INTRODUCTION TO LITERATURE

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THE KILLERS- Earnest Hemmingway

Earnest Hemmingway (1899-1961) • an American writer of novels and short stories• worked as a reporter for the Kansas City Star and served as a

First World War ambulance driver before enlisting with the Italian infantry and suffering a wound

• After the war, he worked for the Toronto Star and lived for a time in Paris and Key West, Fla

• During the Spanish Civil War and the Second World War, he served as a newspaper correspondent, then lived in Cuba until 1958 and Idaho until 1961, the year of his death by suicide

• His narratives frequently contain masculine motifs, such as bull-fighting (Death in the Afternoon), hunting (The Green Hills of Africa), war (A Farewell to Arms, For Whom the Bell Tolls), and fishing (An old man & the sea)

SETTING OF „THE KILLERS“ • It first appeared to the public in 1927 in• takes place in a suburb of Chicago called Summit during the

1920s, during Prohibition (organized crime was at its prime)• a diner, lunch-room• 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

PLOT SUMMARY• two strangers, Al and Max go into a diner• complaining about the serving schedule, the two men

order dinner• joking sarcastically about George and Nick being a

couple of dumb country boys• Finishing his meal, Al orders Nick and Sam, the Black

cook, to the kitchen, and ties them up• Max boasts to George that he and Al have been hired

to kill Ole Andreson, an aging boxer• the boxer fails to show up, Al and Max leave, and

George hurries to untie Nick and Sam.

PLOT SUMMARY (cont.)

• Nick warn Andreson, who lives in a nearby boarding house

• When the boxer hears about Al and Max’s plan to kill him, he’s unconcerned, he’s tired, of running

• Nick leaves and returns to the diner• he tells George and Sam that he’s leaving Summit

because he can’t bear to think about a man waiting, passively, to be killed by a couple of hired killers.

3 acts

• Act I: The scene with the killers in the lunchroom.

• Act II: The scene between Ole and Nick in the boarding house.

• Act III: The scene back in the lunchroom with Sam, George, and Nick.

Exposition• Introduction of the setting

• Introduction of the characters

Rising action & conflicts

• Max and Al become more and more antagonistic• The two guys make some unreasonable demands

Climax

• The killers reveal that they’re going to kill Ole Andreson

• The climax also occurs when Nick Adams decides to leave town

• This decision could be a turning point in his life

• What his future holds for him is open to question

Falling actions & Resolution

• Suspense: Everyone waits for seven o’clock to roll around

• Denoument: Ole Andreson• "I’m going to get out of this town.“• The conclusion leaves the reader with

unanswered questions.

CHARACTERS

1. Nick Adams: The protagonist, a teenager (Adams is a character in twenty-four Hemingway short stories that trace his development from childhood to adulthood)

2. Al: Hired killer, apparently from Chicago, wears a black overcoat, derby, and gloves

3. Max: Al's partner, also wears a black overcoat, derby, and gloves4. George: Counter man in Henry's lunchroom5. Sam: Black cook at Henry's lunchroom. Other characters refer to

him as "the nigger," a highly offensive term that whites did not hesitate to use in the 1920s.

• Ole Andreson: Former heavyweight boxer whom Al and Max mark for murder.Motorman (Streetcar Conductor): Customer who enters Henry's lunchroom but leaves when George tells him that Sam, who is bound and gagged in the kitchen, is not on duty. Irate Customer: Man who enters the restaurant and becomes angry when told Sam is unavailable to prepare a meal for him.Other Customers: (1) Man for whom George makes a takeout ham-and-egg sandwich while Sam remains gagged in the kitchen; (2) another customer who enters and leaves the restaurant while the hired killers are inside. Mrs. Bell: Person who manages Hirsch's rooming house, where Ole Andreson rents a room.

Nick Adams

Character traits• a “kid” in his late teens• represents the old values

with which he was probably reared

• Courageous: Nick does what is right.

Evidence from the story• Not until the two thugs walk

into Henry's lunchroom does he directly encounter the kind of corruption rampant in Chicago

• goes to Andreson's rooming house and warns him

Max

Character traits• Max: he seems to be the silly

and sentimental one of the two hitmen because he speaks too much with George

• Appearance: no details

Evidence• In the end he even says that

he likes George• He is are criminal, but also

satirist and most parts of his dialogue are ironic ( he says to George: “just a bright boy…”) like Al.

Al

Character traits• Al: He is are criminal, but also

satirist and most parts of his dialogue are ironic like Max one’s. He is the dominating of the two hitmen. Appearance: he wears a derby hat and a black overcoat buttoned across the chest and a silk muffler and gloves, his face is small and white and he has tight lips

Evidence

Theme 1: courage & disillusionment

• George urges Nick to warn Andreson and Sam warns him not to, Nick knows the risks but goes anyway is a testament to his courage

• What Sam views as foolishness Hemingway views as strength.

• Nick is leaving Summit because he can’t bear to think about a man waiting, passively, to be killed by a couple of hired killers

Theme 2: death, and futility

• Nick’s selfless act of heroism produced no positive result and was therefore futile

• he risked his life for nothing, his sacrifice was in vain

• heroic fatalism of fatalistic heroism• Andreson may be a killer himself or have other

highly disreputable crimes on his conscience ?• Andreson’s image is positive and even heroic

rather than passive and weak

Inability to Escape Death

• Ole Andreson apparently believes that it is impossible to thwart the two men who, in their black overcoats, represent death, accepts his fate

• Nick Adams is like the person who, after visiting a dying person, becomes unnerved “I can't stand thinking about him [Andreson] waiting in the room and knowing he's going to get it.” George replies, “Well, you better not think about it.”

Masculinity

• Hemingway, known for his representations of manly men who live by a code of honor, parodies his own image of masculinity by making the hit men, Al and Max, clownish figures

• The men look the part of stereotypical gangsters, wearing derby hats and tight overcoats and keeping their gloves on when they eat.

More about themes

• Emasculation: In the 1920s, many men in Chicago and other crime-ridden big cities endured similar challenges to their masculinity, often without resisting

• George and Sam accept the reality around them with little or no desire to change it: The attitude of Sam and George reflects the attitude of many 1920s Chicagoans who ignored the criminal activity plaguing their city—out of fear or indifference.

Point of view

• Third Person (Objective)• The narrator doesn’t tell us anything • We don’t know what people are thinking unless they say

it, what people are feeling unless we infer it from their actions or dialogue

• The narrator doesn’t pass judgment on any characters. • simply presents the case as is and lets us deal with it how

we choose• It feels cold and indifferent and there’s no bias toward any

one character.

Language

• simple and repetitive• emphasizing both the intellectual simplicity of

the characters and the suspense of the situation

• exchange of short, sharp phrases between the killers and the three occupants of Henry’s diner

• Tone: neutral

Symbolism• black attire of the killers: Death; corruption; evil• clock: (1) Indifference, apathy• counter towel: George's wish to forget about the Andreson matter.

When he wipes the counter, he wipes clear the Andreson episode and moves on with his life

• restaurant: The changing times. The restaurant had been a tavern but was remodeled into a restaurant. Like the restaurant, society as a whole also changed

• streetcar tracks: Inability to escape death. The tracks connect to Chicago and the outside world

• tree branches: Imminence of death, a traditional symbol of death (when Nick left for the rooming-board)

• wicket: Racial barrier. Sam is separated from the whites by the wicket (a tiny door) through which he passes food.