The Killers (Hemingway short story)

The Killers (Hemingway short story)

How It All Goes Down

"The Killers" begins with two men walking into a lunchroom. They’re clearly from out of town, and they act like jerks by giving George, the man running the place, a hard time. They also taunt Nick Adams, the young man sitting at the other end of the counter. When they’re done with their supper, they order Nick behind the counter. One of the two strangers, named Al, ties up Nick and the Sam, the cook, in the kitchen. The other stranger, named Max, stays out at the counter with George. The men reveal that they’re planning on killing "a big Swede named Ole Andreson" who often eats supper at this lunchroom. They’re basically staking the place out. So everyone stands around and waits until 7pm, at which point it’s clear that Ole isn’t coming. The killers leave, rather anti-climactically.

Once the men are gone, Nick runs over to Ole’s place, a room at a boarding house. He finds the man, a former heavyweight prizefighter, lying in bed fully dressed. He knows there are men coming to kill him, Ole says, and he doesn’t want to run away. He accepts that he’s going to die, but he still can’t bring himself to leave the house (knowing he’ll be killed when he does). Nick returns, defeated, to the lunchroom, where the three men stand around talking about how awful this is. While George and Sam seem ready to forget about it all, Nick declares that he’s "going to get out of this town." George tells him that it’s best just not to think about it.

 

• The door to Henry’s lunchroom opens and two men come in. A young man named Nick Adams watches them from the other end of the counter.
• George, the man running the lunchroom, asks them what they want for dinner. They don’t know.
• We learn that one man is named Al.
• Both men try to order meals from the dinner menu, which George informs them doesn’t start until six (it’s only five, and the clock is fast).
• The men are disgruntled; they get all Oscar the Grouch and give George a hard time, though they order lunch meals.
• We get a little bit more information: Al is wearing a derby hat, a large overcoat, and gloves.
• The other guy is wearing the same thing.
• Then the men want drinks, but George doesn’t have any liquor either, which puts him 0 for 2. (FYI, this is during Prohibition. Read all about it in "setting.")
• Al and nameless guy want to know the name of the town. "Summit," George tells them.
• The men continue to grumble and act like jerks, mocking George by calling him a "bright boy."
• When they get tired of that, Al looks down the lunch counter to Nick, the only other person in the lunchroom. He asks him his name, which Nick gives. The two men call him a "bright boy" as well.
• We learn that the other man’s name is Max.
• George comes with their meals, and both men eat with their gloves on while they continue to harass George.
• Finally, Max calls down the counter to Nick and tells him to go behind the counter.
• George, reasonably, wants to know what the hell is going on.
• The men don’t explain, but asks who’s in the kitchen.
• George responds that it’s only "the nigger that cooks," and Al orders George to call him in.
• He does, so we meet Sam, the cook.
• Al then takes Nick and Sam back in the kitchen, while Max stays at the counter with George.
• We learn that this lunchroom used to be a saloon.
• George asks what this is all about (SOMEONE had to), and Al pops his head out from the kitchen, telling Max to move a little bit to the left, "like a photographer arranging for a group picture."
• Finally, Max explains that he and Al are there to kill "a big Swede named Ole Andreson" who often eats dinner at this lunchroom at six o’clock. When he adds that they’ve never met Andreson – that they’re killing him "for a friend," Al tells Max to shut up and not talk too much.
• Al adds that he’s got Nick and Sam tied up in the kitchen. Max makes a joke about Al having been in a kosher convent (he would seem to be mocking him for being Jewish).
• Max then tells George the plan: if anyone comes in to eat, he’s to tell them that the kitchen is closed.
• While they wait, three people come into the lunchroom. George plays his part. When he goes to the kitchen to make a sandwich to go for a customer, he sees Al with his derby hat and sawed-off shotgun.
• By seven o’clock, George tells the killers that Ole isn’t coming. If he were, he would have been there at six, as usual.
• They wait a little longer, another customer comes in and is turned away, and finally Al and Max give up. They leave, deciding that the three men are "all right" and can be left alone.
• Al, however, is nervous about leaving them intact, since Max talked too much.
• George watches them leave and observes that they look "like a vaudeville team." He goes into the kitchen and unties/ungags Sam and Nick.
• Nick, who has "never had a towel in his mouth before," is all "What the hell?" George explains that the men were going to kill Ole Andreson.
• Sam, meanwhile, keeps repeating, "I don’t like it."
• George tells Nick that he’d better go see Andreson (who lives at Hirsch’s boarding house) and tell him what’s up, though the cook recommends he just keep his nose out of it.
• Nick opts to go. He heads to Ole’s boarding house and greets the landlady, who takes him up to Andreson’s room.
• Ole is lying on his bed with all his clothes on. We’re told that he used to be a heavyweight prizefighter.
• Nick gives him the 411. Ole, who seems totally unfazed, just turns his head to the wall and says there’s "nothing [he] can do about it." He doesn’t even want to know what the men looked like, nor does he want to involve the police.
• Nick asks what he can do to help, Ole says "nothing" and tells Nick that the men weren’t bluffing about that whole wanting to kill him thing.
• He doesn’t want to get out of town, either, since he’s "through with all that running around." Ole thanks Nick before the young man leaves.
• Downstairs, Nick speaks with the landlady before leaving. She tells him that Ole has been lying on his bed like that all day. She thinks it’s funny that he used to be "in the ring," since you’d never know it except for the scars on his face– he seems so gentle.
• Nick says goodnight to Mrs. Hirsch, but she explains that she’s not Mrs. Hirsch and just takes care of the place for her. In fact, her name is Mrs. Bell.
• Back at the lunchroom, Nick explains what happened. They conclude that the men will kill Ole.
• They add that Andreson "must have got mixed up in something in Chicago," speculating that maybe he "double-crossed somebody."
• Nick them firmly declares: "I’m going to get out of this town." George agrees that that’s a good idea.
• Nick explains that he just can’t bear to stand around thinking of Ole waiting for death. George responds, "Well, you better not think about it."

The Killers Theme of Innocence

The standard take on "The Killers" is that it is a typical "loss of innocence" story. Nick Adams, a main character and frequent protagonist in Hemingway’s short stories, experiences evil in the world and is a different person at the close than he was at the start. In this tale, it is experience that jades and hardens, as evidenced by the older characters who are unfazed even by an attempted mob murder. Innocence, then, has more to do with naïveté than anything else.

Questions About Innocence

1. Is Nick’s loss of innocence an inevitable event that is merely hastened by the incident with the killers, or is he corrupted in a somehow atypical, unnecessary way by these events?
2. If we agree with the classic interpretation of "The Killers" as a loss of innocence story, which scene takes Nick’s innocence away – the first one with Max and Al, or the second one with Ole?
3. What does Nick’s conversation with Mrs. Bell contribute to his loss of innocence?
4. Why are Sam and George so unaffected by the evening’s events? Actually, ARE they affected by the evening’s events?

Chew on This

Try on an opinion or two, start a debate, or play the devil’s advocate.

Despite popular opinion, "The Killers" is not about the loss of innocence. Nick Adams is already jaded when the story begins.

The Killers Theme of Passivity

Passivity is condemned in "The Killers." The story’s arguable hero is a man of action who attempts to save a defeated man of inaction. The notion of passivity is largely contrasted with masculinity; real men should be decisive and resolved, the story seems to argue.

Questions About Passivity

1. After the killers leave the diner, Sam believes that Nick should leave himself out of it. When Nick comes back, Sam shuts the door to the kitchen and doesn’t want to listen to it. How does Sam’s passivity in response to the killers differ from that of Ole, whom we see lying on his bed with his face to the wall?
2. What is the difference in "The Killers" between heroically accepting fate and cowardly running from it?
3. What is the relationship between innocence and action, between age/experience and passivity?

Chew on This

Try on an opinion or two, start a debate, or play the devil’s advocate.

In "The Killers," Ole Andreson is emasculated by his refusal to fight against his impending death.

In "The Killers," Ole Andreson is emasculated not by his acceptance of his death, but by his refusal to leave the boarding-house.

The Killers Theme of Appearances

Nothing is what it seems in "The Killers." The story is pervaded with feelings of confusion, unease, and uncertainty. From people to buildings to names, we just can’t trust what we see. Part of this has to do with irony: killers are comic, fighters are weak and defeated. The story’s loss-of-innocence theme is related to the realization that the world is filled with this sort of sad, illogical irony.

Questions About Appearances

1. OK, OK, we get it, "nothing is what it seems." But so what? What does this have to with the way we read the story? How does it effect what we take away from "The Killers"? What does it have to do, for instance, with the loss of innocence, or evil in the world, or masculinity?
2. What do the killers "appear" to be – killers, or vaudeville comedians? And which are they?

Chew on This

Try on an opinion or two, start a debate, or play the devil’s advocate.

The killers are the only characters in "The Killers" who appear as who they are.

The killers are the characters most at odds with their own appearances; in this way, the story’s title is meant to be ironic.

The Killers Theme of Criminality

The criminality we see in "The Killers" is that of the 1920s Chicago mafia. The two characters in question – the killers themselves – are attributed every mob cliché known to man: big black overcoats, "tight lips," gloves, and major attitudes. At the same time, they manage to operate with Vaudevillian undertones: the two-man-act, constant bickering, sarcastic exchanges. It is this odd duality that renders "The Killers" and its portrayal of criminality a strange mix of fantastic and the real, a snapshot of a feasible-if-atypical scenario injected with a healthy dose of theatrical drama.

Questions About Criminality

1. Do the killers portray typical notions of organized crime, or do they satirically mock them?
2. How can the killers possibly be criminals and comedians at the same time? Isn’t this a contradiction in terms? (Have you seen Pulp Fiction?)

Chew on This

Try on an opinion or two, start a debate, or play the devil’s advocate.

"The Killers" is an exploration of what happens when movie clichés meet reality. It concludes that these two worlds are incompatible.

The Killers Theme of Men and Masculinity

In "The Killers," masculinity has a lot to do with action. The killers themselves are decisive and resolved, sure of themselves, and unapologetic. As a result, they are undeniably male. Ironically, the man who should be the most masculine – an ex-heavyweight prizefighter, is passive and weak. For the young Nick Adams, coming of age as a man means learning to take action. Because masculinity is so highly valued in the world of "The Killers," any and all joking insults revolve around insinuated femininity on the part of the men.

Questions About Men and Masculinity

1. Who is the most masculine character in "The Killers?"
2. How is Max’s masculinity different from that of Al’s?
3. What defines masculinity in "The Killers"? How is that accomplished in the text?

Chew on This

Try on an opinion or two, start a debate, or play the devil’s advocate.

For Nick Adams, the events in "The Killers" are more about understanding masculinity than about losing innocence.

The killers are the least masculine character in "The Killers."