Nick stood up. He had never had a towel in his mouth before. (65)
"Little boys always know what they want to do," [the cook] said. (66)
Here's a clip of the opening of the story from the 1946 adaptation of it. It was made again in 1964. "The Killers" is considered by critics as one of Hemingway's greatest stories and one of the greatest American stories ever. Originally published in 1927 and appearing in Hemingwayt's second short story collection Men Without Women, it is much anthologized and it is actually widely taught (along with "Hills Like White Elephants," "Soldier's Home," and "The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber"). Some critics have thought it influenced absurdist and existentialist writers like Samuel Beckett and particularly his classic Waiting for Godot. Some consider it an existential comedy. Not much happens in this story—but we've been saying that about every story. Nick is older than he was in "Ten Indians," but not much older. Why is he is this little town Summit, Illinois? We don't know and that's important. What did Ole Andreson do to get him on the hit list of these two gangsters? We don't know. We do know what George says in the face of the horror the story presents: "You better not think about it."
1. Your reaction? And why? What line or moment or image stuck with you from this story—and why? Quote in your answer, ok?
2. We said today in class about "The Battler" that it seemed like a "Twilight Zone" episode. A horror story, in other words. Do you feel anything similar about this story? If so, how so? If not, how would you describe the genre, or type, that this story belongs to to a friend? And why?
3. In fact, what is this story about to you? Don't repeat the plot, but think about the theme or themes it develops for you.
4. What does Nick learn here?
5. Ole Andreson: many critics consider him a hero—as much as one can be a hero in a Hemingway story. Yes? No? Why?
That's more than enough. Al and Max have been compared, as I wrote above, to characters in Waiting for Godot, Valdimir and Estragon, forever waiting for...Godot, who never appears in the play. Here they are:
Here, from a film version of "The Killers" made by the Russian filmmaker Sergei Tarkovsky:
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ReplyDelete1. This story kept me on the edge of my seat. I was nervous/scared for what might have happened to Nick, Sam and George. One image that stuck out to me was this line, “He [Max] didn’t look at George but looked in the mirror that ran along back of the counter,” (217). That image was strange to me and left me with curiosity as to why he was not looking at George.
ReplyDelete1. I think this story is like a thriller. Something could go wrong but also nothing could go wrong. The second that I was introduced the the two men, Max and Al, I became suspicious of the intentions. I think that this story draws out the action which makes it even more suspenseful.
3. This story is about learning something really difficult to understand and having to cope with that in someway. Nick can't understand why Ole would just wait around for someone to kill him and is frustrated that he can't control the situation. George tells him to forget about it because he can not change it.
4. As I refer to above, I think he learns that not everything is under his control and people have motives that he is not privy too. He gets angry that Ole will not leave his bed but he doesn't know why he has choose to do this. Ole might have a reason that Nick can not understand.
5. I am not sure I would say he is a hero but he is an admirable character. He doesn't run away from his problems but chooses to face them head on and risk his life.
1. Every time I think a new story is going to go a certain way, I'm proven wrong. Hemingway is very good at surprising, especially with the Nick Adams stories; none are the same. What sticks with me the most is the line, “He had never had a towel in his mouth before.” Nick isn't used to very aggressive and harsh behavior, and even though he's witnessed his father and other types of violence, I doubt any of it was similar to this experience.
ReplyDelete2. Though it's very different, “The Killer” has the same creepy, eerie tone as “The Battler. The way the killers talk to each other about George, Nick, and Sam as if they aren't even listening is belittling and bizarre. However, while “The Battler” had hints of “The Twilight Zone” with its seemingly other-dimensional plot and characters, this story reminds me of Alfred Hitchcock’s Rear Window. With the mysterious and (eventually) violent characters and the young man getting roped into a serious predicament, the movie and short story resemble each other.
3. I believe the story expresses how there are some instances in which you must be passive. Some things you really feel the need to participate in or step into, but you have to accept that some things are just the way they are and you cannot fix them. In this situation, Nick didn't know why the killers were going after Ole Anderson and he would never know. The last line, “you better not think about it,” just shows how the issue was over and done with, so it was best to just get over it.
4. Nick learns about the violent ways of the world in which he'd never seen before. He's exposed to cunning men with violent intentions that seem unreasonable and unjustified; this is the first time Nick sees serious and dangerous crime.
5. I can partially see why Ole Anderson is considered a hero; if he had come into the restaurant and been killed, there would've been a significant chance that the killers shot everyone else who had seen their faces in the restaurant, too. Ole Anderson wasn't necessarily a hero by direct contact, but surely a secondhand hero.
The moment that really stuck with me was when Nick went to go visit Ole Anderson and warn him about the men trying to kill him. The two of them had a very interesting conversation, that carried back to a conversation between Nick and George later. The quote that really stuck with me was “I cant stand to think about him waiting in the room and knowing he’s going to get it. Its too damned awful”.
ReplyDeleteI definitely think this story is a horror story and a story of growing up because the main plot is that Nick is tied up while he hears plans of how men will kill Ole Anderson. I think Nick grows up because this is another story of Nick loosing some of his innocence.
I think this story is about death. In Indian camp we learned about life and death but in this story the themes are fear and death. It is a story about a boy who is put in a crazy situation where he has to be afraid for someone else life.
I think that Nick learns about death and how unlike in Indian camp it isn’t always an option. This man is not choosing for his life to end someone else is and that gives him a new view on how death works.
He is not running. I think he is a hero because he isn’t running away from his problems or from whatever bad thing he has done. His is excepting punishment for his action and I think that makes him a sort of hero but also a coward.
Honestly, the whole time I was reading this, I was just waiting for something to happen. I think this is the effect of most of Hemingway’s short stories. I don’t realize that anything significant has happened until I finish it. I kept thinking about how Max was looking in the mirror instead of directly at George, and why he would do that. Maybe he was slightly guilty, and didn’t want to face what he was doing.
ReplyDeleteI think that the best genre to describe this story is thriller, although it’s less action packed, and is more meant to deliver a message to the readers.
I think that this story is another coming of age journey for Nick. This is probably the first time he has been in a life or death situation that could immediately impact him. I think that this is expressing the idea that sometimes you will never fully understand the motive of others. Although he wants to know the answer, Nick can never understand why the killers wanted to kill Ole Anderson, and why Anderson was just laying in bed accepting the fact that they wanted to kill him. The theme of the story really is the quote at the top. “You better not think about it.”
Basically wants I just said. You can’t know the answer to everything, and sometimes you just have to accept that.
I don’t think I would call him a hero. He may have spared the people in the restaurant from being shot by not going in that day, but he wasn’t trying to be brave or anything.
Reading this story, I was struck by Al and Max’s comments regarding their reason for coming to the diner. Max is so nonchalant when he says “we’re going to kill a Swede” (62). He is acting as if deciding to kill someone is a common activity that is shared among most individuals. It's not as if Ole Anderson is dispensable.
ReplyDeleteThis is definitely a horror story; maybe not the stereotypical horror story in which zombies coming for you because it is the end of the world, but a horror story nonetheless. Nick, George and Sam are held hostage to the incoherent reason behind death; they must grapple with some unanswered questions. Why can death by normalized? Why is someone like Anderson targeted? What is my role in death?
This story confirms the notion that killing can be normalized in the eyes of the committer when they feel as if they have a viable justification. Although Max acknowledges that although “ [Ole Anderson] never had a chance to do anything to us” (63) their intent to kill Anderson makes it okay because “We’re killing him for a friend” (63).
As I allude to in my answer to three, by observing this situation, Nick sees the implications of the choice to kill and the implications it has on the individual. In many instances, there are two choices; one can either placate the killer and go along with his plan or he can confront the situation, take risks, and ultimately come out on top (not necessarily physically though)
I would not label Ole Anderson as a hero although his actions and the calmness with which he received Nick’s news are notable. In so many instances, when someone is said to be a hero, they are made out to be this untouchable figure as they are placed on a pedestal. I'm not saying that this is happening here, but I use this word with caution. Anderson is displaying his rationality in a time of crisis; he can’t escape, so why try to? Isn't he saving himself pain?
The moment, or really moments, that stuck with me the most was probably the constant banter going on between the two hitmen as they hold the store hostage, waiting for Ole Andreson. I think of any line in particular, it would really be how they immediately aggressively and dominantly start referring to George and Nick as “bright boy,” for no real reason other than as a weird kind of power play.
ReplyDeleteI think that this little story is less like a twilight zone episode, and almost more satirical. The way that it is set up, you are led to believe that Ole Andreson is going to come in for dinner as he usually does and get his head pulverized by a sawed-off shotgun. In the end however, it takes on a highly anticlimactic finish in which the two hitmen just up and leave into the night, followed by Nick’s entirely uneventful visit with Ole Andreson. I would definitely say that it is some satirical, almost to the point of comedy, version of a crime thriller.
I think that this story is, again, not as much about Nick, but about his interactions with a very strange world. To put a name to it, I think that this story is what happens if you were to take an outside source and have them have a brief interaction with a “real story,” the real one in the case being that of Ole Andersons. I think it is really about Ole, or maybe in a Pulp Fiction-esque way, it’s about the two hitmen.
I think that Nick learns that he is really and truly in many ways powerless. He has virtually no way at all to influence any of the goings on in the diner, and his main actions in the story are a brief exchange with Max and Al, being tied up in the back of the kitchen with a rag in his mouth, and his interaction with the dejected and resigned Ole Anderson. I think this teaches him that he has to learn to accept that in many ways he is a fish out of water, or to find some way to be powerful: not to be so ineffective.
I don’t really think that Ole Anderson is the hero of this story. I think that the comings and goings of his life are the story, but honestly I just don’t think that we see enough of him to have him be heroic. We only see him as he lays around in his bed, fearing and waiting for the death that is swift approaching him. That just doesn’t strike me as heroic, and as George says, the hitmen only really kill double-crossers, which is not a word often associated with heroics.
I loved this story! What stuck out to me most was Ole Anderson's reaction to Nick telling him about the people who are out to kill him. Anderson says "There ain't anything I can do about it....I'm through with all that running around," and stares at the wall. He's also laying in his bed fully clothed. Ole Anderson has spent the whole day accepting the fact that he's going to die and that there's nothing he can do about it. His back is completely against the wall.
ReplyDeleteI would definitely say that this story reads like a "Twilight Zone" episode. It's unusual that someone knows how long they have left to live and must spend time mentally dealing with their impending death. In fact, I'm sure that there is a "Twilight Zone" episode that deals with the idea of knowledge of a looming death in some way.
To me, this story is about having your back against the wall. It's about life spiraling completely out of your control, and having to deal with all of the things that you've been avoiding.
Nick learns about having your back against the wall. His back, like Ole Anderson's, is against the wall when he's tied up and a towel is shoved into his mouth while Anderson's killers are at the lunchroom. At the end of the story, Nick says "I'm going to get out of this town," meaning that he wants to do whatever he can to escape that feeling of helplessness and lack of control. He never again wants to feel that his life is in someone else's hands.
I don't think that Ole Anderson is a hero. I don't think he's brave for finally facing the things that he's been running from; what else can he do? In the past he did try to run, but was still found. I'm convinced that Ole Anderson has no choice but to face the harsh consequences coming to home. That isn't heroism or bravery. Heroism is when you choose to do the right or noble thing.
1. I liked this story because it was a story that made sense, but at the same time, not much made sense. There was a lot left unanswered, but it adds to the charm of it; are these details important? The story also hints at, what I believe to be, depression through Ole Anderson. When Anderson says, “After a while I’ll make up my mind to go out” (68), my initial reaction was to think of suicide. However, Nick does not see Anderson’s words this way, and he thinks that he literally means going outside of the house. This line of interpretation continues on with Nick and George feeling a lack of empathy for Anderson.
ReplyDelete2. I think this is like a “Twilight Zone” episode because Nick is travelling into this new world, as we can see through his curiosity and naive comments. It’s similar in the sense that the story takes place as the sun sets. Hemingway also goes out of his way to point out the arc lights and dark streets, creating this contrast between light and dark the way he did with the fire in “The Battler.”
3. This story is about Nick’s travelling further into the world of “crazy,” but he gets to see different sides of it through Anderson, Max, and Al.
4. Nick learns that there is bloodlust in the world and the toll that life takes on some people; Al and Max exposed Nick to psychopathy, and Ole exposes Nick to depression. However, it seems as though Nick doesn’t understand what that entails. Yet, he is affected all the same; he is shaken, but he tries to play it off.
5. I don’t believe he is a hero in the traditional sense because he doesn’t do much besides hide at home, despite arguing that he is tired of running away. However, I feel as though he could be a hero in Hemingway’s stories because he has the bravery and courage to “stop running” (from death, I believe) when, through Doc Adams, we see that the men in Hemingway’s stories are meant to be “strong” and ignore pain.
1. Overall I like this story, though the overall “gangster” plot seemed a little cliche. The line that stuck out to me is “[Nick] was trying to swagger it off”(Hemingway 65). I think that naïveté and subsequent attempts to cover it up are typical of growing up and adolescence, and in this line Nick demonstrates this very clearly.
ReplyDelete2. This story feels a little less like a Twilight Zone episode to me because it is less isolated than “The Battler” was, but its frightful plot and tension do create this atmosphere in my opinion. I wouldn’t exactly call it a horror story, but it is certainly tense, a suspense story.
3. I think this story’s major theme/purpose is depicting how people react to stenuous situations. I think every single character (including the killers) is under a lot of pressure, and Hemmingway strives to examine how humans react to this.
4. I think that Nick experiences two crucial new things: imminent mortal fear and the struggle of being powerless to help someone. Both of these seem to be new experiences for him and they contribute to his understanding of the world.
5. I don’t agree because heroes normally die for a greater cause, and, while submitting oneself to death (as Anderson implies that he will shortly) is brave, he does it out of necessity and because of some (possibly grim) deed he committed in the past.
I didn’t enjoy this story as much as I enjoyed “The Battler”. The plot line seemed pretty simple, and I didn’t really get any edge from any of the characters. It was a good short story, but I don’t think it is one of Hemingway’s strongest. One of the reasons it didn’t have be on the edge of my seat it because of Al and Max. As characters, they were entertaining to the audience, but if I were to meet them in real life, I would have a hard time believing them to be criminals. They repeated each other and told innocent bystanders their entire reason for being there and what they planned to do and actually let them go. “ ‘Talk to me, bright boy,’ Max said. ‘What do you think’s going to happen?’ George did not say anything. ‘I’ll tell you,’ Max said. ‘We’re going to kill a Swede. Do you know a big Swede named Ole Andreson?’ (62) Max doesn’t really know the etiquette of being a stereotypical mobster while he basically copied Al, and Al let Max call some of the shots. For mobsters, they are very amiable.
ReplyDelete2. This story seems to be a bit more of a comedy to me, with the way Al and Max are acting. That might have just been the way it sounded in my head as I read it, but Max and Al just seemed to be a bit idiotic for mobsters. However, once Nick went to go visit, another stupid decision in my opinion, (only Sam is actually going to live) does it turn to be what I consider a bit of a ‘twilight zone’ story, for delving into a bit of a darker topics. There is something strange about a man accepting his fate to be hunted down and killed by two morons. There is something just a tad creepy about how calm Ole Andreson is, and does stand out to me. To fit into my idea of a twilightzone, a story has to have some supernatural, creepy, or explorational of the mind component, and I would really like to explore Ole Andreson’s mind when he decides to not exit his room.
3. For me, this story is about spontaneity and unpredictability, something that you expect to be one way, but it turns out to be another ( a common thread throughout Hemingway’s short stories that we have read) as well as learning to accept one’s fate. Ole Andreson knows that Al and Max will get him sooner and later, and to still have a bit of control on it, I think Ole Andreson decides for it to be on his own terms and in his room. He is maintaining control while still accepting that he will be killed shortly. Also death.
4. Nick, out on his own, seems to have learnt in the last short story to expect the unexpected (to some degree). However, in this story, I think Ole Andreson taught him another invaluable life lesson: to accept what is coming, like death. Earlier on, Nick learned about the circle of life in “Indian Camp”, and at the end, he declared that he was never going to die. He saw that death was a choice, something you could decide. However, in this story, the death is actually a murder, but there still is the option of having a little bit of control, as Ole Andreson presents. By accepting fate as what it is, Nick might realize that he can still have control in his life by deciding the minor details. Rather than be killed in the diner, Al and Max will probably kill Ole Anderson in the privacy of his own home, so that Ole’s reputation isn’t completely destroyed. (If that makes any luck of sense).
5. I can see why some critics might consider Ole Andreson to be a hero, noble for accepting that he will die. Personally though, I disagree with his choices because I would rather try and fight. He was a championship boxer; he could seriously harm the moronic mobsters. To continue the theme of today’s conversation, the good comes with the bad. They appear in cycles. I think that Ole Andreson is caught up in a bad section of his life where he is ready to accept his fate, but survival is part of human nature. I personally would try to fight or run because I would like to experience my last days on earth as a positive experience, but Ole doesn’t seem to have that mentality, preferring to stay in his room.
1.)I was disturbed by this story because of the last couple of scenes in which, first, Ole Andreson seems resigned to his death- he has given up the will to live and fight for life when he says: “I'm through with all that running around” (67). This helplessness and complete lack of hope left me with an uncomfortable feeling. I still enjoyed reading the story and like it.
ReplyDelete2.) Yes, I would classify this as a horror story similar to “The Battler”. It is a scenario which happens in such a “normal” place where one would never expect it, which makes it all the more creepy.
3.) This story is about Nick learning to face fear and danger. It is another initiation story for Nick into the real world outside of his small Michigan town and Summit. The theme is growing older and how to react to the death and life. It is another story in which he must confront death, like “Indian Camp” and know that he cannot change it.
4.) He learns that one cannot run away from death. Previously, in “Indian Camp”, Nick said that he would never die. However, now that he is confronted with the prospect of death for Ole Andreson, he realizes that the cycle of life and death is inevitable and that he cannot run away from it.
5.) Yes, because he does not attempt to flee his fate. He has accepted that life leads to death and, as he says, he will not “run around” (67) anymore. Though he has accepted death and is, in Nick’s eyes, giving up, he is actually wiser than Nick because instead of running away from his demons, he faces them.
I found The Killers much more plain than the other stories by Hemingway and is written in a way that makes sense. I thought that the conflict in-between Nick and the two men was very interesting and drew the reader in. I was surprised though on the lack of resilience by Nick. After his time with his father I more than expected Nick to violently attack the men who had come in and threatened his friend. What stuck with me the most is Nick running to tell Mr. Anderson he was being hunted, despite the risk to his own health. Nick was very brave and unselfish in his actions and his difference from his father is obvious in his willing to risk his life for a stranger. When confronted with the risks and the concerns from his friends Nick simply says, “I’ll go up there” (The Killers) without any second thoughts. I would describe this story as a drama because it is very intense but lacks any direct gore or violence. It is about a young man finding his courage when facing a dangerous situation. Nick learns in the story that some people, like Mr. Anderson, have lost all of their fight after being worn down by life. I think Nick sees this and wants to never become like Mr. Anderson. I don’t find Mr. Anderson a hero because he hides away in his room awaiting death. He may have been a hero at some point in his life but those days are long gone.
ReplyDeleteI found this story confusing at first, as I wasn’t sure what the men were thinking! It seemed there wasn't any reason to kill this man, and even as the story continued, I never learned why. I didn’t understand that these men were gangsters at the beginning, so I was shocked when they spoke about murder so openly and so casually. They brought it up as if they had nothing to hide. “We’re going to kill a Swede. Do you know a big Swede named Ole Anderson?” Also, I think it was stupid for them to tell multiple people about their plans, and then let them go. I think it was unnecessary to hold people in the restaurant hostage, tell them about the murder they are planning, and then leave them alone. They could have just pretended to be civil in the restaurant, wait for Ole Anderson, and then kill him as huge leaves, or follow him home, or some more secretive way.
ReplyDeleteI do not see Ole Anderson as much of a hero. He has accepted his future, and made peace with the consequences he will face, and he isn't running away. I can see how this would be viewed as admirable, but in my opinion, he shouldn't just give up and basically wait for his death.
1. Although the short story was interesting, the story's main antagonists shocked me in that Al and Max just nonchalantly walked in to someone else's establishment to be stupidly oblivious to what the owner says about the menu, casually talk about murdering a guy ("we're going to kill a Swede" (62)) just to "oblige a friend" (63) and sarcastically label everyone who they may have to kill because they're witnesses as "bright boy." Another moment which stuck out to me relates to how naive Nick acts in "The Battler"; here, Nick, despite the entrance of these two shady characters into the restaurant he's in, he just stays around to hang out and chat more after they walk in. This shows that he's only learned a little bit from what happened in "The Battler".
ReplyDelete2. This story is somewhat Twilight Zone-esque, with the harrowing possibility of murder in the plot, along with the scene set as night approaches, but nothing horrendous or bloody actually happens, so I would not label it a true horror story, but rather, a thriller of sorts.
3. This story seems to have a theme of underlying discomfort, although mainly focusing on how sometimes you're powerless in a situation so you just have to calmly get through it, because if you try to fight back valiantly, you may end up with a bullet wound, but if you play it smart, you might escape the situation with your life. This story finds the "good" characters in an uncomfortable, threatening situation wondering what their next actions should be.
4. I think this story teaches Nick a little bit of why his father enjoys positions of power the way he does, because the lack of ability and power Nick experiences in this situation relates to how Henry Adams feels in "The Doctor and The Doctor's Wife." In this story, Nick experiences a complete lack of power for a while, and when he finally has some sort of ability- to warn Ole Andreson- Andreson does nothing about it, which kind of makes whatever Nick tried to do to help null and void. I think we have a felt a similar feeling where we want a chance to do something about an issue, and when we finally get a chance to help, the person/group with the issue is like, "never mind."
5. I don't consider Ole Andreson to fall in the "hero" category, but he certainly didn't act a coward either; he faced his life-threatening problem with little to no sense of urgency or fear. He just stayed at the rooming house, avoiding sparking a possible disaster with gunfire at the restaurant, but his lack of action/his depressed attitude doesn't help him either. He appears to be accepting that when he "goes out", or leaves his safety, he will be killed, and while to be calm in the face of death is sometimes admirable, nothing makes him seem like a traditional hero.
I didn’t like this story as much as I have liked the past stories we have read. The line that stuck out to me the most after reading was, “Little boys always know what they want to do.” I liked this line because it seemed to fully capture Nick’s character. During class we have spent a lot of time talking about what Nick as learned in each story. In the last story we read, “The Battler”, Nick said that he fell for something and that he would not do it again because that is what children do. He seems to be trying to act superior to children. It reminds me of Doc Adams in how Nick is trying to prove his superiority. I do feel like this is similar. It does ahem some aspects of fear, similar to “The Battler”, but it doesn't have the same eeriness and darkness. I would describe this as something similar to suspenseful or suspicious. That is because throughout the story there was a lot of uncertainty of what was going on which made it suspicious. But, for Ole Anderson, life was very suspenseful as he waited to die. In fact, what is this story about to you? Don't repeat the plot, but think about the theme or themes it develops for you. This story is about fate versus chance. By the end of the story, everything started to focus on decision making. Starting with Nick leaving the restaurant, Sam specifically told him to become involved with what was happening but he chose to. After Nick went to Ole Anderson’s house, he found out that Ole Anderson decided not to get out of bed that day, so he wasn’t at the restaurant that night where he would have died. Nick learns that life is short, and that things will happen. But, he also learns that if you spend to much time focussing on the things that will happen, you will miss life. Ole Anderson is a hero, but I don't think that he knew that he was one or that he meant to be one. He helped to show Nick a very important lesson, to appreciate life.
ReplyDelete1. I liked this story like all the other, this one was especially good because of all the suspenseful elements of waiting for something to happen, even if nothing really ever does. Although I knew they were going to hold Nick and them hostage at some point it still managed to have that feeling of surprise mixed in. The quote that struck me most was when the cook said: "Little boys always know what they want to do." Because although by now Nick seems to be about 20 he's still considered a little boy, he's still very young and doesn't seem to have caught that tired feeling the rest of the town has.
ReplyDelete2. This story gave me big "Twilight Zone" vibes. It had that small town feel that most "Twilight Zone" shows are set in, it's starting to get late, the readers can feel the suspense of something big that has yet to be revealed. There is also that shift in the mood of the story, even though viewers or readers can usually get tastes of it as the beginning progresses towards that shift, it goes from monotonous talk and thinking to something exciting.
3. I think what this story is solely about or is leading up to is the idea that Nick finally realizes he needs to leave this small town, he's finally seeing the tiredness and sad feeling of many of the people who live there.
4. Nick learns that no matter how much you may want to fix a problem either for yourself or another, sometimes the problem just can't be fixed or isn't worth running away from or fighting. He realizes that you sometimes just have to wait for the problem to catch up with you.
5. No, I see how Ole Anderson is choosing to face these people (his problem) head on, however I wouldn't consider him to be a hero at all. He seems tired and worn out with life, he's waiting around for two men to take it from him (life). He almost seems lazy and is tired of fighting his inevitable death any longer. This saddens Nick to see.
1.I was pretty uncomfortable throughout the whole story. As we enter the story, we have no introduction into what’s going on, only that Nick and George are sitting in the lunch cafe. Once Al and Max walk in to the cafe, there is definitely something wrong about them. What sticks with me the most is when Nick is talking to Ole Andreson and Andreson just refuses to move:
ReplyDelete“‘There isn’t anything I can do about it,’ Ole Andreson said.
‘I’ll tell you what they were like,’
‘I don’t want to know what they were like,’ Ole Andreson said. He looked at the wall. ‘thanks for coming to tell me about it.’” (67)
I see this because Andreson just rolls over and accepts his fate regardless of whether or not Al and a Max are serious about killing him, something that is not normal.
2.I think that this is more of a suspense story than a horror story because everything is left open ended by the end of the story; we don’t know if Ole Andreson is actually going to die or not, and the expectation of a murder is never fulfilled or put to
3. To me, this story is about Nick experiencing terror. If you’d been put in the situation that Nick is in, bound by a guy with a shotgun, it would be hard to do anything except for run as fast as you can as soon as you are set free. Nick instead decides to go warn Ole Andreson and does exactly that.
4. In this story, Nick learns right from wrong. Nick hears about this plot from Al and Max and decides to do something about it, even if what he does might not even change the outcome, it’s still better than just running away from town.
5. Ole Andreson could be considered a hero because he diverts the attention away from Nick, our protagonist, and Ole Andreson seems to be the only hero that we really have seen so far. As little as he does, he still saves our protagonist, so that why he would be a hero.
I liked “The Killers” because like many of Hemingway’s stories, it moves quickly and it is easy to comprehend. The image of Ole Anderson in his room stuck out to me the most: “The only thing is,” he said, talking toward the wall, “I just can’t make up my mind to go out. I been here all day.” “Couldn’t you get out of town?” “No,” Ole Anderson said. “I’m through with all that running around.” He looked at the wall. “There ain’t anything to do now.” “Couldn’t you fix it up some way?” “No. I got in wrong.” He talked in the same flat voice. “There ain’t anything to do. After a while I’ll make up my mind to go out.”
DeleteWhile I did see “The Killers” as being rather eerie, I would not classify this story as being a horror story. It’s quite difficult to describe this story in words but I would say that it is another coming of age story for Nick.
The inevitability of death was the main theme for me.
Nick learns how easy it easy for people to kill other people in this city.
I don’t really see Anderson as a hero. He doesn’t do anything heroic, like standing up to the people who want to kill him, and it is quite possible that he has done something wrong and that is why these men are trying to kill him.