The Killers, Ernest Hemingway

This blog posts regards “The Killers” by Ernest Hemingway. First off, the title itself screams noir and the author, Hemingway, portrays noir wonderfully. The setting of the diner being quiet and dark also fits the noir theme. To me, this short story was somewhat challenging to read and hard to follow. Hemingway jumps around a lot and the story line is hard to keep up with. Two men are “hired” to kill a famous boxer who eats at the diner almost every night. Strangely enough, Andreson, the boxer, didn’t show up for dinner the night that the two men were going to kill him. When Andreson hears he is a target of death he basically shrugs it off and says that he’s tired of everything and the situation is what it is. The interesting thing about this short story is that the reader has no clue of why Andreson is being targeted. All in all, this short story is a perfect example of noir. Death is a big part of noir and this stories main focus is death. There is a lot of darkness and gloominess present which also contributes to the noir theme. Lastly, the location, being a diner in a small town with not many people present fits the setting of many noir stories and films.

On left is cover of film that was produced for the short story The Killers. On the right is a photo of Ernest Hemingway, author of The Killers.