Ernest Hemingway: The Killers

(Lakatos Györgyi)

Ernest Miller Hemingway was an American author and journalist. His distinctive writing
style, characterized by economy and understatement, influenced 20th-century fiction, as did
his life of adventure and his public image. He produced most of his work between the mid-
1920s and the mid-1950s. He won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1954. Many of his works
are classics of American literature. He published seven novels, six short story collections, and
two non-fiction works during his lifetime; a further three novels, four collections of short
stories, and three non-fiction works were published posthumously.

The Killers is a short story by Ernest Hemingway. It first appeared to the public in 1927 in
Scribner's Magazine. Historians have some documents showing that the working title of the
piece was "The Matadors". After its appearance in Scribner's, the story was published in Men
Without Women, Snows of Kilimanjaro and The Nick Adams Stories. The writer's depiction of
the human experience, his use of satire, and the everlasting themes of death, friendship, and
the purpose of life have contributed to make "The Killers" one of Hemingway's most famous
and frequently anthologized short [Link] story features Nick Adams, a famous
Hemingway character from his short stories. In this story, Hemingway shows Adams crossing
over from teenager to adult. The basic plot of the story involves a pair of criminals that enter a
restaurant seeking to kill a boxer, a Swede named Ole Andreson, who is hiding out for reasons
unknown (probably for not cooperating with the proposed rigging of a fight).

The story is about two men – the killers– , who got a mission from a friend to kill a man,
named Ole Andreson. The story takes place at a lunch counter in a small town. At the
beginning of the story two men, their names are Al and Max, walk into the lunch counter.
After deciding what they want to order they start to ask questions to the owner, named
George, about one of his regular customers Ole Andreson and what is his usual time to visit
the lunch counter. After obtaining that information the two men put Sam the cook and Nick
Adams who is a customer into the kitchenroom. By asking questions they reveal that the two
mysterious men are going to kill Andreson. Al says to George that he has to remain at the
front of the lunch counter with Max while he goes into the kitchen and ties Sam the cook and
Nick up. After a few hours of waiting passes by without a sign of Ole Andreson, Max and Al
leave the restaurant. George goes into the kitchen and unties Sam and Nick. Nick decides that
he needs to go to tell Ole Andreson that the two men are looking for him and want to kill him.
When he arrives at Hirsh's rooming house the landlady tells him that Andreson hasn’t come
out all the day. The landlady shows Nick Andreson's room and he goes in. Nick finds
Andreson lying on the bed. He delivers his message but Andreson tells Nick that he knows
that the two men are looking for him and want to kill him but he is tired of running away and
decides to stay where he is. Nick doesn’t understand this. Nick then returns to the lunch
counter and tells George what happened in the Hirsh's rooming house. George suppose that
the two men are probably looking for Andreson because he double-crossed somebody. Both
men agree that something “damned awfully” is going to happen to Andreson. George advises
Nick not to think about what is going to happen to Andreson. Nick then decides to leave the
small town.

This story is written in a documentary style. The sentences are short and Hemingway doesn’t
let us know what is on the minds of his characters except through their speech. It is told from
a third person point of view. We don’t get to know the thoughts of the people, only what they
say and do. We must determine what the story wants to say with these things. This point of
view style is a form of “modernist story telling”.

What does the story want to tell us?

A close reading of this story shows us that death is inevitable and that people learn and grow
through their experiences and you can’t escape death. Ex-fighter Ole Andreson has
experienced this in this story. It seems that he was running away from Max and Al, but at the
end of the story he stop running (Ole says very often “no” to Nicks motivating questions, so
you notice, there is no way Ole can escape): it follows an abstract
“Nick looked at the big man lying on the bed.
Don’t you want me to go and see the police? - No, Ole Andreson said. That wouldn’t do any
good.
Isn’t there something I could do? - No. There ain’t anything to do.
Maybe it was just a bluff. - No. It ain’t just a bluff.
Ole Andreson rolled over toward the wall.
Couldn’t you get out of town? - No, Ole Andreson said. I’m through with all that running
around.
He looked at the wall.
There ain’t anything to do now. – Couldn’t you fix it up some way?
No. I got in wrong. He talked in the same flat voice. There ain’t anything to do. After a while
I’ll make up my mind to go out. “
Ole Andreson has accepted the fact that he is going to die. He knows that the death will get
him, trying to run away from it won’t help him. There is nothing that he can do that will save
him from his death. Nick has also learned this through his experience during this story.
The development from innocence to experience is another theme of this story. At the
beginning of the story Nick seems to be naive. He doesn’t understand that death is inevitable.
When he leaves Andreson’s house he realise that there is more in life than he knows. He
makes the decision to leave the town. The thought that both someone he knows is going to die
makes Nick scared and about what is going to happen to Ole Andreson. it follows an abstract,
which shows this situation and Nick’s fear (although Nick has not acquired all of the
experience he seems to be on the way to learn it, at the end of the story we can see Nick’s
transformation from innocence to experience):
“I’m going to get out of this town, Nick said. - Yes, said George. That’s a good thing to do.
I can’t stand to think about him waiting in the room and knowing he’s going to get it. It’s too
damned awful.
Well, said George, you better not think about it.”
George knows that Andreson’s death is inevitable so he tells Nick that he shouldn’t think
about it. Although Nick hasn’t acquired all of the experience he seems to be on the way to
learn it.
Who has the lead part? When you read the topic it seems to be the two killers but it could
also be Andreson, Nick or George. But although the story is named The Killers it’s Nick who
is most affected by what he learns during the story. Max, Al, and Andreson are just there to
help Nick learn about the inevitability of death. Max and Al don’t seem to be different as to
the beginning. It is Nick that changes and grows during the course of the story. He also learns
that there are people in the world who are not good and don’t care about others. The other
characters are important to Nick’s growth in the story.
Andreson is the most important person in the story: He helps Nick to understand the
inevitability of death. If Nick hadn’t talked with Andreson, Nick wouldn’t have made the
change from innocence to experience. George and Sam are constant characters in this story
because they don’t change. You notice that George understands the meaning of death. Sam
doesn’t understand it at any point in the story. The hitmen don’t change, too. They only see
the murder of Andreson as a job.
There is an important part in the story: Nick and Sam are placed into the kitchen of the lunch
counter. George remains at the front of the restaurant with Max while Al stays in the kitchen
area with the other two. This separation helps us to see the understanding of the meaning of
death of each man.

Historical context

"The Killers" was written in the 1920s when organized crime was at its prime during
Prohibition. Chicago was the home of Al Capone. Hemingway himself had spent time in
Chicago as a young man. When things became too dangerous for the mob they would retreat
to the suburb of Summit, where "The Killers" takes place. Despite Hemingway's knowledge
of organized crime he omitted much of that background from the story. Hemingway himself
said, "That story probably had more left out of it than anything I ever wrote. I left out all
Chicago, which is hard to do in 2951 words."

The Killers has a minimalist style which has basic characteristics. These are:

ordinary subject matter

effaced authorial presence

passive and affectless protagonist

very little plot (in the traditional sense)

use of historical present tense

spare, emotionally restrained writing style

"The Killers" fit within this style in many ways. There is nothing extraordinary about the
story. It is, in plain sense, simple. There is hardly any plot, virtually no character
development, and very little description of the setting in the story. Hemingway also gives an
objective view to the story, an "effaced authorial presence"; his minimalistic approach
influenced American writing.

Themes in „The Killers”:

One theme deals with the failure of the parents of the Lost Generation to provide their
children with the means to handle the cruelty and meaninglessness of 20th-century America.

Chaos is another theme in "The Killers". The many misrepresentations throughout the story
create a plane of chaos for the reader, and dislocation, almost as if it is happening in another
world.

Masculinity is the next theme. Although Hemingway is known for the "manly men" in his
stories, in "The Killers", the two hit men are comical and clownish men. Hemingway at one
point describes them as the "vaudeville twins".
The short story has been the basis for several movies and a comic book short story.