Hemingway’s The Killers: a Counter Narrative of the Title and Code Hero

Abstract

This research aims at exploring and analyzing the human values of courage, bravery and optimism that Hemingway admired the most. “Hemingway’s "code hero" is someone who is honorable, courageous, and adventurous and who exhibits grace under pressure. This research paper explores the counter narrative of the title and its first impression on the readers. It also explores the counter narrative of the protagonist, Ole Anderson, of the story, and an analysis how he does not represent the code hero of Hemingway. Detailed textual study of the short story “The Killers” has been done as a primary source for this research. The research finds that human values and priorities undergo a drastic change under certain conditions. The study recommends that positive human values must be kept in hand no matter how feeble is man’s power and intellect before the hostile forces of nature and all other internal or external conflicts.