An example of verbal irony that shows up throughout the story is Al and Max’s use of the phrase “bright boy” when referring to both George and Nick. The irony comes across best in the first instance in which the men use the term, as seen in the following passage:
“What do you do here nights?” Al asked.
“They eat the dinner,” his friend said. “They all come here and eat the big dinner.”
“That’s right,” George said.
“So you think that’s right?” Al asked George.
“Sure.”
“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. He turned to Nick. “What’s your name?”
“Adams.”
“Another bright boy,” Al said. “Ain’t he a bright boy, Max?”
“The town’s full of bright boys,” Max said.
It is obvious in this passage that Al is being sarcastic when he calls George a “bright boy,” as he does so after George simply describes how, at night, the people of Summit come to the diner to eat dinner (not a particularly insightful statement). The sarcasm becomes even more clear when, after George is needled into affirming that he also believes himself to be bright, Max says, “Well, you’re not” and Al also says, “He’s dumb.” In this way, it is obvious that the two men are using the phrase to mock the man who they actually consider to be beneath them. That the men go on to call Nick a “bright boy” simply for telling them his last name again highlights how the men are using the phrase facetiously.
The hitmen’s use of the phrase “boy” here is one of the ways that they challenge their hostages’ masculinity—especially that of George, who is likely older than the two men. That said, Max and Al’s reliance on petty nicknames to be intimidating demonstrates that they are actually the ones acting boyish and immature.
Max and Al use verbal irony throughout the story in order to demean the town of Summit and its inhabitants (including George, Sam, and Nick). In the following passage, for example, they sarcastically refer to Summit as a “hot town”:
“Got anything to drink?” Al asked.
“Silver beer, bevo, ginger-ale,” George said.
“I mean you got anything to drink?”
“Just those I said.”
“This is a hot town,” said the other. “What do they call it?”
“Summit.”
“Ever hear of it?” Al asked his friend.
“No,” said the friend.
Al describing Summit as a “hot town” here is an example of verbal irony because he actually thinks the opposite. This is because he was expecting (or hoping) that the diner would have alcohol and is frustrated when George refuses to serve him a hard drink. (Because of Prohibition, it was illegal for establishments like this to serve alcohol at the time.) Al demonstrates his annoyance over the lack of liquor by facetiously asking Max if Max had ever heard of Summit, setting his friend up to respond “no” and further their disparagement of the town.
Here, the hitmen’s expectations of drinking are dashed by the reality that the diner cannot give them what they want. It is notable that Hemingway doesn’t actually tell readers whether or not there is alcohol in the diner, only that George refuses to serve it to Max and Al. He leaves open the possibility that George is simply not intimidated enough by the men to give them what they want (especially when it is illegal to do so).
In an example of dramatic irony, readers are aware that Max and Al are holding everyone in the diner hostage while they wait for Ole Andreson to arrive, but the few patrons who come into the diner in the intervening hours are completely unaware of this fact. The irony comes across in the following passage, as the narrator describes one such customer arriving for a to-go order:
Once George had gone out to the kitchen and made a ham-and-egg sandwich “to go” that a man wanted to take with him. Inside the kitchen he saw Al, his derby hat tipped back, sitting on a stool beside the wicket with the muzzle of a sawed-off shotgun resting on the ledge. Nick and the cook were back to back in the corner, a towel tied in each of their mouths. George had cooked the sandwich, wrapped it up in oiled paper, put it in a bag, brought it in, and the man had paid for it and gone out.
This passage captures the cool and collected way that George goes to the back of the restaurant to make a simple ham-and-egg sandwich for a customer, doing so while winding around Al holding “the muzzle of a sawed-off shotgun” and Nick and Sam sitting in the corner with “a towel tied in each of their mouths.” The mundane way in which the narrator describes how George “cooked the sandwich, wrapped it up in oiled paper, put it in a bag, brought it in" captures the irony of him acting normal in completely abnormal (and quite threatening) circumstances.
While this customer who ordered the ham-and-egg sandwich expects the diner to be functioning normally—and leaves the premises still believing this to be true—the reality is that a violent crime is taking place in the background. This is one of the many moments in which Hemingway highlights the tension between expectations and reality.
Nick, George, and Sam have a whole debate about whether or not to tell Old Andreson that two hitmen are after him, only to learn that he has been aware of this fact the whole time—an example of situational irony. The irony comes across in the following passage when Nick finds Old Andreson at a boarding house and shares what he believes to be the big reveal:
“I was up at Henry’s,” Nick said, “and two fellows came in and tied up me and the cook, and they said they were going to kill you.”
It sounded silly when he said it. Ole Andreson said nothing.
“They put us out in the kitchen,” Nick went on. “They were going to shoot you when you came in to supper.”
Ole Andreson looked at the wall and did not say anything.
“George thought I better come and tell you about it.”
“There isn’t anything I can do about it,” Ole Andreson said.
This passage captures how seriously Nick takes his duty to warn Ole Andreson about the man’s potential killers and how confused he is when Ole Andreson doesn’t react with surprise or worry. Nick continues to share details in the hopes of provoking a response until Ole Andreson says, “There isn’t anything I can do about it,” indirectly revealing the ironic twist that he has known of the hit on him this whole time. While Nick wants to be a hero in this moment, because Ole Andreson is already aware of his fate, Nick is instead simply someone who “sound[s] silly.”
This moment is also notable as it is here that Nick starts to lose his innocence, coming to realize that some people are willing to face death without fear. While Ole Andreson is, in some ways, avoiding his death in the short term by hiding at the boarding house, it is clear that he is no longer going to try to run from his fate.
