In Hemingway's "The End of Something" and the vignette that precedes the story, the author develops parallels in imagery, diction, and tone to magnify the theme that life inevitably involves loss and that this loss is often brutal and premeditated by others. The vignette describes an ambush set in a French garden during WW1 in which four German soldiers are killed. "The End of Something" recounts the breakup of Nick and Marjorie while on a fishing excursion. In the vignette, the German men "climbed up over the garden wall." In the story, Marjorie is "holding the line in her teeth, and looking toward Nick, who stood on the shore." Here Marjorie is being portrayed as a fish who bites the bait and allows itself unknowingly to be pulled into its destruction. In both of these situations, the German and Marjorie are completely unaware of what is taking place. They are very naive and oblivious of the fate that awaits them. In contrast, Nick and the soldiers both believe they have total control of the situation. The soldiers on the other side of the wall know a German will come and "waited till he got one leg over and then potted him." The same thing happens to Marjorie when "Nick...stood on the shore holding the rod and letting the line run out from the reel" then all of a sudden he "[takes] the line out of the reel in a rush and making the reel sing with the click on." Both Nick and the soldiers are waiting there as the victim unknowingly walks into their sad fate. Ironically, once they have built the situation and accomplish it, they become ashamed and completely aware of what they have done. After Nick has dumped Marjorie, he goes "back and [lays] down with his face in the blanket by the fire." He and the soldiers are ashamed for what they have done and this feeling will be with them forever. This is ironic because they are the ones who brought misery a...