The theme for “The Killers” is that sometimes death isn’t supposed to happen. Ole simply wasn’t at the restaurant where he normally goes the night Al and Max planned to kill him.
The story can be divided into four scenes; first, “The Killers” are introduced; second, Nick warns Ole; third, Nick speaks to Mrs. Bell (she looks after the rooming-house for the landlady at the time Nick visits Ole); fourth, Nick returns to the cafe.
Back at the cafe his final statement to George, the counterman, is, “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.” George replies, “‘You better not think about it’” (Hemingway 96). It is obvious Nick is reluctant to give up his illusion of a world without evil. But to maintain it, he is willing to escape the reality that is presented to him.
The Killers are not the main focus of the story. The title is symbolic only of the evil that the story revolves around, but the heart of the story is Nick’s discovery and disbelief of the true evil that lurks in everyday life. Nick struggles with the knowledge that he cannot change Ole’s fate as he states, ‘“Don’t you want me to go and see the police? [...] Isn’t there something I could do? [...] Maybe it was just a bluff [...] Couldn’t you get out of town? [...] Couldn’t you fix it up some way?’” (Hemingway, 92-93). He is not prepared to accept the dark side of human nature.
The story is told in the objective point-of-view. Hemingway tells the story only as an observer. He does not tell the reader what the characters are thinking, nor does he give the reader any insight into his personal feelings.
Two perspectives are offered: the aspect of the killers and the aspect of Nick. The difficulty with each approach is that neither keeps going throughout the tale; Nick is tied up in the kitchen forsome time, the killers leave after Ole doesn't appear.
(Hemingway uses direct speech, the dialogues are short and the language simple.)
In reading the story, it is easy to think that this is a slow moving, and at times a “flat” story that has not reached any climax. As one re-reads the story, it is evident that Hemingway has chosen this style for a particular reason. Hemingway did not have Ole executed, because then the reader would focus all the attention to his tragic death. The murder does not occur, and the reader is forced to focus on the reaction of Nick, Sam and George, and the the killers.
The relativity of time is stressed early in the story. When the killers read the menu card, they discover that it contains items that are not available because of the time of day; and when the killers and George refer to the clock, there is some confusion. The clock reads twenty minutes past five o'clock, but it is really—according to George at least—only five o'clock. He says that the clock is twenty minutes fast. Why the clock is fast is not explained, but if it is not just a faulty clock and has been purposely set ahead—as is often the case, to forward closing time for the sake of the employees— then why doesn’t George use that faster time, the 5:20 time in his discussion with the killers about when the dishes will be available? Also, several references are made later in the story to specific times: for example, “George looked up at the clock. It was a quarter past six”, (Hemingway 86), but it is uncertain what time is being referred to: the actual time or the faster time. Such questions have direct impact on the killers' plan because they know that Ole usually comes into the restaurant at six o'clock. How do they know this, when presumably they do not wear watches? What clock have they followed and how reliable is it? The clock, like the menu, is unreliable. (“Oh, to hell with the clock”, Hemingway 79)
Along with the people in the story, physical settings are also presented in indeterminate ways. This lunchroom is not really a lunchroom, it had been made over from a saloon. And the name of the town, Summit, is obviously ironic and unsuitable for the place where these events occur because there is no real climax in the story. Also early in the story, the killers ask George, “What do they call it [the town]?” (Hemingway 80), and even after being told its name, they say they have never heard of it. But presumably they have followed or somehow traced Ole to the town; they even know where he usually eats. Would they then not know the name of the town he is in, especially if they had been informed about it? And to add to the confusion, they later insist, '”We know damn well where we are.” (Hemingway 82)
Nobody can say for sure, why they want to kill the man known as Ole Andreson. Not even the two killers. “We are killing him for a friend. Just to oblige a friend.” (Hemingway 85). But unfortunately for them, he does not come at all, as if he knew the very consequences of his expected coming. In fact, he did. And for him, there was nothing he could do about it. He was sitting in his room of solitude, anticipating something he would get, something inevitable.
