In his short story “Hills Like White Elephants”, Ernest Hemingway brings the reader to a train station somewhere between Barcelona and Madrid. An American and a girl are having an argument that could be seen as trivial on the surface, but is actually a painful discussion about aborting their child. The much older American tries to persuade the young girl to give the baby up in hopes that he might be able to leave her without any obligations left behind, but she seems to want to keep the child and
against blackness of licorice which Jig associates with Anis del Toro, the drink they are drinking (2002: 75-77). Bearing in mind the first interpretation, it should be contrasted with the hy-pothesis presented by Nilofer Hashmi. She points out that the hills may stand for a dream of a family and hope that sexual relationship with the man may transform into something more solid; on the other hand, the man has little empathy and he seems to destroy Jig’s dreams by displaying his cold and reserved response