Tyler writes that Nick's behavior towards Marjorie can be compared with loggers in Michigan, that “Nick, like the loggers, is all too aware of the damage he is doing”. It was rather a small summer resort.” Laura Gruber Godfrey agrees that “The End of Something” shows “the careful interweaving of human characters with their communities and their landscapes.” In losing the mill, the town lost the linchpin that held it together, so when Nick and Marjorie row by ten years later, “there was nothing of the mill left except the broken white limestone of its foundations.” While the lumber mills indeed had moved away… the village was not abandoned.
In “False Wilderness”, Frederic Svoboda emphasizes the significance of the description of the old lumber town, writing that “Horton Bay in Hemingway’s time was hardly the ghost town of "The End of Something". Analysis Īccording to Lisa Tyler, the opening description "represents a vivid (if disturbing) metaphor for the relationship Nick and Marjorie share," and Paul Smith claims the use of a descriptive and symbolic introduction is rather common in writing, but this does not reduce the introduction's usefulness in conveying the state of Marjorie and Nick's relationship at the beginning of the story. He claimed that the “competence, skill, discipline, humility, pride, and poise” shown by Marge in the story reflected the Marjorie Hemingway knew. 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. 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. Stoneback provided an explanation for the autobiographical elements of the story in his essay “'Nothing was ever lost': Another Look at 'That Marge Business'". 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. Many literary analysts have noted the connection of “The End of Something” to events in Hemingway's life. Bill appears again in " The Three-Day Blow". Bill is Nick's friend who encouraged Nick to end his relationship with Marjorie.Like Nick, she exhibits an appreciation for fishing. Considered an autobiographical character for Hemingway, Nick experiences the many struggles of coming of age throughout Hemingway's works. Nick Adams is a recurring character throughout this collection and other works by Hemingway.When Nick yells at Bill to go away, however, Nick shows dissatisfaction with his decision. When Nick's friend Bill arrives to ask how the breakup went, he proves that Nick had previously planned the breakup. 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.
The two then set up long lines and fish from the shore. While Marjorie daydreams that the remains of the mill are like a castle, Nick expresses his frustration over their unsuccessful fishing.
In this setting, Nick Adams and Marjorie, two teenagers in a relationship, fish in a small boat.
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. “The End of Something” begins with a description of Horton Bay, Michigan, a town that exists because of the lumber industry. 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”. “The End of Something” was published in 1925 in Hemingway's first collection of short stories, In Our Time. 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”. According to notes on the manuscript, Hemingway wrote “The End of Something” in March 1924.