Ernest Hemigway - The Killers

(1927)
Introduction: Ernest Hemingway wrote the short story "The Killers" one morning in a
hotel room in Madrid, Spain. His editor didnt change a word of it before it was published,
that same year, in Scribners Magazine. Since that first publication, its been included in
many of Hemingways short story anthologies, including Men Without Women in 1927, The
Snows of Kilimanjaro in 1936, and The Nick Adams Stories in 1972. "The Killers" is
considered one of Hemingways best works; 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 stories.
Main character (although this description is subject to debate) Nick Adams has been the
protagonist of many other of Hemingways short stories (hence the collection The Nick
Adams Stories, which you would imagine might require quite a bit of Nick Adams). In these
works, Hemingway basically explores Nicks coming of age, from adolescence to
adulthood. "The Killers" is part of that collection.
Plot: The story takes place in Summit, Illinois during the 1920s. Two hitmen, Max and Al,
walk into Henry's lunchroom, which is run by George. They order something off the menu
that is not available and have to settle for pork and eggs. Al goes into the kitchen and ties
up Nick Adams, a recurring character in Hemingway's stories, and Sam, the black cook.
Max and George soon have a conversation, which reveals that the two men are there to
kill Ole Andreson, a Swedish boxer, for a "friend." Andreson never shows up, so the two
men leave.
George sends Nick to the boarding house where Andreson is currently living to warn him
about the two men. Nick finds the man lying in his bed, with all of his clothes on: he tells
him what has happened, but Andreson does not react, except to tell Nick not to do
anything, as there is nothing that can be done. Nick leaves, goes back to the lunchroom,
and informs George about Ole Andreson's reaction. When George no longer seems
concerned, Nick decides to leave town.
Setting and historical context: "The Killers" was written during Prohibition,
when organized crime was at its peak. Chicago was the home of Al Capone, and
Hemingway himself spent time in Chicago as a young man. When things became too
dangerous for the mob, they retreated to the suburb of Summit, where "The Killers" takes
place. Not long before the story was written, the Chicago mob had killed a popular boxer of
the time, Andre Anderson, who'd once knocked Jack Dempsey off his feet, likely
Hemingway's source for the Swede.
Despite Hemingway's knowledge of organized crime, he omitted much of that background
from the story.

Style: In The Killers, Hemingway uses a minimalist style. Its main features are:
-

ordinary subject matter;

effaced authorial presence and non-obtrusive third person narrator;

passive and affectless protagonist;

very little plot (in the traditional sense);

spare, emotionally restrained writing.

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: a) 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 Hemingways
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 navet than anything else. The theme also deals with deals 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.
b) passivity. It is condemned in "The Killers": the storys 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.
c) chaos. 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. 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, the reader and the characters cant trust
what they see. Part of this has to do with irony: killers are comic, fighters are weak and
defeated. The storys loss-of-innocence theme is related to the realization that the world is
filled with this sort of sad, illogical irony.
d) masculinity. It 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.
e) criminality (satire and stereotypes.) The criminality in "The Killers" is that of the

1920s Chicago mafia. The two characters in question the killers themselves are
attributed every mob clich 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.

* Vaudeville is a theatrical genre of variety entertainment. It was especially popular in the United
States and Canada from the early 1880s until the early 1930s. A typical vaudeville performance is made up of a series of
separate, unrelated acts grouped together on a common bill. Types of acts have included popular and
classical musicians, singers, dancers, comedians, trained animals, magicians, female and male
impersonators, acrobats, illustrated songs, jugglers, one-act playsor scenes from plays, athletes,
lecturing celebrities, minstrels, and movies. A Vaudeville performer is often referred to as a "vaudevillian".
Called "the heart of American show business," it was one of the most popular types of entertainment in North
America for several decades.