Language

Ernest Hemingway, the writer of “The Three-Day Blow”, prefers to let the characters speak for themselves, and inserts only a few narrative passages that create imagery by describing the setting or the character’s actions:

The fruit had been picked and the fall wind blew through the bare trees. Nick stopped and picked up a Wagner apple from beside the road, shiny in the brown grass from the rain. He put the apple in the pocket of his Mackinaw coat. (ll. 2-4)

The choice of words may pose some difficulty in understanding the deeper meanings of the text as it includes references to baseball teams and players that were famous in the early 1900s, as well as various literary references and allusions which are relevant to the story’s plot.

Allusions and literary references

The two characters talk about the Cards and the Giants which are two famous baseball teams, the St. Louis Cardinals and the New York Giants. They also mention “McGraw” (l. 55), a reference to John J. McGraw the manager of the New York Giants, and “Heinie Zim” (l. 60) a Chicago Cubs baseball player who was traded to the New York Giants.

Apart from the fact that these references help convey the social and time setting and typical male interests, they are also symbolic. The Cardinals always lose and the Giants always win, which suggests opposition.

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Similes and metaphors

A few similes and metaphors add to the text’s imagery and help the author convey deeper meanings about the plot and the characters.

The simile “second-growth timber like a hedge against the woods” (l. 7) compares timber with a fence and helps convey the idea of isolation and confinement.

An extensive simile compares Nick’s break-up with a three-day storm to suggest that his decision was sudden and brutal and that he now regrets it: “ ‘All of a sudden everything was over,’ Nick said. ‘I don’t know why it was. I couldn’t help it. Just like...

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Repetition

Various repetitions are used in the text for the purposes of showing something about the characters or of creating motifs.

Bill constantly calls Nick by his nickname, Wemedge. This repetition helps emphasize Bill’s efforts to belittle Nick and control the conversation.

In the text there are also recurrent references to fishing, which help suggest that fishing is considered a bonding male activity:

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Symbols

Apart from the literary references that become symbolic for the characters’ perspectives, the story includes several other symbolic elements relevant for the deeper meanings of the plot.

The autumn scenery, with the bare orchard and the rain, are symbolic of Nick’s feelings of loneliness, regret, and desolation after ending his relationship with Marjorie.

The wind (the three-day blow) is symbolic of unexpected changes. Like the wind, these changes are not permanent, but temporary. However, such changes often leave people changed and move them to another stage in their life cycle.

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