<Tr> <Th> Followed by </Th> <Td> "The Killers" </Td> </Tr> <P> "Hills Like White Elephants" is a short story by Ernest Hemingway . It was first published in August 1927, in the literary magazine transition, then later in the 1927 short story collection Men Without Women . </P> <P> The story focuses on a conversation between an American man and a woman at a Spanish train station while waiting for a train to Madrid . The woman compares the nearby hills to white elephants . The pair indirectly discuss an "operation" that the man apparently wants the woman to have, which is implied to be an abortion . </P> <P> There is little context or background information about the characters . The reader must infer their own conclusions based off of the dialogue . This has led to varying interpretations of the story . One point of debate is whether or not the woman decides to get an abortion . Critics like Stanley Renner assert that the details in the story imply that the woman decides to keep the baby: "The logic of the story's design enjoins the conclusion that she smiles brightly at the waitress's announcement of the train because she is no longer headed in the direction of having the abortion that she has contemplated only with intense distress". Other critics conclude that the woman ultimately decides to get an abortion . Furthermore, most critics acknowledge that the story has several possible interpretations: "The two organizing questions of the narrative--will they have the abortion or the baby? Will they break up or stay together?--imply four possible outcomes: 1) they will have the abortion and break up; 2) they will have the abortion and stay together; 3) they will have the baby and break up; and 4) they will have the baby and stay together". There are many essays written which argue for all of these possibilities and more . There is no universal consensus because of the nature of the story; the reader is simply not given much information . </P>

Hills like white elephants what kind of operation are the characters discussing