"The Killers" response

I thought Ernest Hemingway's "The Killers" was one of the most unique short stories I have read. The plot heavily relied on dialogue which seemed to be quite concise yet still got the point across. The dialogue of the hit men, for example, seemed to portray them as both intimidating and gracious. They were obviously instilling fear in the workers of the diner, but left them unharmed even though the cook, a bystander named Nick, and a worker named George all knew too much information. The dialogue between Nick and Ole Anderson was by far the best at emphasizing a major aspect of the plot; Ole Anderson seemed to be okay with the fact that hit men were coming after him. Anderson's reaction to Nick's attempt to save him was anticlimactic because the reader assumes Anderson would try to run instead of accepting his death. On the other hand, his reaction shaped the plot because the story changed gears from a man running from murder to a man knowingly waiting to be murdered.

As morbid as it sounds, I found the end of the story to be really disappointing because there was no death to satisfy the plot. The story builds anticipation about Ole Anderson's immenent murder and when the end leaves the reader to assume he is murdered, I felt unfilfilled. Then I read over Anderson's dialogue with Nick one more time and realized Anderson's decision not to run was Hemingway's whole purpose of the story. All in all, I enjoyed Hemingway's story because the oppostie of what you expect, or I guess in my case, want to happen doesn't happen in the end.