In Ernest Heminway's short story "Hills Like White Elephants," why does Jig often express herself sarcastically rather than simply saying what she...

In s short
story , the young woman called Jig
is being pressured by her older male companion, usually
called simply the
man, to have an abortion. Although it is obvious that Jig would prefer to

keep the baby, she never directly and emphatically tells the man that this is her
desire.
Instead, she often uses sarcasm to imply her reluctance to go through
with the
abortion.

Why does Jig rely on sarcasm rather
than openly and forcefully
stating her mind?  Several possible explanations
suggest themselves, and some of them reinforce
one another.  Among the
possible reasons for Jigs indirectness are the following:

• She seems dependent on the man and may fear that if she resists him
  too
  strongly, he will simply abandon her.
• She may not
  completely know her own
  mind and may be genuinely ambivalent, at least to
  some degree.
• Women during
  the period in which the story
  is set were far less likely to express themselves forcefully than
  women
  today. Women today take for granted that they are the equals of men; Jig was raised in
  an
  entirely different and less liberated era.
• Jig may be
  reluctant to argue
  openly with the man in a public place, in front of other
  people. She may not want to cause a
  scene.
• Apparently
  Jig has not been in the habit of openly challenging the
  American. He seems to
  set the terms of their relationship. It might therefore seem inconsistent
  of
  her to begin openly challenging him now.
• Jig may feel that if she
  does
  express herself explicitly, she will lose her temper, alienating the man
  and potentially
  embarrassing herself. After all, at one point she threatens
  to scream, and when the man does
  push her too far, she utters perhaps her
  most memorable line:

Would
you please, please, please, please, please,
please, please stop
talking?

Clearly, Jig is increasingly

agitated as the story evolves, and her decision to use sarcasm is a passive-aggressive
strategy
rather than an assertively aggressive strategy.

The fact that Jigs motives
for using sarcasm are so plausibly
various is testimony to the complexity of the characters
Hemingway has
created even in such a very brief tale.