In this coming of age story by Ernest Hemingway, two hit men come to a small-town restaurant to shoot a man to oblige a friend. The three men already in the restaurant (its manager, cook and a young customer) are detained but, when the intended victim (a prize-fighter) doesn’t turn up, they are released and the hit men leave. The customer hurries to warn the prize-fighter. However, the poor man appears to have accepted his fate, saying there is nothing anyone can do to save him. Themes include crime, passivity (“looking the other way”), futility, acceptance, courage, manhood, disillusionment.
Original Text / PDF / Audio (3,000 words)
There are many different ways of writing. Hemingway is famous for what is called the minimalist writing style. In this the story is presented in simple sentences and conversations only. Many details are left out, so readers must use their imagination to complete the picture. Hemingway called it the “Iceberg Principle”. He compared his works to an iceberg floating on the sea, where only one-eighth of the iceberg is above the water. You know that the rest is there, hidden under the water, and need to create its image in your mind. The Killers is an excellent example of this.
There is a lesson here for readers from non-English speaking countries. When reading in another language, you are sure to come across words that you don’t know. One of the most important things in becoming fluent in reading is to teach yourself not to stop to check the meaning of these words unless you can’t understand the overall meaning of that part of the story or article. For example, when ordering food one of the characters says:
Give me chicken croquettes with green peas and cream sauce and mashed potatoes.
All you need to understand here to follow the story is that he is ordering some kind of food. It doesn’t matter if you don’t know what a croquette is or how to mash a potato… you should continue reading. If you really want to know, you can always come back and look up words like these when you have finished the story.
The story was first published in 1927 at a time when there was a lot of organized crime in the United States. The town of Summit, where the story takes place, is near Chicago, Illinois. Chicago was the home of many famous gangsters and, when things became too dangerous for them in the city, they would often hide in nearby towns until it was safe to return. In the story we learn that the person the hit men have come to kill is a prizefighter by the name of Ole Andreson. This is most likely a reference to a real person, Andre Anderson, who was an American heavy-weight boxer at the time. He was killed in 1926 by Chicago gangsters. Most people say that this was because he would not agree to take a dive in a fight. To “take a dive” is an idiom meaning to lose a fight by falling down and pretending that you are hurt and cannot continue.
There is one point in the story that may confuse readers who are not familiar with American history. In the restaurant, one of the hit men (Al) says to George: Got anything to drink? George answers: Silver Beer, Bevo, soda. Even though George has answered, Al asks again: I mean, you got anything to drink? The killers wanted an alcoholic drink. In the 1920s, the U.S. government made the sale of alcoholic drinks illegal. Silver Beer and Bevo were the brand names of two drinks that were popular at the time. They were non-alcoholic, but looked and tasted like real beer. Also, soda here does not mean soda-water, but the American meaning of the word (soda-pop), which can include any carbonated soft drink.