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Nick Adams
George is the manager at Henry’s diner. His age and background are unknown, but his paternalistic way of talking to Nick and giving him directions indicates that he is older and more experienced than Nick. When Max and Al come into the diner, George becomes the primary target of their harassment. He is repeatedly called a “bright boy,” which is meant as a slight to both his masculinity and his intelligence. Despite these insults, George’s fear prevents him from standing up for himself. While Al ties up Nick and Sam in the kitchen, George is left alone with Max. George is horrified to learn about their plan to kill Ole Andreson and he frequently checks the clock while he counts down the minutes until the hitmen will give up. When Ole does not come in, they tell George he’s “got a lot of luck” and they leave without hurting any of their hostages. George is better at hiding his fear than Nick is, but he is still too scared to go warn Ole about the hitmen himself, and so he tells Nick to do it. When Nick returns with news of Ole’s acceptance of death, George quickly tries to put it out of his mind. He gets out a towel and begins wiping down the counters, telling Nick he “better not think about it” anymore. In general, George is slightly more able to cope with the possibility of death than Nick is, but he still can’t accept and embrace the inevitability of death, a mark of immaturity in Hemingway’s eyes.
George Quotes in The Killers
The The Killers quotes below are all either spoken by George or refer to George. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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The Killers Quotes
“I’ll have a roast pork tenderloin with apple sauce and mashed potatoes,” the first man said.
“It isn’t ready yet.”
“What the hell do you put it on the card for?”
“That’s the dinner,” George explained. “You can get that at six o’clock.”
George looked at the clock on the wall behind the counter.
“It’s five o’clock.”
“The clock says it’s twenty minutes past five,” the second man said.
“It’s twenty minutes fast.”
“Oh, to hell with the clock,” the first man said. “What have you got to eat?”
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“You’re a pretty bright boy, aren’t you?”
“Sure,” said George.
“Well, you’re not,” said the other little man. “Is he Al?”
“He’s dumb,” said Al.
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“Where do you think you are?”
“We know damn well where we are,” the man called Max said. “Do we look silly?”
“You talk silly,” Al said to him.
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“What are you going to kill Ole Andreson for? What did he ever do to you?”
“He never had a chance to do anything to us. He never even seen us.”
“And he’s only going to see us once,” Al said from the kitchen.
“What are you going to kill him for, then?” George asked.
“We’re killing him for a friend. Just to oblige a friend, bright boy.”
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“Listen,” George said to Nick. “You better go see Ole Andreson.”
“All right.”
“You better not have anything to do with it at all,” Sam, the cook, said. “You stay out of it.”
“Don’t go if you don’t want to,” George said.
“Mixing up in this ain’t going to get you anywhere,” the cook said. “You stay out of it.”
“I’ll go see him,” Nick said to George.
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“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,” said George, “you better not think about it.”
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George Character Timeline in The Killers
The timeline below shows where the character George appears in The Killers. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
The Killers
...peruse the menu. The only other customer is Nick, who was talking to the manager, George, before the men came in. Nick stays at the other end of the counter and...
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The first man, Max, orders a roast pork dinner and George tells him that this isn’t available. When Max asks him why it’s on the menu...
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George tells the two men—who are wearing matching derby hats, gloves, and overcoats that are too...
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...makes a snide comment about how “hot” the town is and asks what it’s called. George says the town’s name is Summit, and Max and Al remark that they’ve never heard...
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George brings Max and Al their meals, but they can’t remember who ordered what. As they...
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...and they dodge the question, repeating their order and asking who is in the kitchen. George says that the cook, Sam, is in the kitchen (he refers to Sam with the...
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...looks Sam over and then drags him and Nick to the kitchen. Once they’re gone, George asks Max what is going on. Max calls back to Al that the “bright boy”...
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Max asks George if Ole Andreson comes in every night at six, and George says that Ole comes...
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Max instructs George to tell anyone who comes in to order dinner that the cook is gone and...
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A motorman comes in to order dinner, but George tells him that the cook is out and the man leaves. Max tells him “that...
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Before this, George recalls, another customer came in and insisted on a sandwich, so George went back in...
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George repeats that Ole Andreson isn’t coming in and Max says they’re going to wait ten...
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As Max and Al leave, they tell George that he’s “got a lot of luck” and “ought to play the races.” George watches...
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Sam tells George that he doesn’t “like any of it at all” and George tells Nick that he...
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...and that he’ll go out eventually. Nick tells him he is going back to see George at the diner and Ole thanks him for coming and tells him goodbye.
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Nick walks back to the diner and finds George behind the counter again. Sam is in the kitchen, but he opens the door to...
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Nick breaks the silence and asks George what he thinks Ole did. George says he must have double-crossed somebody because it’s “what...
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