«The End of Something» is a short story written by Ernest Hemingway, published in the 1925 New York edition of In Our Time, by Boni & Liveright. The story is the third in the collection to feature Nick Adams, Hemingway’s autobiographical alter ego.
Publication history
According to notes on the manuscript, Hemingway wrote “The End of Something” in March 1924. Paul Smith claimed that based on the different kinds of paper used for the manuscript, it is possible that the story had “an earlier start”. “The End of Something” was published in 1925 in Hemingway’s first collection of short stories, In Our Time. In May 1925, F. Scott Fitzgerald reviewed In Our Time for Bookman, and called “The End of Something” “something fundamentally new.” Critics received the collection well, and “The End of Something” has been called a “harbinger of stories to come”.
Synopsis
“The End of Something” begins with a description of Hortons Bay, Michigan, a town that exists because of the lumber industry. Once the logs disappear, the lumber mill does, too, taking away “everything that had made… Hortons Bay a town.” By the time of the story, the town is deserted, and only the white limestone foundation of the mill is left. In this setting, Nick Adams and Marjorie, two teenagers in a relationship, fish in a small boat.
While Marjorie daydreams that the remains of the mill are like a castle, Nick expresses his frustration over their unsuccessful fishing. The two then set up long lines and fish from the shore. Sitting by a driftwood fire the pair made, Marjorie asks Nick what is bothering him, and Nick expresses that “It isn’t fun anymore.”
Marjorie recognizes his words as the end of the relationship and leaves, while Nick lies face down on a blanket. When Nick’s friend Bill arrives to ask how the breakup went, he proves that Nick had previously planned the breakup. When Nick yells at Bill to go away, however, Nick shows dissatisfaction with his decision.
Characters
Nick Adams is a recurring character throughout this collection and other works by Hemingway. Considered an autobiographical character for Hemingway, Nick experiences the many struggles of coming of age throughout Hemingway’s works.
Marjorie is Nick’s girlfriend. Like Nick, she exhibits an appreciation for fishing.
Bill is Nick’s friend who encouraged Nick to end his relationship with Marjorie. Bill appears again in «The Three-Day Blow”.
Autobiographical elements
Many literary analysts have noted the connection of “The End of Something” to events in Hemingway’s life. In Ernest Hemingway: A Life Story, Carlos Baker notes that Hemingway had “a brief romance with Marjorie Bump, at Horton Bay in the summer of 1919.” H.R. Stoneback provided an explanation for the autobiographical elements of the story in his essay “’Nothing was ever lost’: Another Look at ‘That Marge Business'». Stoneback claimed that “Marge and Hemingway met long before the summer of 1919.”
According to Stoneback, Marjorie came to Horton Bay to visit her uncle, Professor Ernest L. Ohle of Washington University in St. Louis, who had his summer cottage there.” William Ohle in “How it was in Horton Bay” explained that Hemingway and Marge met in 1915 when Marge “was walking back from the creek to her uncle’s house, a speckled trouth on a stringer in one hand and a long cane pole in the other.” Bernice Kert described Marge as “softly vulnerable and good-natured, the right degree of woman for Ernest.” Stoneback disdained such quaint descriptions of the real-life Marjorie. He claimed that the “competence, skill, discipline, humility, pride, and poise” shown by Marge in the story reflected the Marjorie Hemingway knew.
