Hemingway\'s the Killers Alienation, Disillusionment,

¶ … Hemingway's "The Killers"

Alienation, disillusionment, suspense, and fatalism meet each other face-to-face in Ernest Hemingway's short story, "The Killers." Alienation and detachment become signature trademarks in Hemingway's writing partially because of Hemingway's experiences with war and life itself. Hemingway faced war, death, and pain on a level that many of us only read about and these experiences created a specific mood and temperament in the writer that emerges in practically everything he ever wrote. Hemingway felt a certain detachment from people and even from his country and his nihilism often emerges as a result of his mindset. These elements are seen in "The Killers" as we watch two men coming to grips with certain aspects of life that seem shocking but inevitable. Ole must face his death and he doe so in such a way that makes him seem almost too willing to die. He accepts his death and seems resigned to the fact that there is absolutely nothing he can do about it. He is detached and, as a result, alienates himself from his environment. Nick becomes an important focal point as well because he must accept certain things that he has never considered before. He confronts evil and violence and this leaves him feeling worse about his world that he used to be. Both men are victims of life in that they find themselves in situations where they must respond to external circumstances. How they respond becomes the key to this story and many of Hemingway's other stories. Ole waits and simply bides his time until his killers arrive while Nick decides he must leave town before he becomes infected with too much of the evil and violence that surrounds him. "The Killers" is more than a story in that it is a statement about Hemingway's beliefs, how he attained those beliefs, and his influence in literature.

Notoriously one of the most prominent members of the "lost generation," Hemingway was directly influenced by what was occurring in his country and his life. Without his experiences in war and abroad, Hemingway's stories might be from a different perspective. As it turns out, Hemingway's personal experiences and opinion influence his writing, emerging in the form of memorable characters. One such story is "The Killers," which emphasizes Hemingway's common theme of nihilism. Nihilism emerges through elements of despair, disillusion, alienation, suspense, death, and the hint of nothingness in life. John Aldridge notes that Hemingway's most persuasive attribute is "his powerful responsiveness to experience" (Aldridge 139). In Aldridge's opinion, Hemingway "was living in the most exotic city in Europe among some of the most remarkable personalities and gifted artists of the post Word War I era" (139), which afforded him many opportunities to express himself through writing. When looking Hemingway and his influences, we cannot overlook the war, which contributed to the shape of Hemingway's character. Hemingway volunteered as a nurse for the American Red Cross during World War I, which was a relatively safe position, respectively. However, Hemingway experienced another side of war when he was shot and became the one in need of a nurse. Susan Beegel writes, "In pain, in love, and confined for months to a hospital bed, Hemingway seems to have made up his mind to become a writer" (Beegel). In short, writing became therapy for Hemingway. The pain and suffering he witnessed, along with the pain and suffering he felt paved the way for a perspective that would eventually become associated with the writer Hemingway that could say more in a few words that many writers could say in a few pages or paragraphs. Being "lost" was beneficial for Hemingway in that it forced him to find something that he could believe in. These beliefs emerge with what we have come to recognize as Hemingway heroes.

One of the most common characteristics of the Hemingway hero is that he is a man that is detached from many things. This alienation is sometimes the result of circumstances and sometimes the cause of circumstances.

Hemingway's heroes demonstrate his attitude and they reflect the times in which Hemingway lived. The Hemingway hero is a tough man and outwardly insensitive. There is a code of manhood that many critics have noticed that emerges, especially in stressful times. The toughness, according to Cleanth Brooks, allows readers to become aware of Hemingway hero that is disciplined and very aware of his tragedy. This toughness "may find itself in conflict with some more natural and spontaneous human emotion" (Brooks) and may seem to be "inhuman" (Brooks) but Brooks maintains that this is part of the condition of the hero who becomes afraid to experience those spontaneous emotions "because he has learned that the only way to hold on to honor, to individuality, to, even, the human order as against the brute chaos of the world, is to live by his code" (Brooks). Brooks also asserts that this circumstance presents the perfect irony for Hemingway's heroes in that they "practice a lonely virtue" (Brooks). We see this in "The Killers" because Ole might want to express a certain amount of fear but remains true to his code of manhood by facing the notion of death with a decent amount of alienation and detachment that makes him seem almost immune to fear - even if it is related to death. Brooks maintains that any other type of reaction would not follow the Hemingway model because Hemingway's heroes generally "utter themselves, not in rant and bombast, but in terms of ironic understatement" (Brooks). This type of reaction allows Hemingway's heroes to be tough and sensitive at the same time without being overly sensitive. The pull between the two, according to Brooks is a "constant aspect of Hemingway's method" (Brooks). In addition, Brooks notes that Hemingway's stories often present a "margin of victory in the defeat of the Hemingway characters, so there is a little margin of sensibility in their brutal and violent world" (Brooks). Ole fits this model because he "won't whimper" (Brooks). Like a true Hemingway hero, he "takes his medicine quietly" (Brooks). He remains detached from everything and everyone, emphasizing alienation.

Disillusionment is also prominent in "The Killers." Disillusionment often makes it way to moments of despair for nihilism. In "The Killers," disillusionment and nihilism hold hands in that without that sense of suspense and waiting, there would be no story. To add texture to the story, it is about waiting for death. Nihilism emerges in this setting as Ole accepts the end of his life - even if he is unsure of exactly when it will come. He has given up, stating, "There isn't anything I can do about it" (Hemingway 613) and "there ain't anything to do now" (614). Here we see that he has practically given up on any other options that might actually be available to him. He does not attempt to look for a way out and it is safe to assume that he simply does not care to find any alternative choices. He is afraid of death but he is also afraid to make a move in any direction and his fear has paralyzed him. Chris Semansky asserts that "The Killers" is "rife with images of waiting" (Semansky), emphasizing the author's "ideas on the human condition" (Semansky), which include Hemingway's concept of nothingness. Semansky maintains that Hemingway "creates suspense, develops characters, and suggests themes that lesser writers might take twice as many pages to accomplish" (Semansky). The boxer, waiting for his death with the belief that there is little he can do about it, represents the nihilism, which is often associated with Hemingway. Semansky believes that the waiting is the most significant aspect of the story. The act of waiting is "bound up with notions of time and human behavior" Semansky) and that alone creates suspense and provides a "framework for the story's events" (Semansky). Time is fuzzy in this story in that the clock is wrong and we are never told what time it actually is. The blurry lines dealing with time point to its insignificance in relation to the big picture. Semansky is aware that many critics have focused on the element of time in the story. This is demonstrated to the characters' attention to the clock. Hemingway disrupts time deliberately, which in Semanksy's opinion, demonstrates "Hemingway's perception of the world as an unruly and objectively unknowable place but it also colors the varying responses that Sam, Nick, and George have toward the events" (Semansky). In the end, what time it is does not matter just as time itself does not matter. This sentiment reflects on Hemingway's nihilism. The disillusionment we find in Ole is what Hemingway leaves with us as we are left waiting at the end of the story with Ole.

Hemingway's heroes are often fatalistic and we see this reflected in Ole's attitude. Phillip Booth maintains, "Heroic fatalism, or fatalistic heroism, a dignified, graceful acceptance of one's circumstances in the face of personal disaster up to and including one's death" (Booth) is undoubtedly the theme of "The Killers."

Booth asserts that while Ole's acceptance of death "seems incomprehensible to Nick" (Booth) his "resolve, although leaving too many questions unanswered, is portrayed as admirable and mature" (Booth). In addition to this, Booth maintains that Ole's death and is "in keeping with themes that are recurrent in Hemingway's work" (Booth). If we can accept death in the way that Ole does, we accept the fact that death is simply a part of life and there is essentially nothing we can do about it.

Another character that deserves mention in the story is Nick. Brooks contends that there is more to the story than this, however, in that the story is also a story about Nick. Brooks adds that Nick fits into the story through the process of "discovery of evil and disorder" (Brooks). Hal Blythe agrees with the importance of Nick's inclusion in the story. He asserts, that Hemingway uses Nick to emphasize the fact that along with the circumstance of facing death and violence, "he also faces a choice" (Blythe). Blythe notes that Hemingway's "cites door openings and closings (plus other entrances and departures through doorways) sixteen times to stress that, to become an authentic person, Nick must make crucial decisions" (Blythe). The doors, just as the wall, become important motifs in the story. Walls represent imprisonment while door suggest choice. For Ole, walls symbolize the type of universe he is living in, which include no choice and very little options. The door, on the other hand, Nick is noticing doors in movement. Blythe asserts that doors offer "passages through what appear to be barriers" (Blythe). Blythe asserts, "Hemingway has laced his narrative with the door motif to suggest that Nick is free to make choices... he can listen to Sam the cook and have nothing else to do with the affair; he can follow George's view that getting out of town is 'a good thing to do'... Or he can do something else that he chooses" (Blythe). Blythe also maintains that the subject of choices is apparent in the story's conclusion, which is "ambiguous' (Blythe) because Nick does not make a choice.

It can be argued that "The Killers" is not a story about Ole. It is also about Nick and his revelations. Nick comes into contact with evil and violence when he meets Al and Max. Their reasons for killing Ole remain unknown and how Nick responds to it is significant because it, too, falls in line with Hemingway's technique of alienation and despair.

Al and Max are no doubt evil. Nick has come face-to-face with men that kill simply for the sake of killing. At the story's conclusion, Nick decides he must "get out of this town" (Hemingway 615) because all of what he has seen becomes too much for him to digest. He finds it difficult to accept the fact that Ole is just simply waiting for his killers to come and take his life. He tells George that he "can't stand" (615) to think about it and all George can tell him is to not think about it then because it is inevitable. Nick is the character that becomes immersed with something that he certainly did not want to experience. He is almost Ole's foil in that he refuses to accept certain facts that Ole has resigned himself to believe. Nick is Ole before he became distant and alienated. Nick is Ole before he accepted the fact that there is nothing he can do about the killers coming after him. Nick is faced with a decision of becoming a nihilist like his friend Ole or attempting to escape while he still has his life and a fairly decent attitude toward that life. Of course, we must also realize that Nick will never be able to forget what he has witnessed no matter how far away he goes. The memories will be there and, as a result, he runs the risk of becoming detached simply because he cannot forget. Ole waits for his killers while nick might have attempted to run from them. Ole knows what Nick has not accepted yet, which is that life is basically about a bunch of nothing.