we know where he is from. Being an American makes him seem as if he has more power or more importance than just a simple girl. Naming the female character the girl is questionable, because after being impregnated, she is considered to be a woman. Although this is a widely accepted idea, Hemingway identifies her as the girl anyway. We learn nothing about her until later on when she is given the name Jig. However, she only gains this identity after she establishes who her character is and what she believes in. This ties into the conflict because the American is constantly trying to establish his dominance in getting the girl to change her mind and go along with the abortion. He is being the aggressive character and pushing the issue while the girl seems to play more of a passive and contemplative role. Aggression is usually not considered to be pleasant, which is suiting for the male character. Most of the time aggressors will have a darker personality and that quality ties into the idea of death. Since the girl is more passive, and passive people are seemingly not as angry or unpleasant, she is easily identifiable as more friendly and light, which relates to life. The personalities given to the characters very much ties into the story’s central idea of abortion, ultimately becoming the conflict of life and death. Hemingway not only uses the characters personalities and names to present the central conflict, but he also uses the sensory environment as a key component. The setting is compiled in such a way that each side of the train tracks has a completely different environment. One side of the train tracks is barren. It was described in the story as having “no shade and no trees” and also as being “brown and dry” (335-336). There were also hills on this side of the river. Hemingway has the characters facing this side of the tracks at the beginning of the dialogue and throughout the beginning of the abortion discussion. The relevance of the character placement is made obvious at the American starts to try and persuade the girl into getting an abortion. This side of the tracks is used to represent death, which is what the male character is pushing for when it comes to the fetus. He is against the girl birthing his child and is nonchalant yet persistent in his efforts to persuade her into an abortion. As the dialogue continues and the girl starts to share her opinion on the topic, she moves to the other side of the tracks, sparking a change of scenery. The other side of the train tracks is described as being fruitful. There “were fields of grain and trees” surrounding the riverbank on this side, and there were also mountains (337-338). The fields and the river are clearly full of life, representing the girl’s want to keep her unborn child. Hemingway has formed this contrasting environment to not only help set up the conflict, but also in the attempt to help move it along. The hills located on the dead side of the train tracks also contribute to the ongoing conflict throughout the story. The girl brings up the hills to the American before the two begin talking about the abortion. When observing the hills, the girl made the observation that they looked like “white elephants” (336). This statement takes part in introducing the conflict because of what a white elephant represents. When discussing white elephants, most people acknowledge that a white elephant is an unwanted gift. The shape of a hill on its own is much like that of a pregnant woman’s stomach. The hills are used to represent the fact that the girl is pregnant and that her pregnancy is considered unwanted. However, the next time the girl brings up the hills, it is as if she is using them to state her opinion on the pregnancy. This is because she then goes on to state that she meant the hills looked like the skin of white elephants and she thinks they are lovely. By calling the hills lovely, it is the girl’s way of saying that she does not mind being pregnant or her future child. The American even understood that the girl was saying this, because it was right after she acknowledged that the hills were lovely that he brought up the operation. These hills were introduced into the story as a way to introduce the conflict to the readers. At the end of this story, Hemingway once again draws relevance to character position. The character position at the conclusion of “Hills Like White Elephants” leads the reader to determine the conflict’s resolution. The girl is still on the fruitful side of the tracks when the American comes back from taking the bags to the other, dead side of the track. Hemingway has the American take the bags to the other side as a last reference to the American’s side of the conflict. However, the girl does not move from her position, as if she is taking a stand. When the American comes back from moving the bags, he asks the girl if she is feeling better. Her response, “I feel fine. There’s nothing wrong with me. I feel fine,” is considerably open-ended (339). However, her geographical position on the tracks informs the reader of the conclusion to the conflict. By having the girl stand on the “living” side of the tracks, Hemingway is informing the reader that she has accepted that there is nothing wrong with being pregnant, and that she has decided that she is going to carry her child. If the setting of the story is not examined at this point, the reader would be left unsure of the conclusion to the abortion conflict. Ernest Hemingway sets up the conflict of “Hills Like White Elephants” through the way he presents the environment and dialogue. From character descriptions to the sensory environment, every detail presented contributes to the conflict. Without examining these details, it would be nearly impossible to understand the central idea of the story. By using this type of writing, Hemingway forces his readers to pay attention to the setting and structural set up of the story, which is usually something often overlooked in modern day writings. The format of “Hills Like White Elephants” involves many details that constantly shape the story and keep the conflict continuously flowing and developing.