Identity, Time, Knowledge and Hemingway

What's the connection between Hip and Hemingway?

IDENTITY, Time, Knowledge. This is the stuff that keeps me awake at night. (I have now identified the cause of my insomnia-du-jour). Identity, TIME, Knowledge. It's 3:23 a.m. and I'm wrestling with The Killers instead of gently dreaming like the rest of the family. Identity, Time, KNOWLEDGE. Might as well just get up.

IDENTITY

Hemingway seems bent on confusing his reader with his cast of characters. The identities of Al and Sam are anchored by references to their race and only Nick Adams and Ole Anderson have the distinction of both a first and last name. If people find

their identity in their occupation, then George, and Sam and Mrs. Bell are the only three with true identities in the story. Al and Max indicate they are killers, but since they never actually kill anyone during this narrative, maybe they are just wannabe's.

TIME

Three things about time are certain in this story. It is evening as the story opens. The killers spend approximately 2 hours in Henry's lunch room, as marked by the march of the clock. The season is the fall. In the character of Ole Anderson, Hemingway seems to contradict the "hip" concept of a perpetual present in that Ole's PAST has followed him to the PRESENT, and consequently, his FUTURE has already been determined.

KNOWLEDGE

If knowledge is power, then Ole Anderson is king in this story. He is the only character that seems to know all the pieces of the puzzle. He knows what time to go to Henry's to eat the dinner. He knows what it is about his past that has made him a target. He knows the police can't help him, it won't do any good to keep running, and that the threat to his life is not a bluff. He knows his future date with a bullet is a certainty.

So there you have it. It's 5:04 a.m. and I am SO DONE thinking about Hemingway and the hipness of his little story. Time to make the coffee and get on with the day.