Hills Like White Elephants

This story, as I was reading it, made no sense to me what so ever. It just seemed completely random and pointless and I didn't get why I was reading it, or how it was beneficial in any way. I did look back into the story to see if I could figure it out, and still nothing came to me. That is why I found today's class lesson about it so interesting. It showed me to look into a story in a way that I never have before, finding symbolism in things that would typically be overlooked, and making connections to things that I would have usually not even thought twice about.

I have no doubts that if I come across a story like this again, that I will be able to figure out what it is really about, or at least give it a better guess than being completely clueless. Although I feel like if we weren't told that the story was about abortion all along, than we would have been able to pull out different topics, and back it up with the same evidence, just tying another meaning to it. for instance, with someones idea of it being about a breast surgery, if it were a breast reduction, it could be described through the part about an operation, and the part where they say "once they take it away, you never get it back". If you were to back up as them talking about marriage, they could be talking about an operation but metaphorically, about it being the only thing making them unhappy (maybe they have been together so long but never got married so it felt like their relationship wasn't going anywhere, OR maybe they are a religious couple and are saving themselves for marriage.), maybe they are having commitment issues and that is why they said "once they take it away, you never get it back", referring to their freedom. they were discussing about being able to have everything, while the other said they could not. maybe one thinks everything is when they are together but not apart, and the other thinks you have everything when you are seperate. There are just so many possibilities, but once you know what it really is, it all makes sense.