In “The Hills Like White Elephants” by Ernest Hemingway, the theme of abortion is illustrated by the clash between a male and female relationship and the symbolic meanings of the Middle East. While in Spain the American and the girl are torn between a decision: whether to have an abortion or have a baby. “Hills Like White Elephants” is set in a train station in Spain. “The station [is] between two lines of tracks in the sun” (Hills Like White Elephants-Litarary Analysis). The rails cross a river valley with hills on one side of the valley; barren and barren and those on the other side are described with images of living and growing things; in choosing whether to have an abortion or have a child, the couple must choose between two ways of living. The two tracks separate, foreshadowing what will become of the couple after the story is over. The bamboo bead curtain in the station serves as a curtain that limits the couple's options and their conversations; symbolizing that the pregnancy also acts as a curtain between the couple, and eventually becomes a wall between them. The couple then has two choices: have an abortion and stay together as the American wants, or have the baby and go their separate ways, leaving the girl to settle down and have a family of her own. Abortion is associated with the dry barrenness of the hills on the barren side of the valley and, by extension, the aimless, self-indulgent life they led, and having a child is associated with the realistic features on the other side of the valley. valley, the “fields of wheat and trees along the banks of the Ebro” (DiYanni) which symbolize the flow of life. The story is told primarily in dialogue and “authentically captures… at the heart of the paper… …how she decided to have an abortion and stay in her relationship, or to keep the baby and start a family of her own. Works CitedByYanni, Robert. Literature. New York: McGraw-Hill Companies Inc., ndHills Like White Elephants-Literary Analysis. October 2, 2011 .—. The setting of the hills like white elephants. and October 2, 2011 .O'Brien, Timothy D. Allusions Puns and Central Conflict in Hemingway's "Hills Like White Elephants." West Flordia, Pensacola, Flordia: United States Naval Academy, 1992.Wyche, David. “LEAVING THE AIR IN A RELATIONSHIP: METAPHORICAL ABORTION IN 'HILL WHITE ELEPHANTS'.” LEAVING THE AIR IN A RELATIONSHIP: METAPHORICAL ABORTION IN THE WHITE ELEPHANTS OF 'HILL' (2002).