The Three-Day Blow

“The Three-Day Blow” is a short story by Ernest Hemingway, first published in his collection "In Our Time" in 1925. The story features Nick Adams, one of Hemingway’s recurring protagonists, appearing in at least a dozen of Hemingway’s stories written during the 20s and 30s. The story is a fine example of Hemingway’s Iceberg Theory.

Plot summary

The story only has two major characters, Nick and Bill (Marge, Nick’s father, and Bill’s father are mentioned but do not make an appearance), and the entire story takes place either inside or outside of Bill’s father’s cottage.

The story begins with Nick walking around the orchard near the cabin. He picks up a Wagner apple and puts it in his pocket. Nick climbs the stairs to the cottage and Bill meets him at the door, telling Nick that Bill’s father is out in the woods with his gun. Bill and Nick stand together, looking out across the fields. They discuss the wind for the first time, with Bill saying “it will blow like that for three days.”

After they go inside the cottage, they decide to drink. Initially, they drink a bottle of Bill’s father’s already opened whiskey, mixing it with water. Later on, they do the same with a bottle of scotch. Bill has Nick take off his shoes and dry them by the fire.The two begin to discuss a variety of topics while drinking, such as different books they’re reading. Nick likes G. K. Chesterton, while Bill prefers Hugh Walpole. They also discuss baseball; apparently, the two of them are both fans of the St. Louis Cardinals, but Nick thinks that some of the games they lose are rigged, claiming “there’s always more to it than we know about.”

Throughout the night, they continue to drink and add logs to the fire. The topic of conversation moves onto their fathers and their differing occupations. Nick’s dad is a doctor, while Bill’s is a painter. Nick thinks his dad has missed a lot because he has never drank, Bill says that “everything’s got its compensations.” The two also discuss what makes a drinker a drunkard.

During one scene, Nick goes into the kitchen to get more water, and while he’s there he passes a mirror. He smiles and winks at his reflection that “was not his face.”

Finally, after many drinks, Bill brings up an incident from the past. He tells Nick that he was “very wise” for not marrying Marge, assumingly a previous girlfriend of Nick’s. Bill gives several reasons why it was a good decision, while Nick just sits and listens and doesn’t reply. At first it seems to bother Nick a lot, claiming that everything was finished and gone and that he would never see her again.

However, the two decide to “get really drunk,” and Nick seems to change his mind about the whole situation, claiming that he felt happy and that “nothing was finished.” He resolves to go to town on Saturday because “there’s always a chance.”

Role of alcohol in the story

Knowledge/practicality:

Nick and Bill discuss their own knowledge of alcohol near the beginning of the story when they open the bottle of whiskey and taste it. Nick claims it has a “swell, smoky taste,” and Bill says that’s from “the peat.” Nick says that you can’t get peat into liquor, and then it’s revealed that neither of them have ever seen any peat at all. The two also discuss what makes someone a drunkard. Bill explains that opening up new bottles of liquor causing someone to be a drunk, while Nick thinks that solitary drinking is the true sign of someone with a problem. Both characters show a desire to maintain a practical mental state while drinking. For example, Nick sees that the fire is dying down, so he goes to get another log: “He felt quite proud of himself. He had been thoroughly practical.”

Male bonding/intimacy:

The two characters drink together continuously until the end of the story. At one point, they alternate pours, Nick pouring the liquor while Bill pours the water. They try to be classy, even in their drunkenness, toasting to popular authors and saying “Gentlemen” before taking their shots. The conversation between the two characters, while friendly and agreeable, always borders on a light argument. They disagree slightly on every topic, whether simple like baseball or books, or deeper, like their fathers or Marge.

Tension also seems to exist with the drinking itself, as it becomes a hidden competition to see who can hold their liquor better: “he wished to show he could hold his liquor and be practical. Even if his father had never touched a drop Bill was not going to get him drunk before he himself was drunk.”

One interesting thing to note about the conversations is that they grow more intimate and serious as the night of drinking goes on. This shows how Hemingway perceives and writes alcohol as a facilitator of male intimacy. It takes several drinks in order for Bill to talk about Marge with Nick.

Self-image:

Nick, when passing the mirror while going to the kitchen, sees himself differently when intoxicated: “He passed a mirror in the dining room and looked in it. His face looked strange. He smiled at the face in the mirror and it grinned back at him. He winked at it and went on. It was not his face but it didn’t make any difference.”

Apparently, being drunk alters Nick’s own self-perception, warping his own identity. Simultaneously, however, it appears to not affect him too drastically, as he claims it doesn’t make any difference.

Providing/depletion:

Alcohol seems to both give and take for Nick in the story. Initially, after Bill mentions Marge for the first time, Nick seems very depressed, and he relates drinking to a sense of loss, emptiness, and longing: “The liquor had all died out of him and left him alone. Bill wasn’t there. He wasn’t sitting in front of the fire or going fishing tomorrow with Bill and his dad or anything. He wasn’t drunk. It was all gone. All he knew was that he had once had Marjorie and that he had lost her. She was gone and he had sent her away. That was all that mattered. He might never see her again. Probably he never would. It was all gone, finished.”What is amusing/ironic about this passage is that Nick immediately says “Let’s have another drink.”

Oppositely, alcohol is presented as a provider as well. After the two of them decide to get “really drunk,” Nick’s outlook completely changes. The alcohol seems to give new hope or life: “He felt happy. Nothing was finished. Nothing was ever lost. He would go into town on Saturday. He felt lighter, as he had felt before Bill started to talk about it. There was always a way out.”

Literature/nature:

Bill and Nick discuss different books, namely by Chesterton and Walpole, and Nick quotes something from "The Flying Inn": ::“If an angel out of heaven::Gives you something else to drink,::Thank him for his kind intentions;::Go and pour them down the sink.”

Even though Chesterton says to pour kind intentions down the drain, Nick claims that “he’s a better guy than Walpole.”

Nature comes into play with alcohol in two ways in the story. First, alcohol is related to the wind in which the title of the story comes from, the three-day blows: “None of it was important now. The wind blew it out of his head. Still he could go into town Saturday night. It was a good thing to have in reserve.”

Also, the characters seem to choose the great outdoors over alcohol, they go outside and try to find Bill’s father and go hunting, saying that the “wind was blowing a gale.” The two characters say “There’s no use getting drunk.” “No. We ought to get outdoors.”

References

#Hemingway, Ernest. The Complete Short Stories of Ernest Hemingway. New York: Scribner, 1987.