Hemingway - 'Hills Like White Elephants'

"I love you now. You know I love you."
"I know. But if I do it, then it will be nice again if I say things are like white elephants, and you'll like it?"
"I'll love it. I love it now but I just can't think about it. You know how I get when I worry."

To the girl, and to us, the man's words ring hollow and insincere as he promises her that he 'loves' her, despite the impossible situation he has forced her into - she must choose between the baby and their own relationship. The girl aready senses this, and presses him to confirm her fears, but also to make the decision for her - 'if I do it, then will it be nice again [...] and you'll like it?' His noncommittal answer shows us his ignorance towards her feelings and desires, and his flippant attitude towards her obvious reliance on him for moral support, stuck in a foreign country whose language she doesn't know. Their relationship cannot carry on in this vein, as he leads her from hotel to hotel, continuing to deny her what she wants and needs - a family and a home. It seems inevitable that she will make the break for her freedom, and tragic that the price of this decision will be the baby.
Hemingway strips the dialogue down to the bare minimum and offers no judgment on the situation as a narrator. No adverbs are used, and thus the reader's feelings towards the situation must come from their own judgments, making this story almost ambiguous in its morality. The audience cannot really tell if the man is manipulative or just oblivious, and whether his 'love' for the girl is real or faked. The girl certainly loves him, but her love will sour as she realizes he does not want 'anybody else', and the baby will not be welcome.

Dom, Claudia, Isabelle