The Three-Day Blow Summary & Analysis

Hemingway’s opening offers descriptive details that situate the story in a specific place. The references to “Wagner” apples and Nick’s “Mackinaw” coat indicate that the setting of the story is the Northeastern United States. In addition, since many of Hemingway’s stories about Nick Adams are set specifically in Michigan, readers can reasonably assume that the same is true for this story. Situating the story in this place allows Hemingway to hint that the story is not just about Nick and Bill, but about American youths in general. 

The “second-growth timber” that is piled up against the trees behind is a metaphor about the cyclical nature of existence. Second-growth timber is wood from trees that have grown after a forest has been cut down the first time. Thus, the logs represent the idea that no ending is final and new beginnings are always possible, a thought that Nick comes to later in the story.

Bill and Nick are eager to show off how much they know about drinking—and, by extension, prove that they are real men. However, Hemingway’s mention of the fact that neither has “seen any peat” before shows that they are still just boys pretending to be men.  

The cots in the roof indicate that Nick and Bill are good friends—it’s clear they’ve spent time at the cottage many times before. Bill’s bossy demeanor toward Nick, when he scolds Nick about the socks, shows that Bill is the dominant figure in the friendship. The description of Nick’s feet as “big” is a nod to Hemingway himself, who was known to have big feet.

Here, Hemingway draws on details from actual baseball games in history. The trade of Heine Zimmerman to the Giants (under then manager John McGraw) took place in 1916, resulting in a 26-game winning streak for the Giants. This historical detail allows Hemingway to establish that the story, though published in 1925, is set in approximately 1916, around the time when Hemingway himself would have been about 17 years old. Given that Bill and Nick both seem to be on the brink of manhood, it seems that they’re around this age, too. The story, thus, functions as a “Lost Generation” narrative, which deals with issues faced by young Americans who came into adulthood between World War I and World War II. As with their conversation about whisky, Nick and Bill are eager to prove their sports knowledge to each other in order to show off their masculinity, as they do throughout the story.

Hemingway’s repeated references to drinking and whisky show that the boys are eager to continue drinking as a show of masculinity. The reference to the time of year when fall storms come around alludes to the cyclical nature of existence: like the fluctuating seasons, things come and go, but nothing ever ends.

Hemingway references actual books that were published in the early 20th century. Hugh Walpole’s novels Fortitude and The Dark Forest were published in 1913 and 1916, respectively. Like the boys’ conversation about baseball, Hemingway uses these references to situate the story historically in approximately 1916, establishing it as a World War I narrative. And, like their discussions about drinking and baseball, the boys are keen to show off their knowledge of reading to each other in order to appear masculine.

Nick and Bill’s admiration for Hugh Walpole and G. K. Chesterton, both as writers and as all-around good “guy[s],” shows that they consider writing as the kind of thing that “real,” respected men do. Besides drinking, writing, and baseball, the boys also position fishing as a distinctively masculine pastime.

Despite feeling intoxicated, Nick still asks Bill if he has any more whisky, which suggests that Nick is eager to show he can drink a lot. Bill, too, wants to show off his capacity for alcohol and tries to seem grown up and nonchalant by shrugging off the possibility that his father would be mind. The reader learns that Bill’s father is perhaps a heavy drinker from Bill’s odd comment about people becoming “drunkards” by opening bottles to drink from, suggesting that Bill’s father doesn’t want his son to follow in his footsteps.

Bill’s father is the epitome of all that the boys deem as masculine—he’s a creative type, he drinks heavily, and he partakes in outdoorsy, and stereotypically manly, activities like shooting. Bill’s comment that his dad has “had a tough time,” though, suggests that the boys should perhaps not romanticize Bill’s father or his life quite so much. Nick’s father, on the other hand, is a doctor who doesn’t drink—he has a conventional profession and seems puritanical and straitlaced compared to Bill’s rough-and-tumble father. Nick’s father represents the kind of conventional, boring life that both young boys are disillusioned with, made clear by Nick’s comment that his father has “missed a lot” in life.

Nick and Bill’s attempts to show off how “practical” they are show that they consider their ability to hold their liquor—that is, to drink a lot but not act drunk—a sign of masculine accomplishment. Hemingway’s use of irony in describing how proud the boys are of themselves for performing simple tasks (like picking up spilled apricots and stoking a fire with logs) shows that the boys are playing at being manly, but they are still just boys.

Nick’s failure to recognize his own face in the mirror shows that their bravado about drinking and holding their liquor is for show, since he is clearly very drunk and detached from reality. This is the first hint that a lot of what the boys verbalize to each other is not quite aligned with how they are feeling inside.

Even though the boys clearly know a lot about baseball and are passionate about it, they suddenly—and drunkenly—decide that it’s “for louts,” meaning clumsy, stupid people. The boys are clearly invested in defining and proving their masculinity, and their sudden decision to abandon baseball (at this point, a still relatively new but wildly popular sport) for fishing and literature shows that they are trying to look cool and cultured in front of one another. The mention of Chesterton and Walpole—writers who were publishing in the 1910s—reminds the reader that this story is set during World War I.

Bill’s cynical description of marriage as something that ruins men captures the disillusionment that many young people in the Lost Generation felt with domestic conventions like marriage or working for money. Growing up in a war-torn, changing society, many young adults felt that these conventions felt stale and meaningless, leaving them feeling “lost.” Bill’s use of profanity, and his caricature of married men as “fat” also shows that he thinks marriage is an unmanly pursuit that compromises independence and autonomy. Nick’s halfhearted replies show that he might have different feelings about his breakup, but is not fully comfortable expressing them to the opinionated Bill.

Bill’s description of relationships again denigrates love as something that “ruin[s]” men. Bill’s comments about Marjorie’s mother coming around all the time shows that he thinks the social responsibilities of married life undermine masculine independence and autonomy. Bill’s mention of “Ida that works for the Strattons” hints that he got out of a similar situation himself. This reinforces the idea that Bill sees domestic responsibilities as fundamentally problematic for all men.

The shift to Nick’s internal monologue shows that he is distraught about ending his relationship. His failure to voice this to Bill reveals that he is uncomfortable expressing his emotions to his friend, perhaps concerned about appearing weak and unmanly in the face of Bill’s fervent disapproval of relationships. The repetition of the phrase “it was all gone” shows that Nick is experiencing shock at the finality of the breakup.

Bill’s remark that the boys wouldn’t be spending this time together if Nick hadn’t broken up with Marjorie implies that Bill values brotherly friendship over relationships, another thing he associates with masculinity. Nick’s reflection that “all of a sudden everything was over” again emphasizes that he is feeling shocked by the finality of the relationship. Hemingway uses the storm as a metaphor for the brutality and intensity of this sudden loss. Given that Bill and Nick serve as stand-ins for the American youth of this time more generally, Nick’s struggles to share what he’s truly feeling may suggest that young men growing up in this time have difficulty being vulnerable and expressing their emotions.

Nick’s insistence than he was not engaged to Marjorie even though they were planning to get married show that he is wrestling with wanting to appear stoic and masculine, despite his evident grief at the relationship ending. Nick’s sudden (and ill-conceived) decision to “get drunk” and go swimming also shows that he is attempting to repress his emotions in order to appear masculine.

Nick’s outburst shows that he is wrestling between acknowledging his emotions and wanting to appear manly. The denigrating way that both boys talk about Marjorie’s mother shows that they are unwilling to embrace the social realities of married life. Young men of the Lost Generation, of which Hemingway himself was a part, often felt that domestic life was meaningless, despite searching for emotional depth in their lives. Bill’s worry that Nick might slip back into the relationship again implies that he sees marriage as a dangerous trap that ensnares men and robs them of their independence.

Nick’s sudden realization that he might be able to slip back into the relationship again changes his mood dramatically, as he shifts from dwelling on the heartbreaking loss he feels to feeling hope that a new beginning might be on the horizon. Nick’s palpable relief that nothing is “irrevocable” captures his realization that life is cyclical; like seasons or storms, relationships may come and go, but there is always hope for a new beginning.

Nick’s thoughts about going into town again indicate that he likely wants to reconnect with Marjorie. The ironic phrase “there’s always a chance” indicates that Nick is internally happy that there’s a chance for a new beginning with Marjorie, but externally, he wants to agree with Bill that relationships should be avoided at all costs.

Nick’s shift in mood from despair about the relationship ending to hope for his future is captured by his “clearheaded” feeling. The reference to shooting exposes another facet of behavior that the boys consider as masculine. The boys once again try to prove their capacity for alcohol by claiming “it’s no use getting drunk,” as if the alcohol has had no effect, even though they’ve clearly been drunk this whole time.

Nick’s comment that the storm blew his worries about the “Marge business” out of his head implies that he feels relieved that he has been able to stifle his feelings of loss. This new metaphor for the storm reflects the pressure on young men growing up in the World War I era to repress their emotions in order to appear manly.

The metaphor of the storm blowing Nick’s feelings “out of his head”—as he now chooses to go shooting instead of think about Marge—represents the pressure on young men of the Lost Generation to hide their vulnerabilities and repress their emotions in order to feel masculine. Nick’s secret reassurance that he might go into town—presumably to reconnect with Marjorie—shows that under the surface, his feelings are still there, and he is hopeful for the possibility of a new beginning with her, regardless of what Bill thinks about relationships.