What does the white elephant symbolize in the story?
It's notable that Jig later changes her mind about the surrounding hills looking like white elephants. As has already been noted elsewhere, a white elephant is something that no one wants. Initially, it seemed that Jig's unborn baby wasn't wanted, at least not by her lover, at any rate. That being the case, it appeared likely that Jig wouldn't go through with giving birth to their child, that she'd have an abortion instead.
And yet as we move towards the conclusion of the story, the situation becomes a good deal more ambiguous. This ambiguity is reflected in the status of the surrounding hills, which as Jig now reflects, no longer look like white elephants after all. In fact, they look rather lovely, perhaps like a newborn baby.
One suggestion here is that perhaps Jig's having second thoughts about going through with a termination. Just as she's starting to see the...
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surrounding hills in a different light, she's seeing her imminent abortion in a whole new perspective. Perhaps she's now starting to assert her independence from her lover and is further questioning whether or not she wants to go through with the abortion. The story's ending is unclear on this; however, it is obvious that the couple's relationship is anywhere from being "fine."
According to eNotes:
A white elephant is an idiom for a valuable possession of which its owner cannot dispose and whose cost (particularly cost of upkeep) is out of proportion to its usefulness or worth.
So, the white elephant is the unborn baby that the couple is discussing. The woman, Jig, is obviously the owner and her unwillingness to dispose of the baby is clear, though she does not expressly denounce the idea. The much subtext and unstated tension between the couple. The unsaid and unseen are as important and symbolic as the said and seen.
According to the wonderful eNotes critical essay "Symbolism in 'Hills Like White Elephant,'" by Lewis E. Weeks:
Emphasis by position and repetition clearly suggests the importance Hemingway attached to the comparison. Besides the reference in the title, there are, within this very short three-page story, two references to the whiteness of the hills and four to them as white elephants, although one of these suggests that the hills do not look like white elephants but only have their coloring.
On first reading the title, one assumes the comparison may merely be to the color and to the rounded contour of the hills that constitute part of the setting, a quite literal reference. This impression is reinforced by the first sentence, the subject of which is ‘‘long and white’’ hills. The second time they are mentioned, they are contrasted with the countryside, which is brown and dry, suggestive of the limitations and aridity of the relationship of the man and woman, which begins to unfold and which is the basis of the conflict and the meaning of the story.