“Murder of Innocence”
by
AO
English III 3A
1/23/09
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“Murder of Innocence”
According to Answers.com, a killer is considered to be “one who kills” (“Killers”);
however, what if the subject being killed is not a living being but rather an ideal? The use of
killers, murderers, and death are very popular themes in today’s literature. Many authors prefer
to use such themes in short stories simply because the murder case can be resolved before the
reader becomes confused by the plot of a much longer work of literature. “The Killers,” by
Ernest Hemingway is one of these short stories that deals with death; though this sort of story
does not tell the cliché death of a mortal being. By analyzing the “The Killers”, it is shown that
this short story strongly represents Hemingway’s enjoyable and unique writing style, which
influences many future authors’ styles of writing.
Ernest Hemingway was born in Oak Park, Illinois on July 21, 1899. He led an interesting,
yet sad, life before finally killing himself on July 1, 1961. Though Hemingway’s life had been
painful, he experienced many situations of which would help either further develop his writing or
give him ideas to use later on in his stories. Hemingway’s writing career first began as a field
reporter for the newspaper The Kansas City Star (Sandison 28). As Timothy J. Pingelton later
states, “It was at the Star where Ernest Hemingway formed his writing style” (35). After
becoming tired of missing all of the action that was happening in Europe, Hemingway seized a
“back-door chance,” as it is mentioned by Sandison, applied to the American Red Cross and was
readily accepted as an ambulance driver (34). During his tour of duty, Hemingway was severely
wounded after trying to aid a fellow soldier. He managed to drag the soldier to safety before
allowing himself to be treated (Sandison 36). While in the hospital, Ernest Hemingway met and
fell in love with Anges von Kurowsky, a Red Cross nurse who had been assigned to take care of
him (Sandison 37). He would later base the character, Catherine Barkley, on this nurse in his
famous short novel A Farewell to Arms (Pingelton 37, 39). After recovering from his injuries,
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Hemingway traveled to Toronto, Canada to work as a reporter. Later, he returned to Illinois
where he met his first wife, Hadley Richardson at a party (Pingelton 39). Hemingway later
married three other women: Pauline Pfeiffer, Martha Gellhorn, and Mary Welsh. Hemingway
also enjoyed traveling and partying with other writers. He included these places and writers in
his stories by recounting events that had happened to him and to his friends, though he changed
their names. According to Pingelton, however, “It is easy to figure out which of his friends is a
character in the book” (74). Though Hemingway experienced much in his life, it was his writing
that he enjoyed most, and many agree that his style of writing was very different and unique as
compared to his peers.
Hemingway’s writing style is one that he had refined and developed ever since he was
young. Hemingway wrote in the style of realism, and he conveyed this using understatement and
by avoiding very flowery vocabulary. Hemingway also used short sentences in his writing,
which he learned from his experience as a news reporter for the Kansas City Star (Sandison 28),
instead showing the emotions of a character through their actions (Pingelton 20). His writing
style contains a very detached quality that can also seem cynical at times, depending on the
subject matter of the writing. Another characteristic of Hemingway’s writing is his profound use
of symbolism. He believed that “a good writer can express deep ideas without…having the
writer directly tell the reader what to think” (Pingelton 18-20). Hemingway’s writing style was
in fact unique to his time and many writers that had come after him were deeply influenced by it
and to this day, many of his literary pieces are famous; showing Hemingway’s writing style
perfectly. Hemingway also wrote many short stories, poems, and novels; but only a few of these
literary pieces have distinctly characterized Hemingway and his writing style. Hemingway only
wrote two short novels in his entire writing career. These two novels were The Sun Also Rises
and A Farewell to Arms. The Sun Also Rises was Hemingway’s first novel, and he based it
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entirely on “his experiences with friends in the city of Pamplona, in Northern Spain” (Pingelton
74). It was in this novel that Hemingway began making a name for him and soon after, he began
writing A Farewell to Arms (Pingelton 82). This next novel also includes one of the greatest love
scenes ever written. In addition, Hemingway also won the Pulitzer Prize for 1952 thanks to the
book The Old Man and the Sea (Pingelton 128), as well as the Nobel Prize for literature in 1954
(Sandison 142). This short story is well known because it is regarded as one of the best examples
of Hemingway’s writing style.
The plot of “The Killers” is a very simple and enjoyable; however, the meanings and
themes that are found throughout this work are both subtle and complex. The main plot is
composed of a simple story line: two killers, Al and Max, enter Henry’s Diner. Nick Adams
watches as the Al and Max argue over the dinner menu as George, the owner, tries to explain that
it is not time to order dinner yet. They finally decide on what to eat and wait for their food. Soon
after, Al and Max force Nick, George, and Sam the black cook, to stand behind the counter. Al
takes Sam and Nick into the kitchen area and ties them up while Max stays up front and watches
George. Max explains that they are hired assassins and that their target is Ole Anderson, a heavy
weight prizefighter who occasionally eats dinner at Henry’s Diner around six o’clock. After
waiting around anxiously, Ole Anderson never shows up to eat dinner, delaying his death for the
time being. Al and Max leave, leaving the hostages unharmed. Nick decides to warn Ole about
the killers; however, Anderson already knew about the attempt on his life. Ultimately, Nick
Adams decides to leave Summit, but as the story ends, the reader does not know what happened
to Ole Anderson (Hemingway 71-80). Hemingway’s plot line may have seemed simple at a
glance, but the unanswered questions only add to the mysteriousness of his writing; Ernest
Hemingway also employed many techniques to convey his ideas to his readers.
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Hemingway had a deep understanding on how to employ the use of point of view in his
short story “The Killers.” He uses a limited third person point of view that rarely shows the
thoughts of the characters to his readers. Throughout the entire story, the reader does not know
what George is thinking, especially while being held up by the killers. This is shown on when he
looks up at the clock every so often to check the time (Hemingway 75). Ernest tells us the time
that he is seeing, but he does not divulge into George’s internal thought processes. Another
instance that Hemingway withholds a character’s thoughts is during the scene where Nick is
talking with Ole Anderson. During this, Ole Anderson turns to face the wall, ignoring Nick while
he tries to plead with the older man to go the police (Hemingway 78). The reader again does not
know what Ole is feeling as he stares at the blank wall. Hemingway finally allows the reader to
see a small, fleeting thought pass through Nick Adams' mind as he is unbound. Ernest
Hemingway only gives his readers two short sentences regarding Nick’s feeling when he states,
“Nick stood up. He never had a towel in his mouth before” (77). Hemingway does this in order
to give the situation an overall surreal feeling and to show how detached Nick feels about the
situation in general. By using a limited third person point of view, Hemingway added a sense of
mystery to the story. He kept the reader guessing as to what would happen next, though he
allowed the reader to fill in their thoughts and emotions where the characters only voiced their
opinions. If Hemingway had written “The Killers” in a different point of view, the story would
have lost all of the mystery and the quality of allowing the reader to fill in the characters’
emotions. Hemingway displayed a mastery of the usage of third person point of view; however,
he also used many other techniques in the short story.
The manipulation of the syntax of the sentences in “The Killers” is both effective in the
story and reflexive of Hemingway’s unique writing style. In general, Hemingway employed the
use of simple sentences, while imbedding complex ideas and symbolism into the tale. This is
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shown through Al and Max’s descriptions. Ernest completely strips the two of all individuality
(Hemingway 72). He used short and medium sentences when describing the two men, which
gave the description a flat and detached tone, but it was possible to visualize the killers and the
actions that they performed. Once more, the scene where Nick contemplates the dishtowel
perfectly embodies Hemingway’s signature style that had made him famous. The two sentences
“Nick stood up. He never had a dishtowel in his mouth before” (Hemingway 77) is composed of
one short sentence, which implies movement, immediately followed by one medium-sized
sentence, which only served to show Nick’s thinking process.
Though the manipulation of the syntax in “The Killers” is one distinctive quality that
shows up in Hemingway’s writing repeatedly, the diction that he chooses in his writing also has
a profound effect on the story. Ernest Hemingway had been known to use simple vocabulary that
would be reflective of the period in which he wrote his stories. Many of the words he uses are
either outdated, or they have obtained different meanings throughout the decades. The first
instance is brought up is when Hemingway uses the term “nigger” to address the cook.
Currently, such a term is considered vulgar and is not used; however, during Hemingway’s time,
this term was commonly used by “people in a diner in the outskirts of Chicago in the 1920’s”
(Pingelton 61). Hemingway also uses the term “vaudeville team” to describe the appearance of
the two killers. In order to understand why Hemingway chose to describe the duo this way, one
must know that a vaudeville team is a group of people who perform slapstick comedy acts and
other routines (“Vaudeville”). This is shown in the story during the time that Max and Al had
held up the diner. Max continuously told jokes that made fun of the three hostages’ sexuality
(Hemingway 74-75). This term also shows the time period since the term vaudeville was used
primarily in the 1920’s.
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Hemingway’s use of description is both enjoyable and helps to bring the story alive. This
is shown through Hemingway’s description of Ole Anderson characterizing him as a big,
muscular prizefighter, who is so large, that “he was too long for the bed” (78). This demonstrates
how large Anderson is compared to Al and Max. Even though Hemingway explained what is
seen in detail, he fails to mention the other senses such as touch, taste, hearing, and smell. Other
examples of Hemingway’s descriptions can be seen where Al ushers Nick and Sam to the back
of the diner and ties them up (74). This section allows the reader to visualize what the diner
looks like; though, only one sensation is described while the other senses are ignored. However,
the short sentence “the door shut after them” (Hemingway 74) found in the passage replicates the
sound of the door shutting with the shortness of the sentence and by stating the obvious. The
words used in Hemingway’s short story are effective yet simple in his work, but they are used to
convey deeper meanings. When Al states, “he knew I’d blow his head off” (Hemingway 76), he
shows that he is a very violent person compared to his partner, Max, who is easy going and likes
to joke. In addition, it can be seen that Hemingway also chooses his words carefully when he
writes his descriptions, such as when he describes the scene outside as dark with only a
streetlamp to provide light (71). A dark atmosphere is created which foretells the end of
Anderson’s life. Yet, while Hemingway put a considerable amount of thought into the words he
chose, he mostly relied on symbolism to convey his ideas.
Symbolism in Hemingway’s stories, especially in “The Killers,” is crucial to
understanding the themes and ideas that were conveyed. For example, in the very beginning,
Hemingway uses the incorrect time clock and the incorrect menu to prove that time is irrelevant.
This is displayed during Al and Max’s argument with George, showing the reader that these men
all have different ideas of what should happen. The fact that Max and Al still try to order the
dinner from the menu only proves that they will do things in the moment, and they will not wait
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for permission (Hemingway 71). Delaney also states, “Hemingway wanted to fill the story with
mix ups…[the] purpose was to remain moot.” To the killers, it makes no difference if Anderson
is killed at six o’clock; Al and Max will kill their target anyway.
Another symbol shown throughout the short story is that size does not matter; Ole will
still be killed by the killers. This is mostly portrayed through the different descriptions that
Hemingway used. Anderson who despite being a boxer is kind- hearted (79), is compared to the
two killers who are like twins. Al and Max have no qualms about taking human life while
Anderson seems to be less violent and gives up. Compared to Anderson, the killers will get their
job done, while Anderson has apparently failed as a boxer. Though this is believed to be true,
critic George Monteiro believes that the killers will fail and will not finish their job since their
appearances do not make them seem threatening: “Their [the killers’] competence as
professionals, moreover, is impugned from the start.” He says this because in the story, the
killers are portrayed to be comical and as twins; however, the takeover of the diner was
successful since Nick, George, and Sam did not resist, especially when Al orders George to
“stand a little further along the bar” and that he “seemed like a photographer arranging for a
group picture” (Hemingway 74). More importantly, these symbols explain how Hemingway felt
about life: life is meaningless to cling to if the person in question is doomed to fail at life.
Again Hemingway conveys that life is not always pleasant, since bad things are always
waiting to happen. This is shown through the fact that the killing is going to occur on a nice fall
day (Hemingway 79). Hemingway also hints at this by placing a bare tree in front of the
boarding house where Ole Anderson lives (77). This represents that although the tree was once
full of life, it is stripped of all its leaves, showing that it is past its prime and that it is waiting to
die in the winter. Just like the tree, Anderson is past the prime of his life and is willing to die at
the hands of Al and Max. Another reason why this theme is true is due to the fact that Anderson
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is not an old man, and it is his mistakes that ultimately cause his death. In Hemingway’s story,
George guesses that Anderson had gotten mixed up in something in Chicago (79), while
Anderson himself is tired of running (78). Not only does Hemingway’s symbolism deal with
very somber subjects, but his themes too contend with depressing matters about the futility of
life.
Ernest Hemingway liked to write about what he had experienced, but he also enjoyed
writing about what he saw to be common themes in life. To start, The “Killers” dealt with the
principal of relativity and uncertainty as its major theme. The principle of relativity states that,
according to Answers.com, it is a universal law that the laws of physics all have to have the same
form in all that they are referred (“Principle”); while the principle of uncertainty deals with an
object’s position and speed cannot be measured at the same time (“Uncertainty”). It is proven
that Ole Anderson usually eats dinner at the diner around six o’clock; however, on the day the
killers arrive, he never shows up to be killed. To explain, in the story, much confusion arose
from the clock being twenty minutes fast (Hemingway 71). This later causes more confusion for
the reader who is waiting for it to be six o’clock so the killing can occur. This demonstrates that
time is viewed differently by everyone and that everything that is about to occur is not
predestined. Hemingway hints that Anderson may or may not appear at the diner when George
replies, “Yes if he [Anderson] comes” (75) when asked if Ole would come to the diner. The fact
that he does not come at all once again proves that everything is uncertain and nothing is
predestined. Also, even though compared to the killers, Anderson seems to be a bigger and
stronger man, his size does not matter compared to the guns that Al and Max carry to kill the
boxer. Though the principles of relativity and uncertainty are the major themes in this work,
Hemingway also inserted several minor themes that carry as much weight as the two major
themes.
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As stated before, Hemingway love to write about the hopelessness of life; however, he
also wrote about several different themes, all of which he believed to be true in some regard. For
instance, one minor theme that reoccurs many times in “The Killers” was that time is irrelevant.
This theme is shown by the clock that is twenty minutes fast (Hemingway 71). The fact that the
clock is wrong only causes confusion and for the killers to stay for longer than necessary.
Hemingway also wrote about how death is inescapable, but those that do not face death head on
are both cowards and failures. This idea is portrayed through Anderson who chooses to be killed
since he knows that he will die eventually (Hemingway 78-79). Lastly, Hemingway writes in the
short story that nothing is as it seems. This is depicted through the confusion over who Henry is
when George is the owner of the diner (Hemingway 71), and the owner of the boarding house
and Mrs. Bell (Hemingway 79). Hemingway does this to show the readers that people tend to
assume things when they are not so. Critic Quentin E. Martina writes that the reader discovers
after reading the short story that the assumptions they had formed are simple and incorrect and
that everything is more complex than it is led to believe.
All in all, once analyzed, “The Killers” is a prime example of Hemingway’s unique style.
His writings include a plethora of symbolism, deep and complex meanings, and he allows the
reader the luxury of inserting their own emotions for the characters. As critic Pingelton states,
“Hemingway writes about complex things in life in a simple manner…but the answer will prove
to be much bigger than the little sentence it came from” (25). Though his style is well known and
liked, it does have its weaknesses such as the confusion that it causes the reader to feel over
some aspects of the story, such as the time is incorrect and who the true owners of the diner and
boarding house are. to prove this point, critic Delany writes, “a person might read ‘The Killers’
many times and still be confused…[Hemingway] saw this as a chance to dramatize that fact that
reality is really different from books or movies.” Ernest Hemingway was a great writer who
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created a new style of writing and “The Killers” is one of the best examples of this writing. It
introduced Nick Adams into all of the evils and initiated him into the adult world. All humans go
through similar experiences throughout their lives; whether they have gone through a horrible
occurrence that changed their opinion on how life is to be lived, or these people simply were
betrayed and lost their ability to trust in people, however, it is their choice as to what they decide
to do when faced with the situation.
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Works Cited
Delaney, Bill. "Hemingway's "The Killers." The Explicator. 62.2 (Winter 2004): p113. Literature
Resources from Gale. Gale. MINOOKA COMMUNITY HIGH SCHOOL. 21 Nov. 2008
<http://go.galegroup.com/ps/start.do?p=LitRG&u=mino34663>.
"Killers." Answers.com. 2008. Answers Corporation. 20 Jan 2009
<http://www.answers.com/killers>.
Martina, Quentin E. “Hemingway’s “The Killers,’.” Explicator. 52.1 (FALL 1993): 53-57. Rpt.
in Short Stories for Students. Ed. David A. Galens. Vol. 17. Detroit: Gale, 2003. 53-57.
Literature Resources from Gale. Gale. MINOOKA COMMUNITY HIGH SCHOOL. 21
Nov. 2008. <http://go.galegroup.com/ps/start.do?p=LitRG&u =mino34663>.
Monteiro, George. "The Hit in Summit: Ernest Hemingway's 'The Killers,'." The Hemingway
Review. 8.2 (Spring 1989): 40-42. Rpt. in Short Stories for Students. Ed. David A.
Galens. Vol. 17. Detroit: Gale, 2003. 40-42. Literature Resources from Gale. Gale.
MINOOKA COMMUNITY HIGH SCHOOL. 21 Nov. 2008
<http://go.galegroup.com/ps/start.do?p=LitRG&u=mino34663>.
Pingelton, Timothy J. A Student's Guide to Ernest Hemingway. Berkley Heights, NJ: Enslow
Publishers, 2005.
"Principle of Relativity." Answers.com. 2008. Answers Corporation. 20 Jan 2009
<http://www.answers.com/topic/principle-of-relativity-2>.
Sandison, David. Ernest Hemingway. Toronto: Reed Consumer Books Limited, 1998.
"Uncertainty Principle." Answers.com. 2008. Answers Corporation. 20 Jan 2009
<http://www.answers.com/topic/uncertainty-principle>.
"Vaudeville." Answers.com. 2008. Answers Corporation. 20 Jan 2009
<http://www.answers.com/topic/vaudeville>.