A Comparison of Hemingway’s “Hills Like White Elephants” and Johnson’s “Black Woman”
A Comparison of Hemingway’s “Hills Like White Elephants” and Johnson’s “Black Woman”
The short story, Hills Like White Elephants by Ernest Hemingway, and the poem, Black Woman by Georgia Douglas Johnson, both focus on the struggle a woman experiences when contemplating an abortion. While both were written around the same time—“Hills Like White Elephants” in 1927 and “Black Woman” in 1918, each features characters that offer differing, distinct views of the issues surrounding the decision. This is in no small part because their lives are dramatically different, thanks to issues of race and socioeconomic status.
The woman in Johnson’s poem is far more decisive than the woman and man in Hemingway’s story, yet the black woman feels greater anguish at having to make the choice. In fact, the black woman seems more honest than Hemingway’s couple, who dance around the decision, neither one saying outright what she or he really wants to do (Smiley, 1988).
Johnson’s woman has looked at the state of the world, and by implication the state of blacks in America, and decided that she cannot in good conscience bring a child into that world of “cruelty and sin.” What’s more, she may have had to make this painful decision before, implied by the lines, “I cannot bear the pain / Of turning deaf-ear to your call / Time and time again!” Johnson’s woman tells the little soul inhabiting her body to “Wait in the still eternity” until she dies and joins it there. The character’s feelings are beautifully expressed.
Hemingway’s couple are obviously privileged and probably wealthy, traveling around Spain with no clear direction. “I wanted to try this new drink,” the woman says. “That’s all we do, isn’t it—look at things and try new drinks?” And the man answers with a tentative, “I guess so.” He continually tells the woman that he will go along with whatever she decides, but also makes it quite clear that he wants her to terminate the pregnancy. He minimizes the abortion procedure—which not incidentally was probably illegal at the time, especially in a Catholic country—by telling her that “It’s not really an operation at all” and “They just let the air in and then it’s all perfectly natural.” Not quite.
Hemingway presents the decision-making process as dithering, yet even though the couple talk back and forth as if they haven’t made up their minds, a perceptive reader can see that they have, in fact, already decided to take the train to wherever the abortion can be obtained. They have packed their bags and are already at the station, sitting in the bar having several drinks. Although it is likely that the negative effects of drinking alcohol while pregnant were less well understood at the time, it still seems odd that the woman would be consuming so much if she truly planned on carrying her fetus to term.
These two can’t be honest with one another, so although they continually state that they want things to go back to the way they were prior to the woman becoming pregnant, it would seem that it was never very good between them. One has the impression they are an aimless pair of rich, white Americans knocking around Europe, useless to everyone, including themselves. This is in contrast to Johnson’s black woman, who lives in a world of “monster men” and understands that there is no difference between her before- and after-abortion worlds. This woman is honest, which makes her situation much more distressing to read about than to read about Hemingway’s couple.
For some reason, the black woman seems like she may be a prostitute who was forced into her way of life by hard economic circumstances. That’s how she became pregnant by one of the “monster men.” Or one of those men may have raped her. Admittedly, this individual reader’s experiences and biases have filled in the blanks to come up with this assertion, but it does seem plausible, given what is known about sexism and racism in America, particularly in 1918.
Fill in the blanks for Hemingway’s couple and one brings into focus two spoiled people who this reader disliked by the end of the story’s first page. It is clear that the woman is going to have the abortion because she knows darn well the man wants her to do so. And she will, of course, do whatever he expects because that’s what a good woman does. Then, when their pointless lives resume—whatever shape they take—the two will blame each other and spend their lives trying to avoid accepting responsibility for their decision. The dithering will allow them to believe that they didn’t really make a conscious decision; the abortion just sort of happened—magically—the way the man describes the air as a stimulant to the natural process. If there is such a thing as sin, this couple is about to commit one, and not because of the abortion per se. Rather, because they elude responsibility for their actions and lie to each other, as well as themselves. They are inauthentic, as opposed to the black woman, who looks her ethical dilemma square in the eye and makes a heart-wrenching decision that she would, for all the world, wish to avoid.
Hills Like White Elephants is a very powerful story, rich with symbolism. The title, while ostensibly referring to the appearance of hills in the distance, symbolizes an oddity, like a white elephant item at a charity auction. The man tells the woman he has never seen a white elephant and she replies, “No, you wouldn’t have.” It is unclear what she means by this, but his response, “I might have. Just because you say I haven’t doesn’t prove anything,” hints at some ongoing tension between them—some criticism that she has leveled against him in the past (Charters, 2003).
The metaphor of elephants is also interesting. One is reminded of the phrase “the elephant in the room,” used in reference to people who talk around some large, obvious problem that is staring them in the face but remains unacknowledged. The elephant is more than just the pregnancy or the abortion; it is a jumble of unasked questions and accusations, then, now and to come in the future—How could this happen? You made me do this! If only you had
The fact that the action takes place in the train station is also telling. The couple is not still deciding whether to go through with the abortion. The train, so to speak, has left the station. They made the decision sometime in the past, which is why they are packed and ready to go. All that’s left are the recriminations and the procedure itself.
Perhaps the woman will die from a botched procedure. The story has no mention of that, but it is a distinct possibility. In that event, the man will likely find another “girl” and go on with his meaningless life. That Hemingway uses the word “girl” for the woman is also of interest. One wonders if it was deliberate or if Hemingway’s own sexism is showing in a way he did not intend.
References
Charters, A., ed. (2003). The story and its writer: An introduction to short fiction (6th ed.). Boston: Bedford/St. Martins.
Smiley, P. (1988). Gender-linked miscommunication in ‘Hills Like White Elephants.’ The Hemingway Review 8(1), 2—12.
