Question

Which excerpt from "Hills Like White Elephants" provides the most details about the main characters’ lives outside the railway station? Click here to read an excerpt.
Click here to read the story.



"I might have," the man said. "Just because you say I wouldn’t have doesn’t prove anything."


"That’s the only thing that bothers us. It’s the only thing that’s made us unhappy."


"The shadow of a cloud moved across the field of grain and she saw the river through the trees."


"He did not say anything but looked at the bags against the wall of the station. There were labels on them from all the hotels where they had spent nights."

Answer 1

Answer:

"He did not say anything but looked at the bags against the wall of the station. There were labels on them from all the hotels where they had spent nights."

Explanation:

Ernest Hemingway's short story "Hills Like Elephants" is a story of two characters starting from their wait at a train station to go to Madrid. The story mostly stays within the confines of the train station and the journey, not going further into the destination.

The two protagonists, an American and his girlfriend who we believe to be pregnant, were talking about her pregnancy, but without giving any direct reference to it. The man wants her to get an abortion while the woman thinks this new addition will be a change from their monotonous life of travelling and drinking. But as sad, the man wants her to get it aborted, which the author didn't include or specify if it happened or not. It's up to the readers to decode what happens in the end. They seem to be just travelers, not seeming to have any permanent resident or even plans of settling anywhere. The lines "He did not say anything but looked at the bags against the wall of the station. There were labels on them from all the hotels where they had spent nights." best provides the lives of the two characters outside of the railway station.