This story is difficult what is white elephants implied and first of all I checked out the meaning of white elephants-
“something that has cost a lot of money but has no useful purpose”(Cambridge dictionary).
In short, on this story, two characters a girl and a man was out, and waited the express went to Madrid and was to drink beer. When the girl was looking off at the line of hills at Ebro, they were white in the sun and the country was brown and dry-it’s look like white elephants……
The conversation kept on with drinking bear, a man looks like dare not to admit they never see white elephants. Why is this? I’m not interpret this vague story at first until looking a interpretation by Ishii Kazurou-he interpreted as follows: the man beg his wife to do abortion.-for sure, this interpretation could be say because in this story the man said like as follows-“It’s really an awfully simple operation…it’s not really an operation at all.” and “I know you wouldn’t mind it. It’s really not anything. It’s just to let the air in”. So it could be interpret in this part a man wanted to not having baby, on the other hand his wife want to have baby even if it’s a sort of take cost a lot of money but has no useful purpose kind. Because of why the man said he never watch white elepants, in other words baby. Of course a man said “I don’t want you if you didn’t want to.”, but even this word made a girl irritated.
The impressive scene was when the girl pilled up her irritating, but a man talked to her “I know” and urged her how he knew about it she said “Would you please please please please please please please stop talking.” The repetition of please is so strength emphasizing and she also after said “I’ll scream”.
I remembered the story “Kusabi” by Hoshi Shin-ichi: this story a woman said had been a baby in stomach, ended over the operation of family thing and brought up this child, but her husband never looked that child. “Cats in the rain” also only a woman can looks cats, it probably had implied something.
Bibliography
Ernest Hemingway, (1955), Men without women, New York: Scribner
(鮎川信夫訳、1982年、『女のいない男たち』(ヘミングウェイ短編集2)、荒地出版社)
