George

The counterman at Henry's lunch-room in 'The Killers', who keeps two gunmen in conversation for two hours.

What they want

To get everybody through the evening. He does as he is told, keeps the customers moving, and once the men have gone he unties the other two and sends someone to warn the man they came for.

The book

Cover of Men Without Women by Ernest Hemingway

Men Without WomenErnest Hemingway, 1927

The second story collection — 'The Killers,' 'Hills Like White Elephants' — the iceberg method at its coldest and most perfect.

View the book

At a glance

In the book: Counterman at Henry's lunch-room in Summit
The clock: Twenty minutes fast
Told to say: That the cook is off, and that he will cook himself if anyone keeps asking
What the gunmen call him: Bright boy
Sends: Nick Adams to Hirsch's rooming-house to warn Ole Andreson

Who they are in the book

Spoiler-free

George is the counterman at Henry's lunch-room in 'The Killers', one of the fourteen stories in Men Without Women, the 1927 collection by the American writer Ernest Hemingway. He is behind the counter when two armed men come in, and once the other two people in the building have been tied up in the kitchen, he is the one left out in the room with them.

For two hours he answers questions, serves the dinners, lies to the customers who come through the door, and watches the clock. What he does not do is warn anyone or make a move, and the story does not judge him for it.

How the book draws them

Appearance, manner, and tone — as the book sketches them, in our words.

He runs the counterThe story opens with him taking an order. The pork tenderloin and the chicken croquettes are on the dinner menu and the dinner is not served until six; the clock on the wall says twenty past five and is twenty minutes fast. He offers sandwiches, ham and eggs, bacon and eggs, liver and bacon, or a steak.
He answers everything flatlyTold he is a bright boy, he says sure. Told he is not, he says all right. He laughs once, is told he does not have to laugh at all, and stops. Almost every line he speaks in the first half of the story is one or two words long.
He asks the question the others do not“What are you going to kill Ole Andreson for?” he says. “What did he ever do to you?” He asks it twice and gets an answer both times, which is more than the gunmen intended to give.
He gets rid of three customersA street-car motorman comes in for supper and is told the cook has gone out and will be back in half an hour. Another man wants a ham-and-egg sandwich to take with him, and George goes into the kitchen, past Al and the shotgun, cooks it, wraps it in oiled paper, bags it and takes the money. A third asks why they do not get another cook.
He watches the clockThe story marks the time through his eyes: a quarter past six, twenty past, six fifty-five, seven o'clock, five past seven. At six fifty-five he says out loud that the man is not coming.
He decides what happens nextAs soon as the two men are across the street he goes into the kitchen and unties Nick Adams and the cook. Then he says Nick had better go and see Ole Andreson, and immediately afterwards that he need not go if he does not want to. The cook tells Nick to stay out of it. Nick goes.

Their ending, and the commentary — spoilers aheadHow the book leaves them, what happened after, and what the record says. Open when you're ready.

Nick comes back and reports that Andreson will not move. George says they will kill him, and that the man must have got mixed up in something in Chicago, and that people get killed for double-crossing somebody. Nick says he is going to get out of town. The story's last line is George's answer to Nick saying he cannot stand to think about it: “Well, you better not think about it.” Then he wipes the counter.

Back to Men Without Women