Comparing the Hemingway hero between 2 of his short stories

Ernest Hemingway is notorious for providing guidelines regarding his tragic hero that is considered by the reader to be a “man’s hero.” Traditionally they love to drink, indulge in sexual escapades, and live dangerously. These heroes never deal with the internal struggles that develop as a direct result of their philandering lives. The fate of these characters can be described as self-imposed much like the characters of the Naturalistic writer. These characters cannot escape their fate, which is inevitable. Hemingway’s characters share traits that have been identified to be those of the Hemingway Hero. There are three main characteristics that the heroes from “The Killers” and “A Clean and Well Lighted Place” share with other works of Hemingway.

First, the actions of these characters revolve around death. In the beginning of life, all humans are innocent and life is beautiful, however, with age and experience comes the introduction of the darkness that determines destiny. “In A Clean, Well-Lighted Place, there are many contrasts that demonstrate the evolution of the Hemingway hero: light and dark, beginnings and endings, and exper

death by attributing his inability to sleep to insomnia. He is unable to admit that loneliness and death are encroaching upon his life. Instead, he avoids death at all cost by simply denying the events of their true meaning.

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In The Killers, Ole Anderson, an ex-boxer, is literally awaiting an inevitable death. As in A Clean, Well-Lighted Place, the perspective of the younger character is one of misunderstanding due to the inability to comprehend death as an unavoidable end. The character, which in this case is Nick Adams, whose days are not yet numbered, is actually watching death stalk a victim who cannot and will not escape its clutches (Bryant, 1627). In the end, it is Nick who is unable to accept the terrible inevitability of Anderson’s death. The hit men, the men in the restaurant, and even the victim all accept that death is coming for the former boxer. Rather than face death, Nick chooses to escape this reality. He wants to leave the town in order to escape from the thought of Ole’s death. Nick’s inability to handle the impeding death of the former boxer drives him to seek a new town in which to live. Thus, it is death that controls the destiny and fate of this character rather than personal choice.

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