"Hills Like White Elephants": The Jilting of Jig

This essay examines different scholarly interpretations of the ending of Hemingway's short story "Hills Like White Elephants," and suggests a different outcome from those so far considered--the girl will indeed have the abortion, expecting in this way to stay on with the man, but after the operation has been performed, he will abandon her. Various verbal and non-verbal indications found in the story support this interpretation of the narrative, as does the very symbolism of the title itself.