Setting

Physical setting

The short story “The End of Something” by Ernest Hemingway takes place in Hortons Bay (l. 1), which is a community in Michigan, US. The story begins with a detailed description of Hortons Bay, which used to be a lumber town (l. 1). The description shows that, ten years before the events described in the story, the lumber industry collapsed: “The one-story bunk houses, the eating-house, the company store, the mill offices, and the big mill itself stood deserted in the acres of sawdust that covered the swampy meadow by the shore of the bay” (ll. 16-18). When the events in the story take place, Hortons Bay is a deserted town. 

Another important element of the physical setting is the lake where Nick and Marjorie sail their boat an...