Comparing the consequences of crime in Homicide and The Killers

Homicide by David Simon is a non-fiction book about the homicide department in the American city of Baltimore. This book goes over all what David Simon found out and the  information he discovered while at the Baltimore Homicide department. The Killers, a novel by Ernest Hemingway is a short story which contrasts Homicide as it is fiction. The Killers is set in a 1950’s cafe, with 2 assassins attempting to kill a target.

Both writers use profanity in their texts which is used to create a scene their respective situations. “All right,n*gger” is the phrase one of Hemingway’s characters uses and “your too f*cking dumb” is one which Simon uses. This profanity could suggest that the writer is trying to make the reader have a negative outlook on the person they are portraying as swearing. The major difference between the two texts is the different era’s they are set in with The Killers being set in the 1950’s and Homicide being set in the 1990’s. This effects the language used in the texts with racist words against a specific ethnic minority used in The Killers which is “n*gger”. Hemingway even describes a person using this word which shows that he views it as acceptable while Simon only uses it when trying to create tension.

Another difference in the two texts is that in David Simon’s book,Homicide, he uses 2nd person while in Hemingway’s book,The Killers, he uses 3rd person. An example of this in Simon’s writing is “you sign your name and the monologue resumes” which is 2nd person as Simon is putting “you” in the situation. On the contrary Hemingway uses 3rd person, for example “George looked at the clock on the wall behind the counter” which puts the reader in an all knowing position. Simon however puts us in a situation where we just know how much your character is experiencing so “you” are in the story which effect the reader by putting the reader in the characters shoes. Hemingway does the opposite and uses 3rd person which makes the reader a spectator to the story. This then helps the reader relate to the characters, but in Homicide the readers are made to view themselves in the situation.

Both writers use irony in their texts which is used to create an underlying meaning by saying the opposite or something different then they are implying. An example of this in The Killers is when Al says to George “You’re a pretty bright boy, aren’t you ?”. This is an example of verbal irony as Al doesn’t actually mean that George is a bright boy, but the opposite and in effect patronizing George. We know this because of the context of the situation, which is Al and Max holding George at gunpoint and its unlikely that they would be paying him compliments. An example of irony in Homicide is when the 2nd person character says he doesn’t want to talk to which the detective replies “that’s fine”. This is another example of verbal irony as the detective is saying its fine and being very friendly but in reality he wants to take the criminal down. These two examples of irony show the sheer brutality of the criminal world and how people who are playing the ‘nice guy’ are in truth very manipulative.

The two writers show the consequences of crime in very different ways. David Simon’s book Homicide focus’s on what happens after the crime and in what way it affects someone’s life or the hypothetical ‘you’. In contrast Hemingway’s ,The Killers, show the life of crime as a one which is very brutal for anyone who is caught up in it. To help show the consequences of a life of crime many language techniques are used by the author in which I have explained in this essay that include irony, 2\3rd person and profanity.