According to Hemingway scholar Wendolyn Tetlow the short stories in In Our Time are structured to form a thematic unity.Tetlow (1992), 23 The volume's early stories are about senseless death and the "ultimate nothingness of existence", whereas the second half of the collection focuses on how to cope with pain, wounding and suffering, and how to accept life. Cross Country Snow is about escape and yet the need to accept life's burdens.Tetlow (1992), 70
