Hemingway's " The Killers",  was written to make you feel awkward. He succeeded. And being an odd duck myself, I liked every awkward line.  

I had a blast with this story simply because you have to fill in all the important parts yourself. It is the ultimate "choose your own ending" book. I am very easily distracted so being able to use his story to launch a million of my own was very entertaining. This tactic was extremely useful when applied to the question that was eating at me. Why is George protecting the cook, Sam? 

Once I chose acceptable answers to all the unanswered questions, (and stopped picturing Samuel L. Jackson and John Travolta arguing about what's for dinner) I was able to move on. I can't help but wonder if the relationship between the story and time is bigger than the clock on the wall. I might be reaching a bit here, but I believe the central theme of the story is time.

Hemingway's story happens only in the present. There are no flashbacks or glimpses into what may happen. If you are going by George's time, the story takes place in a little over 2 hours. And the usually punctual, Ole Anderson, was out of time, literally.  Everything leads to time but it is not the only thing going on. 

We were told to also examine how identity and knowledge play apart in this story, as well as time. As far as identity goes, time doesn't care what your name is, and apparently neither did Ernest. He told us exactly what we needed to know and no more. Which leads me to the topic of knowledge. All of the characters have secrets. But of all people, Max seems to be the only one to jar loose with some of his. 

We were privy only to the fact that someone sent Al and Max there to kill Ole Anderson. 

The only character that had most of the knowledge, if not all, was in a loosing battle with time. Mr. Anderson couldn't spend the rest of his life in his rented room. Sooner or later he was going to come out and time would claim him. Time is constant and the same for everyone. No matter the multiple identities we all carry or all the knowledge we could possibly obtain, time does not wait for anyone. It effects us all equally.