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What Becomes of the Broken-Hearted?

A broken heart is a heart that has experience some pain which could possibly lead to

suicide or depression. That of a broken heart can stem from traumatic experiences such as

childhood pains, friendship break-ups, relationship break-ups, etc. In the book, The Nick Adams

Stories, Nick experiences several heart breaks; however, we will discuss the breakup between

Nick and Marjorie and how Nick deals with his broken heart.

In the story, The End of Something, Nick is dating this girl name Marjorie. Nick and

Marjorie are on a romantic date; however, the date doesn’t end well. The two are headed for a

boat ride. While rowing the boat to the final destination to have a panic lunch, the two are also

fishing. While on the boat Marjorie is enjoying the ride and pointing out things that bring

memories between Nick and herself; however, Nick is acting very nonchalant about the things

that Marjorie pointed out along the boat ride. Nick acted as if he didn’t want to be bother by

Marjorie because he knew he planned on breaking things off with her. Almost like Nick didn’t

want to associate any of his fondest memories with Marjorie because he knew that it could have

possibly make him want to reconcile things with Marjorie.

Nick intentionally starts an argument with Marjorie stating that she knows everything.

Nick feels threaten that a woman knows more than him. Marjorie is a male version of Nick; she

learns things to its perfection. Nick is what we call an aficionado of fishing. Fishing is Nick’s

proud and joy; however, the relationship with Marjorie is no longer fun because she knows more

than she should when it comes to fishing. The saying is the student is not supposed to be above

the master. Hinting that Nick can no longer control Marjorie, as if he is intimated by her because

she can meet him on his expertise levels concerning fishing. Nick ultimately, breaks things off
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with Marjorie because the relationship is no longer fun; however, the question is does Nick

regrets this decision ending the relationship between Marjorie and himself.

In the story, The Three-Day Blow, Nick deals with the break-up by going to his friend

Bill’s dad cabin. In the cabin the two, Nick and Bill start to talk and reminisce about the good

times they share together. They started talking about baseball card, books, and the authors of

those books. Then the two friends end up drink whiskey that Bill’s dad have in the cabin. The

fellows have one drink after another until Nick is drunk. Bill gets Nick drunk purposely to get

the details of the breakup between Nick and Marjorie, or is Nick purposely getting himself drunk

to cope with the breakup. However, now that Nick is completing if he did the right thing by

breaking things up with Marjorie.

The thought crosses Nick’s mind of how he will never see Marjorie again, while listening

to his friend Bill, ramble about how married men are done. I believe he could have worked

things out with Marjorie; however, Bill had a greater influence over Nick. Bill has some type of

hatred toward marriage or at least married men. I think he may have played a bigger part in

Nick’s break-up because Nick would have eventually move to be closer to Marjorie. I believer

Bill thought he was lose his friendship with Nick, since Nick was romantically involved with a

woman that had potential to evolved into marriage. Bill saw Marjorie as a threat to his friendship

with Nick. Marjorie has already started to go fishing with Nick, which is something the fellows

referring to Nick and Bill would do together. Bill didn’t want to lose his friendship with Nick so

he tried to poison Nick’s mind with bad thoughts concerning married men.

Nonetheless, I don’t agree how Nick broke things off with Marjorie; Nick knew Marjorie

wanted to get married as Marjorie family was already telling people they were engaged, although

they weren’t. At one point they had to be having fun together, so my question would be what
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changed? I believe if Nick would have properly communicated things, they could have worked

on their relationship or ended things on better terms. Marjorie seems to be a nice lady. Marjorie

seemed to be the female version of Nick.

All in all a broken heart can lead a person into killing themselves, drinking themselves to

a different mind state or facing depression. However, there are now so many more options while

seeking help from a professional. A broken heart can arise for a broken friendship, a broken

relationship, etc. Nick Adams learn to cope with things that broke his heart by fishing, reading,

and joining the military.

Works Cited

Hemingway, Ernest. The Nick Adams Stories. New York: Scribner, 1972. Print.
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