Hills like White Elephants

   Allow me to start off by saying the first time i read this story i was completely confused, i did not understand what was going on in the story . At first i thought this story was about something completely different then it actually was. My first thought was maybe he was pressuring her into changing her psychical appearance though some kind of medical procedure but then i thought about it and realized that, that couldn't be it. I sat there for a long time trying to figure out what the poem was about. I had no idea what it was really about until someone said they thought it was about abortion. Then i thought about it realized that that actually fit. I don't know why i didn't think of that in the first place.

    In my opinion it sort of seems like the American man is forcing what he wants on the young girl. He has clearly already made up his mind and is fully aware of what he wants. The young girl however seems to be on the fence and really unsure of what she wants to do with this baby that she is carrying. I think that this man might have gotten this young girl pregnant and did not want anyone to know about it or did not want to have to deal with taking care of a baby so he is trying to convince her to go through with the abortion. Throughout the whole story you can see the girl struggling with her inner thoughts on what to do. It seems like she wants to keep the baby but she is feeling a lot of pressure from this American man to terminate the pregnancy.  At the end of the story the woman is faced with two choices which is represented by opposite sides of the train tracks. One side represents fertility (green, lush) the other side is barren and dry and this represents the woman going through with the abortion. As we know she chooses the fertile side and chooses to keep the baby. I think this was very brave of her considering how hard of a choice this would have been for her to make in that time period.

  I liked this poem because it showed a young woman who was struggling under pressure with a choice of weather or not to keep her unborn child while facing enormous pressure from this American man. I think it was empowering for women of that time period because regardless of the pressure she faced and her internal conflict she chose to keep her child regardless of the consequence's.