The End of Something/The Three-Day Blow

Clay Fox
Dr. Williams
Lit and Civ II
21 October 2010
                                                   Ernest Hemingway Short Stories

The stories I read today were "The End of Something" and "The Three-Day Blow". Out of the two stories, "The Three-Day Blow" was the most enjoyable. That being said, I did enjoy "The End of Something" as well.
These stories are about Nick, Bill and Nick's girlfriend Marge. I enjoy Ernest's way of continuing the story in the next one. In "The End of Something", Nick breaks up with Marge, and in "The Three-Day Blow"  they talk about the break-up. I feel everyone has been at this point in their life. They break up with a girlfriend or boyfriend, and even though it is over, it isn't completely over.
Some themes I enjoyed in "The End of Something" are Nick's inability to not have a feeling of loss at the end. This shows that, like everyone else, a break-up is hard to do. It is one of the hardest things a lot of young people have to do in their lives. In continuance in this theme, Marjorie comments on the fish in the water and Nick talks about them not biting. I feel Nick is the fish that won't bite in this. Marjorie wants the next step in the relationship and Nick is feeling the end of the relationship, at least for now.
Another theme that I enjoyed in the story was that of the town they pasted by. They mentioned how the town was past it's prime. It talks about how it was awesome back in the day. I feel this is talking about Nick and Marjorie's relationship. In the past, it was awesome. It was in it's prime. Now, it is past it's prime. It has gone on for a long time and is ready to end. It is just sum "iceberg" effect Ernest Hemingway adds in the story to make the reader think more. He does this with all his stories, making you relate and think about them. 
The Other story, "The Three-Day Blow" talks about two boys getting drunk and discussing life. There are two things I picked up on in this story that made me smile when I read it. First, Nick and Bill talked about baseball during their drunken adventure. They talked about their passion for the St. Louis Cardinals. I am from St. Louis and am a huge Cardinals fan. I can talk about Cardinals baseball for days and days, so I related to the boys during this time in the story and began reading the rest more closely because of it. The second thing that made me smile was at the end of the story when Nick says that nothing is over. He is talking about his relationship with Marjorie, yet doesn't know what he is talking about because of all the drinking he has done. This just made me laugh thinking about Nick stumbling around, blabbing about life and his passion he still has for Marjorie.
Ernest Hemingway has a great way of writing short stories. His stories, with Nick as the main character, relate to people and give something called an "iceberg" effect that makes people think about what is really going. All in all, Ernest wrote two good stories that I read today. I enjoyed both, relating and thinking about both while reading.