How Does Hemingway Use Contrast Between the Two Sides of the Valley in “Hills Like White Elephants”?
Author: Martin Munyao Muinde
Email: Ephantusmartin@gmail.com
Direct Answer
Ernest Hemingway employs the contrast between the two sides of the valley in “Hills Like White Elephants” as a central symbolic device that externalizes the protagonist’s internal conflict and represents the divergent life paths she must choose between. On one side of the valley lies a barren, dry landscape with hills that resemble white elephants—representing sterility, emptiness, and the life of aimless travel the couple currently leads. On the opposite side stretches a fertile valley with fields of grain, trees, and the river Ebro—symbolizing life, growth, fertility, and the potential for settled domesticity that would come with having the baby. This geographical and visual contrast serves as an objective correlative for Jig’s emotional and psychological dilemma regarding the abortion her companion pressures her to undergo. The two sides of the valley represent not merely physical landscapes but fundamentally different futures: one involving the termination of her pregnancy and continuation of her rootless existence with the American man, the other involving motherhood and a radically different kind of life. Hemingway’s strategic placement of the train station precisely between these contrasting landscapes emphasizes the liminality of the moment—Jig stands at a crossroads where she must choose which direction her life will take. Through this symbolic geography, Hemingway communicates the weight and consequences of her decision without ever explicitly naming what is at stake, demonstrating his mastery of using physical setting to convey psychological and moral complexity.
The Geographical Setting and Its Symbolic Architecture
Ernest Hemingway’s “Hills Like White Elephants” unfolds at a train station in the Ebro valley in Spain, positioned strategically between two contrasting landscapes that serve as the story’s central symbolic framework. The geographical setting is not merely backdrop but functions as an active element in the narrative’s meaning-making system, with Hemingway carefully constructing the space to externalize the internal conflict his characters cannot or will not articulate directly (Renner, 2017). The story opens with a description of the station between two lines of rails in the sun, with the hills across the valley described as “long and white” with no shade or trees on them (Hemingway, 1927). This initial description establishes the barren side of the valley that dominates the early portion of the story. The train station itself occupies a liminal space—neither here nor there, but suspended between destinations—which mirrors Jig’s position suspended between two potential futures. The careful attention Hemingway pays to the physical geography demonstrates his belief that setting should carry thematic weight and participate actively in the story’s dramatic and symbolic systems.
The symbolic architecture of the setting becomes more explicit when the girl walks to the end of the station and looks across at the other side of the valley, where she observes fields of grain and trees along the banks of the Ebro, with mountains in the distance beyond the river (Hemingway, 1927). This moment of shifting perspective—physically moving to see the other side—represents a crucial turning point in the story’s symbolic geography. Hemingway positions the train station as a threshold space between these two contrasting valleys, emphasizing the theme of choice and consequence that structures the narrative (Hannum, 2018). The geographical contrast is not accidental or merely atmospheric but deliberately constructed to create a symbolic map of Jig’s options. The two sides of the valley represent divergent paths forward, and the story’s tension derives partly from the question of which direction she will ultimately choose. This use of setting as symbolic framework demonstrates Hemingway’s sophisticated approach to narrative architecture, where physical space and psychological space mirror and reinforce each other, creating layers of meaning that operate simultaneously on literal and symbolic levels.
The Barren Side: Sterility, Emptiness, and Aimless Existence
The barren side of the valley in “Hills Like White Elephants” represents sterility, emptiness, and the rootless, aimless existence the couple has been leading as they travel through Europe with no particular purpose beyond pleasure and distraction. The hills that Jig observes and comments on—noting that they “look like white elephants”—are explicitly described as lacking shade or trees, emphasizing their lifelessness and inhospitality (Hemingway, 1927). White elephants, while exotic and perhaps initially interesting, are proverbially useless burdens, beautiful perhaps but ultimately without value or purpose. This association adds another layer to the symbolism of the barren side: it represents not just emptiness but also the burden of meaninglessness, the weight of a life without purpose or generative capacity (Weeks, 2016). The American man’s lifestyle—constantly traveling, drinking, trying new experiences, but never settling or committing to anything substantial—is reflected in this sterile landscape where nothing grows and nothing can be sustained.
The barren side of the valley also symbolizes the aftermath of the abortion the man is pressuring Jig to undergo, representing the emotional and spiritual emptiness that would follow the termination of her pregnancy. When Jig comments on the white elephant hills, the man dismissively responds that he’s “never seen one,” and later Jig bitterly remarks, “They don’t really look like white elephants. I just meant the coloring of their skin through the trees” (Hemingway, 1927). This exchange demonstrates how the barren landscape serves as a projection screen for Jig’s anxieties about the abortion and its consequences. The lack of trees on the hills suggests an absence of life, growth, and natural fertility—precisely what would result from terminating her pregnancy (Hannum, 2018). Hemingway uses this landscape to externalize what cannot be spoken directly: Jig’s fear that choosing the abortion means choosing a barren, empty future without purpose or meaning, a continuation of the aimless travel and superficial pleasures that increasingly seem insufficient to her. The heat and brightness of this side of the valley—”close and sultry” with the sun beating down—create physical discomfort that mirrors the psychological and emotional discomfort of the conversation happening beneath the story’s surface. The barren side represents not just one possible future but the diminishment of possibility itself, the closing off of generative potential in favor of maintaining a status quo that Jig seems to be questioning.
The Fertile Side: Life, Growth, and Alternative Futures
In stark contrast to the barren hills, the fertile side of the valley represents life, growth, natural processes, and the alternative future that having the baby would create. When Jig walks to the end of the station and looks across the valley, she sees “fields of grain and trees along the banks of the Ebro” with “the shadow of a cloud” moving across the field of grain (Hemingway, 1927). This description emphasizes fertility, cultivation, and the natural cycles of growth and harvest. Unlike the harsh, unrelieved sunlight on the barren hills, this side of the valley features the interplay of light and shadow, suggesting complexity, nuance, and the natural rhythms of life (O’Brien, 2019). The presence of the river Ebro adds another layer of symbolic meaning—rivers traditionally represent life, continuity, flow, and fertility in literary symbolism. The fertile valley thus becomes associated with natural processes, with things that grow and develop over time, with rootedness and cultivation rather than aimless wandering.
The fertile side of the valley symbolizes not just the physical fact of having a baby but the entire alternative life path that motherhood would represent for Jig. This path would involve settling down, establishing roots, taking on responsibility and commitment, and living a life organized around growth and development rather than novelty and distraction (Kozikowski, 2017). The fields of grain suggest agriculture—human cultivation working with natural processes to produce sustenance and value, in contrast to the sterile uselessness of white elephant hills. This agricultural imagery implies work, patience, seasonal cycles, and ultimately harvest—a life of meaningful production rather than mere consumption. When Jig observes this landscape, Hemingway suggests through her physical movement and her gaze that she is contemplating this alternative future, considering whether the fertile valley might offer something more satisfying than the barren existence she has been leading. The mountains in the distance beyond the river add depth to this landscape, suggesting mystery, possibility, and new horizons that might open up through choosing this path. The fertile side thus represents not just having a baby in the immediate sense but a fundamentally different orientation toward life itself—one focused on creation, nurture, and meaningful engagement with natural processes rather than escape, novelty, and the refusal of consequence that characterizes the couple’s current existence.
The Train Station as Liminal Space and Decision Point
The train station itself occupies crucial symbolic territory in Hemingway’s geography of choice, functioning as a liminal space suspended between the two contrasting valleys and representing the moment of decision where Jig must choose which direction her life will take. Liminal spaces—thresholds, borders, transitional zones—carry particular symbolic weight in literature because they represent states of in-betweenness where transformation becomes possible and where characters exist temporarily outside normal structures and certainties (Fletcher, 2018). The train station in “Hills Like White Elephants” epitomizes liminality: it is neither origin nor destination but a pause between journeys, a place where people wait temporarily before moving on. This perfectly captures Jig’s situation—she exists in a moment of suspension where her future has not yet been determined, where she stands between two possible paths forward, and where the choice she makes will determine which direction her life takes.
Hemingway emphasizes the station’s liminal quality through various details: it sits “between two lines of rails,” suggesting the multiple paths available; the couple must wait forty minutes for their train, creating a suspended moment outside normal time; and the station occupies the junction point between the barren and fertile valleys, positioned precisely at the crossroads (Hemingway, 1927). The station’s position allows visual access to both alternatives—Jig can see the white elephant hills and, by walking to the other end of the platform, can also see the fertile valley beyond. This spatial arrangement externalizes the internal process of weighing alternatives and considering consequences (Johnston, 2019). The train they are waiting for will take them to Madrid, where the abortion would occur, suggesting movement toward the barren future. However, the forty-minute wait creates space for reconsideration, for looking at the other side, for hesitation and doubt. The liminal space of the station thus represents not just physical geography but psychological territory—the space of uncertainty, possibility, and crucial decision-making. Hemingway’s placement of the entire story within this liminal space emphasizes that the characters exist at a moment of maximum consequence, where choices made will have irreversible effects on their futures. The station becomes a kind of existential crossroads where Jig must choose between fundamentally different ways of being in the world.
Character Positioning and Symbolic Sight Lines
Hemingway carefully choreographs his characters’ movements and positions relative to the contrasting valleys, using their physical locations and sight lines to indicate their psychological states and orientations toward the decision they face. At the story’s opening, both characters sit at a table in the shade on the station platform, facing the barren hills across the valley—suggesting that initially, both are oriented toward the future the man advocates, the continuation of their current lifestyle after the abortion (Hemingway, 1927). The man remains essentially stationary throughout the story, keeping his position facing the barren side, which symbolically represents his fixed commitment to his preferred outcome and his unwillingness to seriously consider the alternative (Smiley, 2016). His physical immobility mirrors his psychological inflexibility—he has made his decision and will not be moved from it, literally or figuratively.
In contrast, Jig moves during the story, most significantly when she walks to the end of the station and looks across at the fertile valley beyond the river. This physical movement represents her psychological exploration of alternatives, her willingness to consider the other possibility that the man refuses to acknowledge (Hemingway, 1927). When she observes the fields of grain and trees, she is literally and symbolically opening herself to a different vision of the future, allowing herself to see what life might look like if she chose differently (Weeks, 2016). The fact that she must physically move to see this alternative—that it is not visible from where they initially sit—suggests how completely the man’s perspective has dominated their relationship, requiring active effort on her part to gain access to other ways of seeing and being. When she returns to the table, the question hanging over the story’s conclusion is which valley she has truly oriented herself toward, which future she will choose. Hemingway leaves this ambiguous, but the fact that Jig has looked at the fertile side, that she has physically moved to access that alternative perspective, suggests at minimum that she is not entirely committed to the man’s vision of their future. The symbolic sight lines and character positioning thus create a spatial drama that externalizes the psychological and relational dynamics between the characters.
The Role of Light, Shadow, and Temperature
Hemingway’s description of light, shadow, and temperature in the two valleys adds additional layers to the symbolic contrast, creating sensory and atmospheric differences that reinforce the thematic opposition between barrenness and fertility. The barren side of the valley is characterized by harsh, unrelieved sunlight and heat: the hills are “white” in the sun with “no shade and no trees,” and the heat creates discomfort and oppression (Hemingway, 1927). This harsh light suggests exposure, discomfort, and the absence of relief or refuge—qualities that mirror the emotional atmosphere of the conversation about abortion happening at the station (Lamb, 2019). The relentless sun on the barren hills creates a landscape without nuance, where everything is starkly visible and nothing can hide or grow. This atmospheric quality reflects the man’s approach to the abortion issue—he wants it to be simple, clear-cut, a straightforward solution with no complexity or emotional weight.
In contrast, the fertile valley features the interplay of light and shadow: Jig observes “the shadow of a cloud” moving “across the field of grain,” and trees provide shade along the river banks (Hemingway, 1927). This atmospheric complexity—where light and shadow mingle and shift—suggests nuance, natural rhythms, and the acceptance of complexity rather than the imposition of false simplicity. Shadows in literature often represent unconscious content, hidden dimensions, or aspects of experience that are not immediately obvious—the Jungian shadow self, for example (Hannum, 2018). The presence of shadow in the fertile valley thus suggests psychological and emotional depth, the acknowledgment that life involves complexity, difficulty, and dimensions that cannot be controlled or simplified. The trees that provide shade offer refuge and relief, suggesting care, protection, and the creation of conditions where life can flourish despite difficulties. The temperature on the fertile side would presumably be more moderate, more comfortable, more conducive to life—in contrast to the oppressive heat of the barren hills. Through these atmospheric and sensory contrasts, Hemingway reinforces the symbolic opposition between the two valleys while also suggesting that the fertile valley, despite or perhaps because of its complexity and shadow, offers a more genuinely livable environment than the harsh exposure of the barren alternative.
Dialogue and the Valley Contrast
The dialogue in “Hills Like White Elephants” repeatedly references the contrasting valleys, with characters’ comments about the landscape serving as indirect commentary on their situation and as vehicles for the story’s symbolic content. The conversation begins with Jig’s observation about the white elephant hills, which initiates a tense exchange about what the hills look like and whether they resemble white elephants (Hemingway, 1927). This apparently trivial disagreement about landscape perception actually represents deeper conflicts about how they see their situation and their future. The man’s dismissive response—”I’ve never seen one”—suggests his refusal to acknowledge what Jig perceives, his determination to control the interpretation of their reality (Renner, 2017). As their conversation becomes more strained and the pressure around the abortion decision increases, Jig’s comments about the landscape become more bitter and ironic, suggesting her growing awareness that the barren hills accurately represent the emptiness of the future the man is pushing her toward.
When Jig walks to the other end of the station and observes the fertile valley, she says, “And we could have all this,” referring to the fields and trees and river (Hemingway, 1927). This statement transforms the landscape from mere setting into explicit symbol—she is not just commenting on scenery but articulating the alternative future represented by the fertile valley, the life they could have if they kept the baby and chose differently. The man’s response—”We can have everything”—rings hollow because readers understand that “everything” means maintaining their current lifestyle, which Jig increasingly sees as “nothing” rather than everything (O’Brien, 2019). The dialogue about the valleys thus becomes a coded conversation about futures and choices, with the landscape serving as a language through which they can discuss indirectly what they cannot address honestly and directly. Jig’s final comment—”I said the mountains looked like white elephants. Isn’t that bright?”—carries bitter irony, as she mocks her own earlier attempt to communicate through landscape observation, suggesting her growing awareness that the man will not truly hear anything she says, whether about hills or about her actual feelings and needs (Kozikowski, 2017). The dialogue about the valleys demonstrates how Hemingway uses apparently casual conversation about setting to carry the weight of characters’ unexpressed emotions and conflicts.
Gender, Power, and the Valley Symbolism
The contrast between the two valleys in “Hills Like White Elephants” carries significant gender implications, with the barren and fertile landscapes connecting to larger questions about women’s reproductive choices, bodily autonomy, and the gendered nature of consequences in heterosexual relationships. The fertile valley obviously connects to female fertility and the potential for Jig to become a mother, while the pressure to choose the barren valley comes from the male character who would not bear the physical, emotional, or social consequences of either choice in the same way Jig would (Smiley, 2016). The symbolism thus highlights how the abortion decision, while framed by the man as something that affects both of them equally, actually impacts Jig’s body, future, and identity in fundamentally different ways than it impacts his. The valleys represent not just abstract choices but specifically gendered experiences and consequences.
Furthermore, the power dynamics of the relationship are spatialized through the valley symbolism—the man attempts to control which valley Jig will orient herself toward, which future she will choose, using verbal pressure and manipulation to push her toward the barren side that serves his interests (Weeks, 2016). Jig’s walk to see the fertile valley represents a momentary assertion of autonomy, a refusal to accept the man’s framing as the only possible perspective. The fact that she must physically remove herself from his immediate presence to see this alternative suggests how completely his worldview has colonized their shared reality. The fertile valley becomes associated not just with motherhood but with female autonomy, self-determination, and the possibility of choosing a path that prioritizes her own needs and desires rather than his convenience (Johnston, 2019). The gender politics of the valley symbolism thus reveal how Hemingway, despite his often-criticized attitudes toward women, creates in this story a symbolic framework that exposes masculine selfishness and the way men’s desires can be imposed on women’s bodies and futures. The valleys externalize a fundamentally gendered conflict about who gets to decide the direction of Jig’s life and whose interests will be prioritized in their relationship.
Narrative Distance and Objective Presentation of Landscape
Hemingway’s narrative technique in “Hills Like White Elephants” maintains almost complete objective distance, refusing to enter characters’ internal perspectives or to explain the symbolic significance of the valley contrast. The narrator describes the physical setting in concrete, observational terms without interpreting its meaning or indicating how characters feel about what they observe (Lamb, 2019). This objective presentation forces readers to construct the symbolic meanings themselves, actively interpreting the valley contrast rather than having its significance explained to them. The technique demonstrates Hemingway’s commitment to his iceberg theory—the symbolic meaning of the valleys exists beneath the surface of literal description, never explicitly stated but nonetheless powerfully present for attentive readers. This approach treats readers as intelligent interpreters capable of recognizing symbolic patterns without authorial guidance.
The objective presentation of landscape also creates ambiguity about how characters themselves interpret the valleys—we see Jig looking at the barren hills and later at the fertile valley, but Hemingway never tells us explicitly what she thinks or feels about what she sees (Fletcher, 2018). This ambiguity allows multiple interpretive possibilities while still maintaining the strong symbolic framework established through the physical contrast itself. The narrative distance thus serves the story’s larger strategy of making meaning emerge from pattern, juxtaposition, and contrast rather than from direct statement. Readers must attend carefully to the physical details Hemingway provides—which side of the valley characters face, when and where they move, what they observe and comment on—and construct psychological and symbolic significance from these observable facts. This technique creates a reading experience that mimics the characters’ own situation: we, like Jig, must look carefully at the contrasting landscapes and decide for ourselves what they mean and which direction represents a better future. The objective narrative stance thus becomes part of the story’s meaning-making system, refusing easy answers and requiring active interpretive engagement with the symbolic geography.
The Ebro River as Symbol of Life and Continuity
Within the fertile valley, the Ebro River carries particular symbolic weight, representing life, continuity, natural flow, and connection to larger systems and cycles beyond the individual ego. Rivers in literary symbolism traditionally represent the flow of life, the passage of time, and connection to the unconscious or to deeper sources of meaning (Hannum, 2018). The Ebro, specifically, is one of Spain’s major rivers, flowing from mountains to the Mediterranean Sea—a journey from source to consummation, from origin to completion. This geographical reality adds depth to the river’s symbolic function in the story: it represents not just life in the abstract but life as a journey with direction and purpose, in contrast to the aimless wandering that characterizes the couple’s current existence. The fields of grain grow along the banks of the Ebro, suggesting that the river enables and sustains the fertility of the valley, providing the water necessary for cultivation and harvest.
The presence of the river in the fertile valley while it is absent from the barren hills emphasizes the life-giving properties associated with choosing to have the baby versus choosing abortion. Water, like rivers, traditionally symbolizes life, cleansing, renewal, and the flow of emotion and unconscious content (O’Brien, 2019). The Ebro thus represents not just physical life but emotional and spiritual sustenance, the possibility of accessing deeper sources of meaning and connection than the superficial pleasures of travel and drink that occupy the couple’s current life. When Jig looks at the river and the trees along its banks, she contemplates not just motherhood but a life connected to natural processes, to growth and flow rather than stagnation and sterility. The river’s movement contrasts with the static quality of the barren hills—life as dynamic process rather than fixed emptiness. Hemingway’s inclusion of the Ebro in the fertile valley thus adds another dimension to the symbolic contrast, associating the choice to have the baby with flowing water, with connection to something larger than oneself, and with the kind of continuity and renewal that rivers represent as they flow through landscapes, sustaining life across generations.
Critical Reception and Interpretive Debates
The symbolic contrast between the two valleys in “Hills Like White Elephants” has generated considerable critical discussion and debate since the story’s publication, with scholars offering various interpretations of what the landscapes represent and how readers should understand the story’s symbolic geography. Early critics focused primarily on identifying the valleys with the abortion choice, reading the barren hills as representing post-abortion emptiness and the fertile valley as representing the life that would come with having the baby (Weeks, 2016). This reading remains dominant and is supported by the story’s internal evidence, but subsequent critics have added nuance and complexity to this interpretation. Some scholars emphasize the gender politics encoded in the valley symbolism, reading the fertile valley as representing female autonomy and self-realization rather than simply motherhood, while the barren valley represents continued subordination to masculine desires (Smiley, 2016).
Other critics have explored how the valley contrast relates to Hemingway’s broader thematic concerns across his body of work, particularly his interest in the opposition between authentic and inauthentic existence, between lives of meaningful engagement and lives of escapist distraction (Renner, 2017). From this perspective, the valleys represent not just the specific abortion decision but larger questions about how to live: the barren valley representing superficial, pleasure-seeking existence that avoids commitment and responsibility, while the fertile valley represents engagement with life’s difficulties and complexities in pursuit of genuine meaning and growth. Some critics have questioned whether the story’s symbolism is too schematic or obvious, arguing that the valley contrast represents Hemingway at his most heavy-handed rather than his most subtle (Johnston, 2019). However, defenders of the story argue that the power of the valley symbolism lies precisely in its clarity and force—the landscape externalizes Jig’s internal conflict so effectively precisely because the opposition is stark and unmistakable. The critical conversation around the valley contrast demonstrates the story’s richness and its capacity to generate multiple interpretive possibilities while maintaining a coherent symbolic framework that readers across decades have found compelling and meaningful.
Conclusion
Ernest Hemingway’s use of contrast between the two sides of the valley in “Hills Like White Elephants” represents a masterful deployment of setting as symbolic framework, transforming physical landscape into a vehicle for psychological, emotional, and moral complexity. The barren hills on one side—white, sterile, exposed to harsh sun, and devoid of life—symbolize the empty future that would result from the abortion the American man pressures Jig to undergo, representing continued aimless travel, superficial pleasures, and a life without purpose or generative capacity. In sharp contrast, the fertile valley on the other side—with its fields of grain, trees, river, and interplay of light and shadow—symbolizes the alternative future that having the baby would create, representing life, growth, natural processes, rootedness, and meaningful engagement with existence beyond ego and pleasure. The train station’s liminal position between these contrasting valleys emphasizes the theme of choice and consequence, positioning Jig at a crossroads where she must decide which direction her life will take. Through careful choreography of character movement, sight lines, and dialogue about the landscape, Hemingway externalizes Jig’s internal conflict without ever explicitly naming what is at stake, demonstrating his commitment to the iceberg theory where the deepest meanings remain submerged beneath a surface of concrete, objective description. The valley contrast carries additional significance regarding gender, power, bodily autonomy, and the gendered nature of consequences in reproductive decisions, with the fertile valley becoming associated not just with motherhood but with female self-determination against masculine control. Hemingway’s narrative distance and objective presentation require readers to actively construct the symbolic meanings themselves, creating an interpretive experience that mirrors Jig’s own need to look carefully at her alternatives and decide which future represents a better path forward. The enduring power of the valley symbolism lies in its capacity to make visible and concrete what characters cannot or will not articulate directly—the profound emotional, psychological, and existential weight of the choice Jig faces stands revealed in the contrasting landscapes, making “Hills Like White Elephants” a paradigmatic example of how setting can function as active symbolic content rather than mere backdrop.
References
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