The Killers: Themes | SparkNotes

Themes are the fundamental and often universal ideas explored in a literary work.

The Making of a Man

Nick is an important character in this story and in Hemingway’s work, as he grows from a boy to a man. In “The Killers,” a young and inexperienced Nick faces a situation that forces him to examine his values and determine what kind of man this experience will shape him into. His part in the story can be seen as a small coming-of-age tale. Nick already has some ideas about the manhood he wants to conform to as he’s just starting out his adult life. His unwillingness to show that he was unsettled by the experience of being tied up and threatened by gangsters aligns with ideas about manhood and masculinity throughout Hemingway’s writings, where those who embody manhood tend to be strong and fearless. It’s all obviously a show on Nick’s part, but it’s a show he feels he needs to perform as a young man.

In the latter half of the story, Nick is finally free and able to decide what to do about the situation. He’s never been tied up before, indicating that it’s his first time in such a perilous situation. His reaction is important, as it will likely show his values and shape what kind of man he’s becoming. When Nick decides to visit Ole, it seems that he’s set himself on the path of a Hemingway-type hero, one who will not sit back but who will act and do what he thinks is right even when a threat is looming.

Passivity or Activity in the Face of Death

In “The Killers,” characters are put into deadly situations where they must decide between passivity or activity. In the face of impending death, each of the characters chooses to remain passive. Even Nick, when ordered around by the gangsters, only protests mildly and obeys. This detail is a bit ironic considering how he later pushes Ole to action in the face of his own encroaching death. Nick only acts when the immediate threat has passed. George urges Nick to go see Ole once the gangsters are out of sight, and Nick agrees to go now that the coast is fairly clear.

Even though Hemingway’s heroes usually take action in the face of death, in “The Killers” it’s uncertain who has the correct idea about what to do in the situation. Nick’s action might be considered either courageous or senseless, especially when earlier in the story, passivity is what saved the hostages from certain death. It’s George’s choice not to fight the gangsters, but rather to oblige them in their requests, which leads to Max liking the hostages and deciding to keep them alive. This outcome seems to back up Sam’s advice not to get involved, which could put the men back in danger if they cross the killers again.

In the end, George seems to decide to remain passive and put Ole’s death out of his mind, even as Nick continues dwelling on what he views as Ole’s terrible passivity in the face of death. In Nick’s mind, at least, some action would be better than giving into despair and waiting for death to arrive.

The Inevitability of Death

Death in “The Killers” is an unstoppable force, characterized in part by the brute force and cruelty of the killers themselves. Max and Al aren’t so much characters as looming threats for every other character involved in the story. Death for the hostages remains uncertain for the first part of the story. When George asks what would happen to them, Max answers that their fate is still undecided. They still have some glimmer of hope, which ultimately comes to fruition as they’re allowed to live. However, Ole is the true target of the hitmen, and his imminent death is a certainty.

Due to the immobilizing despair that keeps him in his room and away from Henry’s lunch counter, Ole’s death is put off for a while and the killers’ original murder attempt fails. However, by the end of the story, the other characters have no doubt that Ole’s time is almost up. Even Ole is aware that he can’t escape his fate, which is the reason for his intense despair. Whether he stays or goes, the mob hitmen will find him. Hemingway often wrote about existential topics such as death and its inevitability, making a character study out of those who wait for its unstoppable arrival, and “The Killers” contributes to this theme.

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