Economic and Personal Decline in Hemingway’s “The End of Something”, Essay Example

The bleakness of Ernest Hemingway’s “End of Something”, published in 1925, is present in both the setting of the short story and the relationship of the main characters. The first paragraph immediately establishes the depressing arc of the story with its account of the collapse of a logging town, Hortons Bay. A narrative concerning the deteriorating relationship of the characters of Nick and Marjorie follows the description of the economic decline of the town. Accordingly, the text’s first paragraph appears to use the thematic of economic decline in order to introduce the main plot of the decline in a personal relationship. Hemingway can thus be said to present a certain nihilistic account of human existence in “End of Something” according to the omnipresence in the story of the motif of decline.

Hemingway begins the story with an account of the rise and fall of Hortons Bay, thus foreshadowing the theme of the central plot and the relationship between Nick and Marjorie. The brief history of the town commences with a recapitulation of its golden age, a time when “no one who lived in it was out of sound of the big saws in the mill by the lake.” (Hemingway, 79) Hemingway thus tells of the initial successes of the town in terms of its thriving industry. This success, however, is followed by the degeneration of the town. After exhausting all the logging resources, the town’s main industry collapses. Hemingway carefully describes the dismantling of the sawmill and the movements of the schooner taking away the lifeblood of Hortons Bay. This account of economic decline intimates a certain inevitability of death, in the form of the collapse of a once vibrant town.

This initial paragraph anticipates the nature of the personal relationship that constitutes the remaining text. The characters of Nick and Marjorie have gone to set fishing lines, and at this point in the story, the status of their relationship remains ambiguous. Nonetheless, the reader can sense that there is a relationship between Nick and Marjorie, although a relationship that is also experiencing decline. For example, Marjorie says, “There’s our old ruin Nick” (Hemingway, 79), when talking about the Hortons Bay sawmill. The utilization of “our” indicates that Nick and Marjorie have some personal history that is represented by the sawmill. At the same time, the fact that it is now a ruin establishes the notion that the relationship between Nick and Marjorie is also undergoing turmoil.

Hemingway reveals the problematic in the relationship slowly, which recalls the notion of a slow decline. The author provides an account of the work done by Nick and Marjorie in a somber tone, using this as an opportunity to include details of the nature of the relationship in the form of a continuous bickering between the couple, which informs the reader of a certain depression that is now constitutive of their relationship. Marjorie asks Nick “What’s the matter?” (Hemingway, 80), to which he responds, “I don’t know.” (Hemingway, 80) Nick’s inability to respond suggests that he feels himself lost and without answers. The precise problematic is nevertheless revealed towards the end of the story, when Marjorie asks, “Isn’t love any fun?” (Hemingway, 81), to which Nick responds “No.” (Hemingway, 81) Nick’s abrupt answer suggests that the loving relationship he had with Marjorie has now reached its end. There is no longer any special sentiment that Nick confers to his relationship with Marjorie, and his response is thus a symptom of its decline. The nature of the personal difficulty between the characters becomes clear: it is the loss of a love that once was.

Hemingway’s “The End of Something” thus presents a depressing account of general human existence through a tale of economic and personal decline. The two variants of decline reflect each other, demonstrating that something that was once vibrant and alive eventually deteriorates. Accordingly, Hemingway can be said to open up some fundamental questions concerning the intrinsically nihilistic essence of all aspects of human life, insofar as everything becomes subject to decline.

Works Cited

Hemingway, Ernest. “The End of Something.” The Complete Short Stories of Ernest Hemingwway. New York: Scribner, 1987. 79-82. Print.