The Three Day Blow
The Three Day Blow
Summary
The Three Day Blow is
a dramatic story written by an American novelist and short story writer, Ernest
Hemingway. In this dramatic story the writer x-rays the mental ordeal that one
of the characters goes through using an analogy of the three day blow.
This dramatic story begins with
the description of setting(time and place ) in which the characters are located
to act out their assigned roles. It has just stopped raining and the first
forceful wind of autumn is blowing through the bare apple trees. One of the
characters, Nick is seen climbing up a hill through orchard. As he reaches to
the cottage on the top of the hill another character, Bill comes out of the
cottage. They spent sometime watching the scenery downward and go into the
cottage. Sitting in front of roaring fire in the living room, they drink Irish
whisky and have conversation on the topics like baseball teams, classical
writers and their fathers. First of all they have conversation on the baseball
teams; Mcgraw and Cards. They opine that as long as Mcgraw buys all the good
players, Cards won't win any matches. Then they talk about classical writers:
Chesterton and Walpole. Chesterton is the favorite writer of Bill, whereas
Walepole is that of Nick. They view that both of the writers are classical
writers and they wish to take their favourite writers to fishing. Afterwards,
they talk about their fathers. The father of Nick is a doctor, whereas that of
Bill is a painter. As a doctor, Nick's father did not let him drink alcohol as
he did not drink it either. Bill's father, on the other hand drank alcohol and
let his son drink it from the bottle opened by somebody else. Nick views that
his father missed quite a lot in his life by not drinking alcohol.
Nick goes to the back ports to bring a
piece of log. While bringing it through the dining room, he knocks the pan with
apricots off the dining table. Putting the apricots back to the respective
place, he comes to living room with the log. Both of them put it into the
fireplace together.
Nick goes to kitchen to bring some water.
While bringing the water he looks at the mirror in the dining room. He smiles
and winks at his own image in the mirror and his image also responds to him.
Then he comes to living room with same water in a pitcher.
Then they start drinking scotch and
talk on the ex-girlfriend of Nick, Marjorie. Bill views that Nick saved himself
from being ruined by breaking his affair with Marjorie. He also said that if he
married Marjorie, he would have to marry her entire family. Nick doesn’t
respond to Bill because he is deeply lost in the memory of Marjorie, his plan
to get a job, make a settlement and visiting several places including Italy.
All of his plans have been useless now because he once had Marjorie and is
without her now. In spite of his deep and sincere love to Marjorie, he had to
break up with her because of her terrible mother. She used to tell everyone
that her daughter and Nick had been engaged to marry though they had not. Bill
warns Nick not to continue his relationship with Marjorie. Nick realizes that
it is possible the hope of having reconciliation with Marjorie makes him feel
better.
Finally, they go out of the cottage and
down to the forest in order to hunt some birds. The Marge business is not so
tragic outside because he thinks of visiting her next Saturday.
Questions
1. Describe the setting in which the writer
locates his characters.
Setting refers to time and location in which
the characters are located to carryout their actions. The setting of Three Day
Blow is powerful and meaningful. It was windy afternoon of autumn season the
rain has just stopped. The blow of first day flow through bare apple trees.
There is a cottage at top of a hill. The cottage has front ports, back ports,
sitting room, kitchen loft, dining room. But must action takes place in living
room particularly. Also beautiful scene of woods, orchard, lake, route can be
seen standing on front port. Second growth timber, garage, chicken coop, etc.
are also there behind cottage. The weather condition of Three Day Blow is very
significant. It refers to blow of wind which blows continuously for 3 days in
autumn season. Weather condition is significant in sense that it refers three
state of mind of one of the character Nick. The 1st day blow stand
for confusion. He is in confusion that he should marry with Marjorie or forget
her. He could not marry Marjorie because of her terrible mother and could not
target as he still loves her. The 2nd day blow reflects pain of
separation/tragedy experienced by Nick when he decided to break affair with
Marjorie. The 3rd day blow reflects hope of reconciliation/reunion
with Marjorie. At the end of play Nick comes with hope that he will continue
his affair with Marjorie and feels better. Optimistic hoping of reunion with
Marjorie reflects the 3rd day blow.
2. The story is presented in a sequence
of approximately seven scenes. Can you find them?
The story begins with exposition which sets the scene and introduction of
the characters. Besides this dramatic story divide into 7 exposition scene. In
1st scene Nick and Bill stand on front port and spend sometime
watching downward scene. In 2nd scene they sit by the fire placed
drinking Irish whisky and have conversation on baseball team, classical
writers, their father. In 3rd scene Nick goes to back port to bring
logs and while bringing to living room he knocks apricot. In 4th
scene put logs into fire place together. In 5th scene Nick goes to
kitchen to bring water. In 6th scene both drink Irish whisky and
scotch and talk over Marjorie. In 7th scene, Nick and Bill come out of cottage
and go down for hunting birds. In this way, the story is presented in a sequence
of approximately seven scenes.
3. What has the weather conditions to do
with the sequence of events?
The weather has quite
a lot to do with sequence of events in Three Day Blow. The rain has just
stopped which enables Nick to go Bill house. The forceful wind of autumn season
is blowing due to which Nick and Bill are compelled to sit inside the cottage. They
sat inside the cottage and had Irish Whisky and scotch. While drinking they had
talks over various topics. Due to cold weather outside they are siting near
fire place. Nick goes to backside of cottage to bring logs. While bringing logs
in living room he knocks apricot and all fell down on the floor. All events are
affected by weather condition. Not only physical events are affected weather
condition also affects the mental condition of Nick is affected in tis story.
The 1st day blow reflects the confusion of Nick whether to marry
Marjorie or to leave her. The 2nd day blow reflects the pain of
separation from Marjorie. The 3rd day blow reflects the hope of
reconciliation/reunion with Marjorie. In this way the weather condition has
quite a lot to do with the sequence of events.
4. Discuss 'The Three Day Blow' as a
dramatic story.
'The Three Day Blow' written by
an American novelist and short story writer ,Ernest Hemingway is a dramatic
story because it relies heavily on the elements of both drama and story to
unfold its plot. It uses the elements of both story and drama for revealing its
theme, setting, character and soon.
Drama is one of the genres
of literatures that unfolds its plot basically through the action and dialogue
of its characters. It is both literary as well as representational art whose
main purpose is interaction. Its plot is presented to the audiences directly
without the use of narrator. The elements that most of the dramas have are;
character plot, dialogue and setting. The Three Day Blow has all of these
elements of drama. It's stage characters like Nick and Bill and off stage
characters like Marjorie, her mother and the fathers of Nick and Bill. It has a
plot which is implicitly divided into seven different scenes. It uses dialogue
of Nick and Bill as a man device for unveiling the plot. It also has powerful
setting which affects the sequence of events. Because of using all these
elements of drama, The Three Day Blow reads like a drama. However, the writer
has also used narration in order to describe the setting and report the off
stage action. Narration is the main element of another genre of literature i.e
story. In this sense, The Three Day Blow does not use the elements of drama
alone, it also uses the elements of story. Use of the element of story brings
it closer to story.
In a nutshell, The
Three Day Blow is neither purely a drama nor purely a story but a blend of both.
So, it is a dramatic story.
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