Ernest Hemingway, in "Hills Like White Elephants," uses distinct aspects of the setting to describe the conflict between an American man and a woman identified as Jig. The couple, traveling through Spain, is waiting for a train at a junction. The woman and the man talk about the possibility of having an abortion because of their unborn child. While talking to the man, Jig admires the landscape. Hemingway uses the imagery of the setting to symbolize Jig's uncertainty about her abortion.
             The first apparent landscape feature present in the setting is the train station at which the couple is waiting for the next train. The train station is located in a valley. The valley is neatly bisected into two sides, this side (the infertile side, brown and dry with no trees), and the other side (the fertile side: fields of grain, the river, the trees), by not one but two lines of rails. Since the station is located in the area with two contrasting landscapes, the reader can assume that these two opposite landscapes represent the two opinions of the man and Jig concerning the abortion.
             In addition to being located in an area with contrasting landscapes on either side of the valley, the station is divided by two rails. In fact, these two rails are presumably going in opposite directions and represent the decision point at which the couple find themselves. The two rails represent the two paths the couple could take, either to have the abortion or to give birth to the child. In addition, the two paths represent that the couple are choosing between two ways of life. The choice of abortion is associated with the site of the hills on the one side of the valley and by extension with the runaway life they have been leading. The couple can either choose the carefree life they had been living, or can choose to give birth to the child and allow their relationship to mature and change.
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