What is a good thesis statement for a critical analysis of symbolism in "Hills Like White Elephants"?

I
agree with an earlier answer that the place to start is with figuring out what you think the
story means, and what the themes are. For me, the thing that is interesting about Hemingway is
how, for all the focus on the directness and concreteness of his prose, most of the meaning of
it is left unsaid. In the case of this story, it is mostly dialog, but in fact very little real
communication is happening. There are many reactions one could have to these characters: Jig is
being bullied, of course, but she is also fighting back in a passive aggressive way (I dont
care about me, she says when she gives in). There is an emptiness in their relationship; they
are talking at each other, rather than to each other, and there is a kind of intractable quality
to each of them. Someone described them as decadent, but to me these are people who realize
that they have made a tremendous mistake but dont want to admit it or face up to each other. I
dont mean the baby, but their lives.

So a thesis statement about symbolism in
the story would need to account for this. I guess another way of thinking about a thesis would
be to ask some questions: How does the setting of the story, or any of the descriptive details
Hemingway provides, relate to this theme? Do these things contrast with this feeling of
disconnectedness or reinforce it? Can these details be seen as ironic in any way? I think if you
consider these questions, you can come up with a good thesis about how Hemingway uses the
landscape as a way to comment on, and distance himself from, these
characters.