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“I’m sorry he don’t feel well,” the woman said. “He’s an awfully nice man. He was in the ring, you know.”

“I know it.”

“You’d never know it except from the way his face is,” the woman said. 

They stood talking just inside the street door. “He’s just as gentle.”

Even to those who know about his violent past, Ole has a reputation that contrasts with his appearance. Until this moment in the story, no characters have discussed Ole’s character outside of the fact that he often eats at Henry’s lunch counter. When Nick talks to him, Ole seems like a broken shell of a man, only giving listless answers to Nick’s questions. His landlady, however, takes the opportunity to speak with Nick about Ole’s true nature. Even in the small, quiet, and obscure town of Summit, Ole is striking to the woman for his kind nature. This detail is a glimpse into the kind of man that the killers are hunting down and perhaps makes his death all the more tragic to both Nick and the reader.

“There ain’t nothing 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.’”

This exchange between Ole and Nick demonstrates the despair and submission to his fate that seems to engulf Ole. As Nick tries to solve the problem of Ole’s impending death by offering options and actions that Ole could take, Ole calmly, listlessly dismisses them. He has literally turned his back to the world during the course of their exchange, facing the wall rather than facing Nick and the options he represents. 

The reader is left to contemplate and wonder at what actions Ole took that put him in this position. It is telling that Ole says that he will, at some point, get up and go out, but it will be of his own accord and at a time of his choosing. He seems to understand that there is no way out, but at the very least, he sees some small aspect of choice in the timing and circumstances under which he will present himself to the hitmen. Hemingway leaves Ole in limbo, behind a closed door, leaving the reader to wonder about both Ole’s past and his future.

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