Sunday, July 24, 2022

The Three-Day Blow - Ernest Hemingway - 202 / 365 of reading one short story every day.


The Three-Day Blow

This story is the sequel to "The End of Something."

One rainy autumn afternoon, teen Nick hikes up in the north Michigan woods to a cabin to meet his friend Bill. Talking and drinking, they finally discuss Nick's breaking off his romantic relationship with Marjorie. Bill advises and insists that Nick did the right thing. A woman, he insists, will ruin a man; a married man is "done for." Nick listens but realizes that he is still free to flirt with the idea of finding the right woman to marry eventually. He is far from being converted to Bill's almost misogynistic view of women.

Bill, who emerged only briefly in the earlier story, plays a major role here. The setting is a cabin in the north Michigan woods that belongs to Bill's father and sits high above the lake with a good view of the woods. The time is fall, just before the first big autumn storm blows in. They get into an mild argument soon which shows the misogynist and macho attitudes of men conveniently used at several points of their life.






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