Ernest Hemingway "Hills Like White Elephants"

“We can have the whole world.”
“No, we can’t.”
“We can go anywhere we want.”
“No, we can’t. It isn’t ours anymore.”
“It’s ours.”
“No it isn’t. And once they take it away, you never get it back.” (554)

This part of the dialogue between the American and the girl, or Jig, as he calls her, is very significant and holds a lot of meaning to the story. The American is persuading his female companion to undergo a surgery, which is understood to be an abortion. But the irony is that althought he is now trying to convince her that they will be able to have the whole word no matter what she chooses to do, she denies his proposition. She contradicts him and says that the world is not theirs anymore, meaning that she is now pregnant and someone else is soon to be included into the equation. However, the American’s attitude is very much so focused mainly on status quo and he seems to enjoy living a carefree life. Despite the girl’s efforts to settle down and stop going from one hotel to the next, the American overpowers her decisions and they aimlessly stroll along the path of life. Both of these characters are confused and lost, making them absolutely inadequate in making a well rounded decision about the pregnancy.
In the above passage, the girl says, “..And once they take it away, you never get it back anymore.” To me, this sounds like a cry for allowing her to keep the child. Once the surgery is done, she will never again be able to bring that child back to life. What’s done is done but she does not want to choose that option any longer. To her, the world was now blossoming and she was ready to explore it from a different perspective. She even compares the hills in front of her to white elephants, which correlates with her pregnancy and the uselessness of the gift she was being blessed with. White elephants are more of a liability than an asset due to its value. She draws this simile to explain how she feels about what the American thinks, without actually saying it. But the again, the irony comes up and to the woman the child is a liability and puts her in a disadvantage to the world. What she fails to recognize are her own exact words; the world is not theirs any more. Both of them, instead of focusing on what they had in front of them, the American and the woman kept looking around at others and wanted to try out more drinks, or explore new options in life, which in the long run will leave them with nothing to show for their years of living.