Throughout their day out fishing, Marjorie is constantly the one trying to make the moves, the one trying to reminisce and revive their once wonderful bond, however Nick rejects all offers. For example, when they sit to eat their picnic at line 73, they ate without talking and ‘watched the two rods and the firelight in the water’. At first, Nick was reluctant to begin eating; Marjorie had to ask twice before he sat down by the side of her. They eventually have to focus on something else to avoid focusing on each other, whilst loving couples would engage in deep, serious prolonged eye contact for example. This represents the fact that there is no communication within the relationship, that it is not held together by love it is just simply an existence rather than what a normal bond would be.
The fact that they are both out fishing is peculiar as fishing is only Nick’s hobby, not Marjorie’s. Marjorie uses it as an excuse to spend time with Nick. Fishing is also symbolic of their relationship; the fact that you need to use bait to catch your fish is metaphor to the fact that Marjorie has thrown Nick bait to reminisce in their relationship but so far he has refused it.
When Nick and Marjorie lay the bait, Nick is in control, he tells her how to prepare the perch which represents that he has the upper hand in the relationship: he is always in control.
Marjorie knows there is a problem in the relationship because Nick has been negative at all her questions and attempts to reminisce. He is avoiding dealing with the problem.
The fact that Nick is constantly contradicting everything that Marjorie says in the story is very important as Marjorie is constantly trying to be positive, yet Nick always replies with a negative comment. This perhaps represents the fact that Marjorie thinks that the relationship can be saved.
The shape and the structure of the story play an important part in how the end of the story is shaped and ‘put across’ to the reader. Hemingway uses an extremely large amount of symbolism and metaphors in the story to shape its meaning and real effect. To appreciate the story you truly have to read between the lines and discover what really is being put across. The main symbols are the Town to the relationship – they both used to be thriving and bustling now both are dead, a thing of the past. Throughout the story, Marjorie is throwing bait, in affect (again a symbol, this time of the fishing) to catch Nick and to revive the relationship. She thinks it can be done however Nick doesn’t as he is constantly contradicting everything she says and does.
The end of the story is significant as this is the time that Nick reveals that he ends the relationship, ‘The End of Something’ as mentioned in the title of the story. The fact that his friend ‘Bill’ asks him if ‘she went all right’ suggests to the reader that Nick has been planning this in advance, a sad and scheming way to do things because he has let someone else know what he has been planning when he should have been keeping things to himself. However, in the second to last line of the story, Nick rages towards Bill: ‘Oh, go away, Bill! Go away for a while.’ This suggests that Nick happened to be feeling either guilty or upset with the happenings before hand and he wants some time, by himself, to contemplate and to think things over. Hence, he tells his friend Bill to ‘go away for a while’.