Episode 12: Hills Like White Elephants — Ernest Hemingway

In this episode of Hot Takes on the Classics, Tim McIntosh and Emily Maeda explore Ernest Hemingway’s “Hills Like White Elephants,” a story in which the most important subject is never named. At a Spanish train station, an American man and a young woman called Jig wait for a train to Madrid while circling around a “simple operation” that will determine the future of their relationship. Tim and Emily discuss Hemingway’s iceberg theory, the story’s compressed setting and dialogue, the unequal pressure between the couple, and the way Jig sees possibility where the man sees a threat to freedom. They close with Tim’s Hot Take and a discussion of what the story reveals about the difficult passage from adolescence into adulthood.

Episode Outline

“Hills Like White Elephants” as a difficult bridge from adolescence into adulthoodWhy the story is best encountered before the reader knows what the couple is discussingHemingway in Paris in 1927: rising fame, The Sun Also Rises, Hadley Richardson, and Pauline PfeifferA radically compressed story: one train station, two central characters, and almost nothing but dialogueThe unnamed pregnancy and abortion and Hemingway’s iceberg theory of omissionJig, “the girl,” and “the American”: naming, age, and the unequal pressure within the conversationThe white elephant image, the surrounding landscape, and Jig’s attentiveness to the worldThe train station as a liminal setting and the approaching train to Madrid as a deadline for decisionThe couple’s sticker covered suitcases and a life of travel, mobility, and limited responsibilityThe child as possibility for Jig and as a threat to freedom for the manHemingway’s biography, the temptation to read the story autobiographically, and the likely future of the relationshipKey Topics & Takeaways

The Iceberg Theory and the Unspoken Center: The story never uses the words “baby,” “pregnant,” or “abortion.” Hemingway leaves the decisive reality beneath the surface, forcing the reader to infer it from pressure, repetition, gesture, and what the characters avoid saying.Power and Persuasion: The conversation is not simply a balanced exchange between two people weighing options. The man repeatedly reassures, minimizes, and pushes, while Jig keeps asking whether doing what he wants will restore the relationship they once had. The imbalance becomes part of the story’s emotional force.Liminal Space and a Closing Deadline: The train station holds the couple between places and between possible future