Last Drinks - DE Book Club

Ernest Hemingway's short story Hills like White Elephants is centered on one dilemma: should the woman keep the child or have an abortion? Though the woman is hesitant, the man has already made up his mind: "I know we will [be happy]. You don't have to be afraid. I've known lots of people that have done it [abortion]." At the end of the story, he takes a drink at the bar before rejoining his lover. This act symbolizes the decision he's already made, that of pursuing his life as he had before and of abandoning the woman should her decision differ from his.

Drinking is a symbol of the couple's past. The man and the woman are very familiar with alcohol: "Let's drink beer"; "It tastes like licorice." Before the man has the Anis, the woman asks him to "come back and [...] finish the beer" with her. By doing so, she asks him to stay with her to the end. The use of the word "finish" hints that this beer is meant to be their last. In other words, the woman is telling the man that they should stop their current lifestyle so they can move on to better things: the raising of their child.

Unfortunately, the man doesn't respect her wishes. He later stops at the bar and has another drink, breaking his promise to the woman. This betrayal demonstrates the man's willingness to continue his alcoholic way of life without the woman. If she decides to keep the child, the man may abandon her and pursue his drinking days the same way he drinks his Anis: alone.

The man's decision to drink alone at the bar is thus a symbol of his eventual betrayal of the woman, should she decide to keep the child. It is perhaps a representation as well of how he will spend the rest of his life.

Read about the setting of Hills like White Elephants

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