Exploring the Dark Side of Human Nature in The Killers Essay -- Killer

Exploring the Dark Side of Human Nature in The Killers Hemingways The Killers illustrates that unexplained violence is an integrated part of society. To acknowledge the cruelties of vitality is to come to terms with horrifying events that can not be denied. A person may lack the maturity to cope with everyday life if they do not realize that evil can exist in any given society. The story is told in the objective point-of-view. Hemingways approach to his story is different he approaches it as a journalist approaches a news story, from a focal point somewhere outside of his characters (Jaffe, 209). The author tells the story only as an observer. He does not tell the reader what the characters are thinking, nor does he give the reader any insight to his personal feelings. As the story progresses, the reader learns that The Killers intend to await up to the label Hemingway appropriately gave them. The Killers, however, are not the main focus on of the story. The title is symbol ic only of the evil that the story revolves around, but the main focus of the story is Nicks discovery and disbelief of the true evil that lurks in everyday life. Nick struggles with the knowledge that he can not change Oles fate as he states, Dont you want to go and see the police?...Isnt there something I could do?...Maybe it was just a bluff...Couldnt you get out of town?...Couldnt you fix it in some way? (Hemingway, 251). He is not mentally prepared to accept the darker side of human nature. It is a story of discovery, in which the anonymity of the observer serves to fetter the readers attention to the bare facts as they add up, one by one, to a pattern of demonstrated yet... ...rld, they will be over-burdened with the unfairness of everyday life. Works Cited Benson, capital of Mississippi J. Hemingway...The Writers Art of Self-Defense. Minneapolis University of Minnesota Press, 1969. Brooks, Cleanth and Robert Penn Warren. Understanding Fiction. 3rd ed. New Jersey Prenti ce-Hall, Inc., 1979. Hemingway, Ernest. The Killers. Great Tales of Terror and the Supernatural. New York The Modern Library, 1972. Jaffe, Adrian H. and Virgil Scott. Studies in the Short Story. 5th ed. New York The Dryden Press, 1956. Moseley, Edwin M. Pseudonyms of christ in the Modern Novel. New York University of Pittsburgh Press, 1962. Walcutt, Charles C. Mans Changing Mask. Minneapolis University of Minnesota Press, 1966. West, Ray B. Jr. The Short Story in America. 2nd ed. New York Books for Libraries Press, 1968.