"" is a story about the "lost generation," a term used by Hemingway
explicitly in his novel to describe the young adults of the period
immediately following the first world war. The characters in his works about this period
exemplify this by being rootless expatriates, lacking close and permanent ties to other places
or people.
The setting of "Hills Like White Elephants" in a
railroad station exemplifies this sense of being "lost." A railroad station is not a
permanent place anyone inhabits but a place one passes through in transit to somewhere else.
This lack of permanence is emblematic of the relationship between Jig and the man. Rather than
getting married and raising their child, Jig is preparing to have an abortion, and the couple is
drifting apart. Their efforts to be free of anchors to place, community, and person have left
them adrift and unmoored, constantly in transit between places but never becoming part of those
places.
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