There are a number of themes that find themselves in multiple short stories by Ernest Hemingway. One is the idea of men being stoic and, in the face of death, not allowing themselves to be affected with the knowledge of an unstoppable fate. In the story “Fathers and Sons,” about Nick Adams reflecting on his life as a teenager and his father, Nick’s son asks him, “Why do we never go to pray at the tomb of my grandfather?” (498). Nick’s reply is that his father’s tomb is too far away to visit; this seems more like an excuse for Nick to not have to remind himself that, like his father before him, he will die. This theme is also seen in the first chapter of A Farewell to Arms, in which Hemingway writes four paragraphs describing the scenery at the Italian front of World War I and only briefly mentions seven thousand deaths due to cholera in the last two sentences. In this chapter, Hemingway spends as little time as possible writing about death as he can, and in this way even his narrative contemplates death for as short a time as possible, forcing it out of mind.
Besides the theme of death, the structure of Hemingway’s short stories also repeats itself, and not be coincidence. In “Hills Like White Elephants,” almost the entire story is dialogue. It is all about interactions between two people, a couple, and how they feel about getting an abortion. Another story, “A Clean, Well-Lighted Place,” is also almost completely dialogue. This story is about how two waiters have differing opinions and discuss how they disagree. A third story, “The Killers,” is similarly rife with conversing between various characters: Nick Adams, employees at a lunch-counter, cold-hearted criminals, and their intended victim, Ole Andreson. In all three of these stories, human communication plays a large part in the pacing and tone of the piece. So does the diction of the characters. For the most part, communication in short stories by Hemingway does not consist of emotional realizations between characters or deep understandings of each other’s emotions. Communication is casual and largely made up of small talk. In “Hills Like White Elephants,” the couple first talks about what drinks they are going to order, and then attempt to discuss whether or not to get an abortion. However, they do not manage to see eye-to-eye and at the end still both feel uncomfortable about the subject. This lack of mutual understanding is also seen in “A Clean, Well-Lighted Place”: while the older waiter does not mind staying up late to keep his café open, the younger waiter wants to get home to his wife. Even though the older waiter tries to explain to his younger counterpart, the younger waiter is not convinced and goes home before closing time. Simple diction or small talk between characters is illustrated in “The Killers,” where most of the dialogue is about ordering and eating and food, and casually discussing the plan to kill Ole Andreson.
