The Killers
Two hit men take over a small-town lunchroom to wait for a man marked for death, and a young witness learns what it means to live in a world where violence simply waits.
Two strangers in tight black overcoats walk into Henry's lunchroom and casually announce they are going to kill a Swede named Ole Andreson. They tie up the cook and a boy named Nick and wait. When their target never shows, the real horror begins for Nick, who runs to warn a man that has already given up.
What happens
Two professional killers, Al and Max, enter Henry's lunchroom in the small town of Summit and quickly reveal they intend to murder Ole Andreson, a former boxer, when he comes in for his usual dinner. They bind and gag the cook, Sam, and hold the counterman George and a young customer, Nick Adams, while they wait by the window. Andreson never arrives, and the killers eventually leave. George sends Nick to warn Andreson at his boarding house. Nick finds the ex-boxer lying on his bed, fully aware that men are coming to kill him, yet refusing to run, fight, or call the police. Andreson has resigned himself to his fate, worn out by a life that has caught up with him. Shaken, Nick returns to the lunchroom and tells George he cannot bear to think about a man simply waiting to be murdered, and resolves to leave town.
Timeline the story arc, beat by beat
- Arrival Two men in black
Al and Max enter Henry's lunchroom, order awkwardly, and behave with menacing strangeness.
- The takeover Hostages
The killers reveal their plan to murder Ole Andreson and tie up Sam and Nick in the kitchen.
- The wait Watching the door
Al holds the kitchen at gunpoint while Max waits at the counter for the target to appear.
- Departure The target never comes
Andreson fails to show, and the two killers finally give up and leave the lunchroom.
- The warning Nick goes to Ole
George sends Nick to the boarding house to warn Andreson that men want to kill him.
- Resignation Ole gives up
Andreson lies facing the wall, aware of the threat but refusing to run or fight.
- Aftermath Nick's disillusion
Shaken by Andreson's surrender, Nick tells George he must leave this town.
Characters and how they connect
Nick Adams
Young witness
A youth whose encounter with casual murder and fatal resignation strips away his innocence.
Ole Andreson
Marked man
A former boxer who calmly accepts that killers are coming and refuses to resist.
George
Counterman
The lunchroom worker who stays composed and pragmatically sends Nick to warn Andreson.
Al
Killer
One of the two hit men, who guards the kitchen and keeps the cook and Nick at gunpoint.
Max
Killer
The talkative gunman who explains the plan and waits at the counter for the target.
Relationship map
- Alhired killersMax
- Alsent to killOle Andreson
- Georgesends to warnNick Adams
- Nick Adamstries to warnOle Andreson
- Alholds hostageNick Adams
Themes what the story is really about
The inevitability of death
Andreson's calm surrender presents death as a fate that can be neither outrun nor argued with.
Loss of innocence
Nick's brush with cold violence and fatal resignation shatters his youthful view of the world.
Resignation versus resistance
Andreson's refusal to flee dramatizes a despair so complete it has stopped fighting back.
Casual evil
The killers treat murder as routine work, exposing a world where violence is ordinary and impersonal.
Symbols & motifs
The lunchroom clock
The clock that runs twenty minutes fast suggests a world slightly off, where ordinary time cannot be trusted.
Andreson facing the wall
His turned back embodies total resignation, a refusal to look at or resist the death that is coming.
The killers' black overcoats
Their identical dark dress makes them faceless agents of an impersonal, mechanical violence.
The drawn shades and dim room
Andreson's darkened room mirrors the shutting down of hope and the closing in of his fate.
Recurring motifs
Eating and ordering. Mundane talk of menus and dinner recurs against the threat of murder, heightening the menace through contrast.
Waiting. The story is built on waiting, by the killers, by Andreson, and by Nick, foregrounding dread over action.
Repetition in dialogue. Clipped, circling exchanges recur, conveying tension and emptiness beneath flat speech.
Conflicts
Person vs fate
Andreson confronts a death he believes is inescapable and chooses surrender over struggle.
Person vs self
Nick wrestles with his own horror and disillusion after witnessing resignation to murder.
Person vs society
The lunchroom workers face an impersonal criminal world that intrudes without warning or justice.
Literary devices
- Iceberg theory
- Hemingway omits motive and backstory, leaving the deepest meaning submerged beneath spare surface detail.
- Understatement
- Murder is discussed in flat, casual language, making the violence more chilling through restraint.
- Objective narration
- The story reports speech and action without entering minds, forcing readers to infer emotion.
- Dialogue-driven tension
- Clipped, repetitive exchanges carry the menace, doing the work that description usually performs.
- Symbolic detail
- Small details like the fast clock and the drawn shades quietly signal a world out of joint.
Important quotes
“I'm through with it. I'm through running. I'm tired of running.”
“There isn't anything I can do about it.”
“I can't stand to think about him waiting in the room and knowing he's going to get it. It's too damned awful.”
“Well, you better not think about it.”
The story's power lies in its anticlimax and omission. The killers leave without ever finding their target, so the expected murder never happens onstage. The true climax is quieter: Nick finds Ole Andreson lying in a dim room, fully aware that men are coming to kill him, yet refusing to flee, fight, or call the police. Andreson's exhausted resignation, his statement that he is through running, hits Nick harder than the gunmen did. Hemingway never explains why Andreson is marked or what he did, keeping the iceberg of motive submerged. What matters is Nick's loss of innocence. He cannot bear a world where a man simply waits to be killed, and his decision to leave Summit marks the moment ordinary life becomes unbearable to him.
Common misreadings
MythOle Andreson is killed in the story.
ActuallyThe murder never occurs onstage; the story ends with Andreson alive but resigned to his coming death.
MythHemingway explains why Andreson is targeted.
ActuallyThe motive is deliberately omitted, an example of the iceberg style that leaves backstory submerged.
MythThe story is mainly about the two killers.
ActuallyIts real focus is Nick Adams and his disillusioning encounter with resignation and casual violence.
Test yourself
1. How does Ole Andreson respond to the warning?
Andreson lies facing the wall and says he is through running, refusing to resist his coming death.
2. What narrative technique defines the story's withheld information?
Hemingway leaves motive and backstory submerged, his iceberg theory in which most meaning lies beneath the surface.
3. What does Nick decide at the end?
Disturbed by Andreson's resignation, Nick tells George he is going to get out of this town.
Two hit men walk into a small diner and calmly say they are going to kill a man named Ole Andreson, then tie up the cook and a boy named Nick while they wait. Andreson never shows up, so the killers leave. Nick runs to warn Andreson, but the man just lies in his dark room and says he is tired of running and will not try to escape. That quiet giving up scares Nick more than the gunmen did, and he decides he has to leave town. Hemingway tells it in plain, simple words and leaves out why Andreson is in trouble, which makes it even more haunting.
Ask the story
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Compare & connect the story universe
Hills Like White Elephants
Hemingway's other showcase of the iceberg style, where the real subject is left unspoken beneath flat dialogue.
The Blue Hotel
Both are spare American stories where ordinary men confront sudden, impersonal violence and fate.
The Most Dangerous Game
A contrasting treatment of a hunted man, full of action where Hemingway offers resignation and stillness.
The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg
Another study of a community confronting moral darkness, told through satire rather than restraint.
Adaptation. The Killers (1946, Film), The Killers (1964, Film).
Key questions students ask
- what is the theme of The Killers by Hemingway
- why does Ole Andreson refuse to run in The Killers
- how does the iceberg theory work in The Killers
- what does Nick Adams learn in The Killers
- why does Hemingway leave out the motive in The Killers
- what is the significance of the ending of The Killers
Analysis is original StoryBites commentary. Quotations are from Ernest Hemingway's The Killers (1927), which is in the public domain.