Heroism and Masculinity Theme Analysis

Hemingway’s short stories and novels famously feature what is called a “code hero.” The “code hero” is a paragon of masculine virtue, boasting honor, endurance, unwavering courage in the face of adversity, and a refusal to show fear, even when facing death. In “The Killers,” however, there is no code hero: all of the story’s men fail to live up to Hemingway’s masculine ideal, albeit in different ways. Since all of these men fail to be masculine when confronted with adversity, the story suggests that ideal masculinity is rare and difficult, or possibly unattainable altogether.

Throughout the story, Max and Al lob gendered insults at their hostages to try to intimidate and control them. When Max and Al first enter the diner—even before they take hostages—they call both George and Nick “boy.” This is an attempt to immediately assert their power over George and Nick, intimidating them by suggesting that they are not worthy of being considered men, but are instead weak and immature boys. This is especially notable due to the clear differences in Nick and George’s ages. While George is older than Nick and in a position of power as the manager of the diner, Max and Al’s suggestion that George and Nick are both boys is meant to doubly emasculate George, therefore making him easier to control later on. However, calling someone “boy” is not the most extreme form of emasculation—after all, boys eventually become men. Once Sam, George, and Nick are tied up, Max and Al escalate their emasculation by directly comparing their hostages to women. Al calls Sam and Nick (who are tied up in the kitchen) “a couple of girl friends” and Max tells George that he’d “make some girl a nice wife.”

While these insults are meant to make Max and Al seem powerful, their behavior ironically shows them to be cowards, and therefore to be insufficiently masculine themselves. After all, they’re only brave enough to compare their hostages to women once these men are tied up and cannot physically retaliate. Were they courageous and genuinely masculine (at least by Hemingway’s standards), Max and Al would stand behind their words and believe in themselves enough to let their opponents fight back. Furthermore, while Max and Al view themselves as heroes—ultra-masculine men of action who take everyone in Henry’s diner hostage so they can carry out a hit—they are also criminals who have come to town “to oblige a friend” by murdering Ole Andreson, even though he “never had a chance” to do anything to them personally. This plan lacks morality or honor, which Hemingway closely associates with heroism.

Unlike Max and Al, Sam and George might be candidates for heroism, as they manage to keep level heads amidst danger and chaos and do not openly admit their fear while they’re tied up and held at gunpoint. Once he is untied, however, Sam seems panicked and unable to deal with the situation head-on. George is more comfortable talking about what happened, but his passivity and potential cowardice (in having Nick warn Ole instead of going himself) puts his masculinity and heroism in doubt.

It is also difficult to acknowledge Nick Adams as a hero yet. He does decide to take action to try to save Ole because he believes it is right and honorable to do so (even at the risk of his life), but he also has a difficult time gracefully enduring the horror he feels over Ole’s acceptance of death, rather petulantly exclaiming that he “can’t stand to think” about the “awful thing” that has happened. This emotional weakness in him needs to be overcome before he can step into the masculine role of a “code hero.”

Finally, Ole Andreson has accepted the inevitability of death and is preparing to meet it of his own accord instead of running away, which are key characteristics of a Hemingway “code hero.” He reveals that he is “through with all that running around,” meaning that he has been trying to run away from death for a while but has now accepted that he must meet it head-on. While Ole has made this important realization, he is not quite ready to meet death bravely the way a hero would; he says to Nick, “I just can’t make up my mind to go out. I been in here all day,” and this hesitation undercuts his ability to be a true masculine hero.

With all the story’s male characters ineligible—in ways both large and small—for heroism, Hemingway paints a somewhat bleak picture of honor, masculinity, and courage. Since none of the men in this story are true “code heroes,” then maybe no men are true men and this standard of masculinity is unattainable. It’s possible to read “The Killers,” therefore, as a commentary on inevitable human weakness and the impossibility of the masculine ideal, but it’s also possible to draw a narrower conclusion. After all, across Hemingway’s collected works, he does write some characters who live up to the standard of the “code hero” (such as Santiago in The Old Man and the Sea). With this context, one might read “The Killers” as a commentary on how rare and difficult true masculinity and heroism are, and how men can easily fall short of this, even when they believe they’re succeeding.