What is the irony in "Hills Like White Elephants"?

With irony being a contrast between what a character thinks and what the reader or audience know to be true, the reader must seek the difference between what the characters think and what he/she discerns about them.

Since the girl mentions the hills being like white elephants, she understands their meaning:  She tells the man who says he has never seen a white elephant, "No, you wouldn't have." She is the one who expresses doubt about having an abortion.  But the young man, who tries to convince the girl to have the operation, says that everything will be all right and the couple can return to their life beforehand. (He "buys" the white elephant, something one thinks has value, but does not.)

The irony of the title, then, is that the man "buys" a white elephant believing that the action under consideration can return him and his girlfriend to their former relationship, but the girl, like the reader, knows they will never be the same, for she turns from the vision of life, fields of grain and trees, and agrees to the man's putting their bags on the "other side of the station."

The most beautiful irony in the story comes through the imagery.  The American and Jig are discussing an abortion.  When Jig gets up from the table to look out over the landscape, all she sees are images of fertility:  green trees, a flowing river, fields of grain.  However, she turns from this image to return to the man, having lost the will to fight for her unborn child.  Here is the fertile passage:

The girl stood up and walked to the end of the station. Across, on the other side, were fields of grain and trees along the banks of the Ebro. Far away, beyond the river, were mountains. The shadow of a cloud moved across the field of grain and she saw the river through the trees.

The other irony comes in the man's argument with the woman.  He spends his time telling her how simple it will be and how it is the best thing - he clearly wants her to have the abortion.  However, as soon as she says that she'll do it for him, he backs up, saying he doesn't really care, he just wants what is best:

'You've got to realize,' he said, ' that I don't want you to do it if you don't want to. I'm perfectly willing to go through with it if it means anything to you.'

He clearly wants her to decide to have the abortion, but doesn't want to be seen as having made the decision himself.

White Elephants (the animal) are very rare and beautiful, making them precious animals. In Southeast Asian cultures, they were considered holy creatures, and it was believed they needed specialty food to care for them. This made the beasts financial burdens on their owners, much like an unexpected pregnancy can be seen as a financial, emotional, and social burden on a couple. This certainly seems to be Hemingway’s meaning.

Common now around Christmastime, a “white elephant gift” is one that no one really wants, and may not even be an item of quality. Once the joke is evident to its recipient, it is usually discarded. Even though the couple seems to be debating the possibility of abortion, and though Hemingway never directly indicates what their final decision will be, it appears that the answer is right in front of them in the landscape.

Another irony in the story "Hills Like White Elephants" is in the fact that this young man and woman have been traveling around together and presumably making passionate love, but then when the inevitable happens and the girl finds herself pregnant, the man doesn't want her to have the baby. The pleasure of love-making did not evolve for the sake of enjoyment but for making babies and bonding men and women together so that they could both provide protection and nurturing for the baby. The girl called Jig understands this, but the man--like many men--does not understand the connection between love and reproduction.

As a small addendum to that excellent response is the fact that they cannot mention--name--what in fact they are talking about.  They do not mention the word "abortion," leaving a gap in the conversation that says more than the word itself ever could.  The irony is that not saying the word carries more meaning to us, the audience, than if they did mention the word:  absence is stronger than presence. 

"Hills Like White Elephants" is a story about the end of a relationship. The themes mainly grow out of this scenario.

One theme of the story is dealing with difficulty, or dealing with unplanned pregnancy. We see the couple in "Hills Like White Elephants" debating the proper course of action in dealing with an unplanned and unwanted pregnancy. This debate poses the man against the women. So we have a conflict of the sexes.

The nature of the couple's argument broaches thematic ideas related to the intractability of time (you can't turn back the clock), and the persistence of memory (you can't forget things on purpose) as the man tries to convince the woman that if she gets an abortion, the two of them can regain the easy and loving relationship they once had.

We also have an issue of a lack of communication or a lack of understanding, which can be seen in two places. First, the female character does not understand Spanish and so does not understand what the waitress is saying throughout the story. Also the couple exhibit this same lack. The woman does not agree and does not want to understand what the man is saying. And the man does not understand why the woman won't agree with him and why she bristles and acts with fickle impatience.

This is all open to interpretation, of course, as the story is quite understated.

There are two observations about this question that are worth making before attempting to answer it. The first is that Hemingway would certainly have been very resistant to the way of reading his story that it implies. He claimed to present life as it is, rather than using short stories as moral fables to illustrate a particular view of the world. The second point, however, is that this is itself a claim. Anterior to any specific claims made within the story is the general claim of the realist writer, that this is as close as text on a page can come to the representation of reality.

Aside from this general claim to verisimilitude is another general claim, which Hemingway called the "iceberg" theory of dialogue. This is the idea that people only say a small amount of what they mean, most of the meaning and the drama in a story remaining beneath the surface. The principal conversation in this story is generally assumed to be about an abortion, yet the word abortion is never mentioned, and the reader has to piece together the state of the relationship between the man and the girl using a series of small clues.

Beyond these two claims, one might draw any number of specific morals from the story. Money does not buy happiness. Modern life has become sterile and meaningless as people withdraw into themselves. A self-centered life tends to increase both selfishness and unhappiness. All these claims could be supported with ample evidence from the text.

The main claim of the text seems to revolve around communication or the lack of it. The American and the girl, Jig, are really bad at communicating effectively with one another. The fact that neither of them ever actually mentions, explicitly, what it is that they are discussing—a potential abortion for her—is so indicative of their relationship. The American seems clearly, to the reader, to want the young woman to get the abortion, as he keeps describing how "easy" and how "simple" a procedure it is. However, Jig seems to be more concerned about their romantic relationship and its future, how the "procedure" might change things or if it will help them return to the prior contentment they seemed to feel before the unwanted pregnancy, the so-called "white elephant."

The fact that neither person is called by their real name in the story also contributes to our sense that we don't really know them, and they don't really know each other either: the man is only ever called the American, and he refers to her as "Jig," an apparent nickname. By the end of the story, she has become upset and has asked him to stop talking multiple times. In the end, she says, "I feel fine [...]. There's nothing wrong with me. I feel fine," when she obviously is not fine at all. She seems to have given up even attempting to communicate honestly. It becomes clear that a successful relationship and the happiness of its members depends on good communication.

The title of the short story "Hills Like White Elephants" by Hemingway is significant because it is the topic of conversation between the two characters represented in the story, the girl and the American man, and yet the conversation they are actually having with one another, almost entirely in subtext and with very few actual spoken words, has nothing to do with their surroundings.

The story opens with a description of the setting to establish place and, perhaps, to indicate the tone of the scene about to happen: Despite the hills in the distance, "there was no shade and no trees," indicative of a very barren place, wherein nothing interesting is growing or happening. In other words, in this setting, there is absolutely nothing to talk about—and yet the girl stares off at the hills, which "are white in the sun and the country was brown and dry," and comments that they (the hills) "look like white elephants."

She seems to be mustering something to talk about, something that has caught her attention, perhaps trying to use the comment as a distraction or a segue. Nonetheless, the hills are not what the couple needs to discuss, as is evident when the topic of conversation later turns slightly (only slightly) more pronounced. "It's really an awfully simple operation," the man tells the girl, presumably speaking about an unintended or unwanted pregnancy she may be about to end.

Titling the story "Hills Like White Elephants" is something of a demonstration of irony on Hemingway's part, in that the hills keep coming up in the conversation the couple is having, though the hills mean nothing and there's really nothing to say about them (unless you've an imagination, as the girl appears to). The comments about the hills mask the conversation that should be taking place between them, about the state of their relationship and how the pregnancy happened and what each of them really, truly wants for the future (whether they're together or not).

They discuss the hills—nothing—while saying nothing about what they should be discussing. It's as though, if not for the hills, they would have nothing to say to one another at all and this, given the state of their relationship and their circumstances, is particularly telling.

The significance of the title is twofold: one, a white elephant gift is a gift that nobody wants. This is symbolic of the unwanted pregnancy of the girl and the American. Early in the story, she notices that the hills look like white elephants; however, as they continue to talk she says that the hills are actually very lovely and don't resemble white elephants at all - reminiscent of her change in feelings about being pregnant. 

Another reason for the title is that the two never come out and say exactly what they are talking about, but it is very awkward and tense - sort of like the phrase " the elephant in the room" (something awkward and obvious that no one discusses outright).

A white elephant is a possession that is useless or no longer wanted by its owner. It's also a high-maintenance item or property that brings little or no profit. According to old legends, white elephants were gifts kings would give to courtiers who were no longer in favor. The expense of maintaining the white elephant would financially ruin the courtier.

The baby Jig is likely carrying is carrying is a white elephant, as far as Jig's boyfriend is concerned. It is the kind of "gift" that he feels is not worth the cost. He wants Jig, therefore, to get an abortion, but he also wants her to go along with it. He wants her to at least pretend the abortion was a joint decision—and, of course, for it to happen, she has to agree. Jig, however, wants to keep a the baby.

The term "white elephant" also connects to the idea of "the elephant in the room," a big problem or issue that everyone in a room is aware of but nobody wants to talk about. Jig and her boyfriend keep talking around the abortion, not calling it by name. A further elephant in the room is their strained, angry relationship. Neither one, at this point, is willing to talk frankly about their problems. Their relationship is both a white elephant—no longer worth the cost of maintenance to either of them—and the elephant in the room they won't discuss.

There are at least a couple of plausible theories about why Hemingway titled the story "Hills Like White Elephants."

The simplest form of the expression is that a white elephant is an unwanted possession. This is why churches and other groups hold "rummage" or "white elephant" sales, where people bring their undesired belongings to be sold off to others. In Hemingway's story, it seems clear that the American does not want Jig to keep the baby that she is carrying. To him, an abortion would be a way of ridding the couple of their metaphoric "white elephant." The "hill" might be a metaphor for the arduous task of the two of them coming to the agreement that the pregnancy will be terminated.

It is also arguable that a second meaning is inferred by the landscape surrounding Jig and the American; it looks like the rounded body of someone in the midst of a pregnancy. This idea complements the inference that the pregnancy is a white elephant. It is amplified and omnipresent as the couple conducts their elliptical conversation.

Early in the story Jig and the American have the following exchange of dialogue regarding the long and white hills across the valley of the Ebro:

"They look like white elephants," she said.

"I've never seen one," the man drank his beer.

"No, you wouldn't have."

"I might have," the man said. "Just because you say I wouldn't have doesn't prove anything."

Jig does not mean that the man would not have seen a real white elephant. What she means is that he would never have seen a mountain that looked like a white elephant. In other words, he doesn't have any imagination. This illustrates a difference between them which may ultimately lead to their separation. The American is practical, realistic, literal-minded. The man does not want to talk about any "white elephants." He is concerned about the logistical problems involved in getting an abortion in a foreign, Catholic country. He is also concerned about keeping Jig "on board," so to speak, with the idea of having an abortion.

To some degree the American resembles Clyde Griffiths in Theodore Dreiser's novel An American Tragedy. Clyde is worried and frightened about Roberta Alden's pregnancy, which she has agreed to terminate if he can find someone to perform an abortion; but Clyde has to pretend to be confident and to know what he is doing.

The famous short story "Hills Like White Elephants" by Ernest Hemingway seems difficult to understand on the surface because the author uses his so-called "iceberg theory" to great effect in it. According to Hemingway, a writer who knows what his story is about can leave much of it unsaid, and this will strengthen the story. In his nonfiction work Death in the Afternoon he writes:

If a writer of prose knows enough of what he is writing about he may omit things that he knows and the reader, if the writer is writing truly enough, will have a feeling of those things as strongly as if the writer had stated them. The dignity of movement of an iceberg is due to only one-eighth of it being above water.

At surface level, "Hills Like White Elephants" appears to be about a couple having drinks while waiting for a train to Madrid at an isolated station in the Ebro Valley in Spain. They talk together and they argue, but the motivation for their argument is not directly stated. In fact, a careful reading will show that they are on their way to Madrid so that the woman can get an abortion there. The woman is unsure whether she wants to go through with it. She is concerned that after the abortion things will be different between them. She asks him, "And if I do it you'll be happy and things will be like they were and you'll love me?"

The man reassures her over and over that it is completely harmless and that after it is over they will go on living as they did before. He tells her things like,

It's really an awfully simple operation,

It's not really an operation at all,

It's just to let the air in,

It's all perfectly natural.

Even with the reassurances of the man, though, the woman is anxious. Despite the seemingly innocuous dialogue, tension builds throughout the story until the woman exclaims that if the man doesn't stop talking she will scream. Hemingway leaves the ending ambiguous. The woman tells the man that she feels fine, and there's nothing wrong with her, but she is obviously not okay. It is unclear to readers at the end whether she will go through with the abortion and also whether the couple will be able to remain together after this traumatic experience.

Well, what you are talking about is symbolism. The hills represent some greater truth, idea, or value than they do at first glance.

In order to get a good idea of what the hills are symbolic of, the reader has to have a good idea of what the story is about.  In short, the man in the story wants the woman to have an abortion, and she is not so sure about it.

In this context, the setting becomes more important.  The hills are described as being like "white elephants."  White is a color usually associated with purity.  A "white elephant" is something that is valuable but also has a very high cost of upkeep (there are other uses for the term, but this is the one being used here.) Also, think about the shape of hills in context with a pregnant woman...they are literally "bellies."

So, that's my take on it.  The hills represent the purity of the unborn baby protected in womb.

The hills in "Hills Like White Elephants" are an area of raised ground which is symbolic of the raised stomach of the pregnant woman. They are also described with more vitality than the surrounding landscape. 

They were white in the sun and the country was brown and dry. 

The simile of "white elephants" being like the hills is an odd one. An elephant is large and being white rather than the typical gray makes the image more striking. This could be interpreted as the colloquial "elephant in the room," a phrase which refers to something everyone is aware of but everyone is reluctant to talk about it. This fits with the story because although the American and Jig are talking about a possible abortion, they are doing so in veiled speech. 

"Well," the man said, "if you don't want to you don't have to. I wouldn't have you do it if you didn't want to. But I know it's perfectly simple." 

In addition, the phrase "white elephant" means a valuable possession that is also a burden. And this burden is one that you cannot get rid of. This is an obvious reference to the unwanted pregnancy and the couple's discussion about possibly "getting rid of" the baby. The American dwells on the burden more than the value of the baby. The girl, Jig, is concerned about what having an abortion will do to her outlook on life. Still speaking in veiled terms, she suggests no matter what her decision is, something will be lost. 

"No, it isn't. And once they take it away, you never get it back." 

Ernest Hemingway’s short story “Hills Like White Elephants” explores many themes, including loss of innocence and the sterility of modern relationships. Consider the contrast between the man’s perspective on the world and Jig’s perspective. Jig’s comment that the hills look like white elephants suggests she is imaginative and emotional. The man, on the other hand, is very pragmatic and demanding. He has the resources and the privilege to get what he wants and does not want to deal with the additional responsibilities and emotional complexities of having a child. Hemingway uses this contrast to highlight how perspectives like the man’s have trumped perspectives like Jig’s in modern society.

Like many of Hemingway’s works, this short story also explores the lack of authenticity and passion in modern relationships. Jig’s vision that there is still a chance for her relationship if she gets the abortion is nothing but an illusion, just like the vision of the hills as white elephants is an illusion. Hemingway depicts this relationship as tense and devoid of meaning and passion. Recall the question Jig asks the man about their life:

“That’s all we do, isn’t it—look at things and try new drinks?”

“I guess so.”

This one brief exchange reveals how empty their relationship (and their lives as a whole) are. Like many writers of his time, Hemingway was disillusioned with post–World War I society and saw it as a particularly hopeless place for relationships.

How is the dialogue at the end of Hemingway's "Hills Like White Elephants" ironic?

Irony is a major feature of Ernest Hemingway’s extremely brief short story titled “Hills Like White Elephants,” and the ending of the story is especially ironic. In this tale, an American male, identified only as “the American,” tries to persuade a reluctant young woman, with whom he has been having a sexual relationship, to have an abortion. As the story develops, tensions between these two characters grow and deepen. Examples of the story’s many ironies include the following:

• Perhaps one of the most ironic moments in the entire story occurs when the American says about an abortion,

“It’s really an awfully simple operation, Jig,” the man said. “It’s not really an operation at all.

. . . They just let the air in and then it’s all perfectly natural.”

Jig, of course, obviously considers an abortion anything but “simple”; she knows that an abortion can indeed be seen as a kind of “operation”; and she clearly does not consider an abortion “perfectly natural.”

• The American tells Jig that if she has the abortion, “We’ll be fine afterwards. Just like we were before.” Obviously Jig does not think that their previous relationship has been “fine.”  Nor does she think, contrary to the American’s next statement, that the prospect of having an abortion is “the only thing that bothers us” or that it is “the only thing that’s made us unhappy.” If the American believes any of this (and there is good reason to think that he really doesn’t), he is deceiving himself as much as he may, perhaps, be trying to deceive Jig.
• Another especially ironic moment occurs when the American, still pressing Jig to have the abortion, says,

“You’ve got to realize . . . that I don’t want you to do it if you don’t want to. I’m perfectly willing to go through with it if it means anything to you.”

Obviously he is not “perfectly willing” to go through with having the baby, and just as obviously the abortion does mean something to Jig.

By the end of the story, it is not entirely clear exactly what decision has been made, although apparently Jig has agreed to board a waiting train that will take them to the place where the American expects her to have the abortion.  In the story’s very final lines, this exchange occurs:

“Do you feel better?” he asked.

“I feel fine,” she said. “There’s nothing wrong with me. I feel fine.”

Jig’s final comment seems ironic for a number of different reasons, including the following:

• Almost certainly she does not “feel fine.” Instead, she seems merely to be telling the American what she knows he wants to hear.
• Almost certainly Jig does not feel as if there is “nothing wrong” with her.
• Perhaps Jig’s second sentence is intended (by her or by the narrator, or both) to suggest all the various ways in which there does seem to be “something wrong” with the American.
• Jig’s very last assertion – “I feel fine” – seems especially ironic since the story has shown all the different ways in which she does not feel “fine.”
• It seems especially ironic that the very last word of this story is “fine,” when the entire story has dealt with tension, discomfort, and pain.

Ironically, the word “fine” comes from a Latin word meaning “end,” but there is no guarantee that even now the disagreement between the American and Jig has truly come to an end. The tense conversation might easily resume once they board the train.

What is the underlying meaning of "Hills Like White Elephants"?

A story does not have to have a meaning. The purpose of a short story is to convey an emotional effect. What is important is the feeling that is left with the reader upon finishing the story. Most readers must feel terribly sorry for the pregnant girl because she wants to keep the baby growing inside her and also because she is coming to the realization that the man's feelings for her are not as strong or as sincere as she had supposed. She loves him more than he loves her. The reader might end up with the feeling that what is true in the relationship between this couple is unfortunately true of many relationships between men and women. The fact that they are in a foreign country and she doesn't even speak the language makes her seem even more pitiful.

The man and the woman are speaking about abortion. 

This is the primary theme, but there are others: tension, isolation, and disconnection. 

As the couple wait for the train, the woman gazes at the snow topped mountain. 

"They look like white elephants," she said.
"I've never seen one," the man drank his beer.
"No you wouldn't have."

All of the themes of the story are hinted at here.  The woman may be thinking of the mountains and her own body, which will soon be as swollen as the hills.  The fact that they are cold and snow-capped may bespeak the isolation and "coldness" of her partner who does not want the pregnancy.

Additionally, there is symbolism present in calling anything a "white elephant."  A white elephant is something that is not wanted:

"It's really an awfully simple operation, Jig," the man said, "It's not really an operation at all."

The fact that the couple refuse to directly say to one another the words "pregnancy" or "abortion," is akin to the adage, "the elephant in the room," which means something everyone knows but refuses to acknowledge. Even at the end, when there has been no resolution, the woman continues to ignore the (literally) growing problem.  The story closes on these lines:

"Do you feel better?" he asked.
"I feel fine," she said.  "There's nothing wrong with me.  I feel fine."

What is the irony in Jig's speech in "Hills Like White Elephants"?

The irony in Jig's words revolves around the last statement that she makes when she tells the American that she is fine.  The conversation proves that she is anything but fine.  Jig has come to find out that she is pregnant, and she is trying to tell her lover about this new situation.  The American, however, wants Jig to abort the child.  She tries to explain to him that their future could be bright with a child between them; however, the man does not believe that this is the case.  He tries to rationalize her having an abortion even though she is clearly telling him that she does not want to have the operation.  The American claims that he loves Jig, yet there is the impression that he will only stay with Jig if they can have a carefree (i.e. child-free) life.  At the end of the story, it is unclear whether or not Jig will keep the child and risk losing her lover or vice versa.  So, her telling the American that she is fine is ironic because at the end of the story she is really confused and wondering what the right decision for her will be.  Her statement of "fine" reveals that she realizes that this is a decision that she will have to make on her own.