The End of Something

"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.

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”.

He claimed that the “competence, skill, discipline, humility, pride, and poise” shown by Marge in the story reflected the Marjorie Hemingway knew.

[12] According to Lisa Tyler, the opening description "represents a vivid (if disturbing) metaphor for the relationship Nick and Marjorie share,”[13] 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.

[17] She writes that “Hemingway uses the imagery of an irreparably damaged environment in “The End of Something” and elsewhere throughout the stories of In Our Time to link violence against nature with other forms of violence depicted in that collection, including violence against... women,... suggesting that he was more ecofeminist in his sympathies that his readers have yet acknowledged.”[18] According to Tyler, Marjorie’s questioning proves her “sensitivity to Nick’s emotional state.”[19] Some analysts, like Gerry Brenner, interpret the Bill interlude as expressing Hemingway's “latent homoeroticism.”[20] Smith takes a different route from Stoneback in claiming that Bill and Marjorie are “disembodied representations of a conflict within [Nick’s] mind,” but his analysis is also consistent with Nick's expression of his inner hell.