Hemingway’s writing style in “The Killers” is minimalist and repetitive. Minimalism emerged alongside modernism as a writing technique that allowed writers to communicate a sense of alienation and dissatisfaction. Rather than using flowery, lyrical language, minimalist writers like Hemingway combined sparse dialogue with even sparser narration.
Take the following passage, for example, which comes as Nick is trying to convince Ole Andreson to fight back against the hitmen who are coming for him:
Nick looked at the big man lying on the bed.
“Don’t you want me to go and see the police?”
“No,” Ole Andreson said. “That wouldn’t do any good.”
“Isn’t there something I could do?”
“No. There ain’t anything to do.”
“Maybe it was just a bluff.”
“No. It ain’t just a bluff.”
Ole Andreson rolled over toward the wall.
The only times the narrator appears in this passage are to communicate “Nick looked at the big man lying on the bed” and “Ole Andreson rolled over toward the wall.” The bare nature of these sentences captures Nick’s weary energy as well as the boxer’s depressive state. Though Nick is clearly trying to convince the other man to take action, the lack of descriptions like “Nick implored him” or “Nick was devastated by the man’s reticence” lead readers to conclude that Nick, despite being a young man trying to act the hero, already has a fatigued energy of his own.
The simple repetitive nature of the conversation here also adds to the sense of stagnation and impossibility. The pattern is: Nick suggests a way that Ole Andreson could resist his fate and Ole Andreson rebuffs him, starting with the simple word, “No,” and then repeating back the same language that Nick used. This stylistic choice communicates that Ol Anderson feels completely resigned to the fact that he will die and has no interest in thinking creatively about a solution. It is notable that in other parts of the story, Hemingway also repeats words, such as the hitmen referring to both George and Nick as “bright boy” 30 different times in an 8-page story. Again, the repetition adds to the sense that the two men are trapped and unable to assert agency.
