Ernest Hemingway Abolism Essay

In many of Hemingway’s short stories the oppressors attempts to prevent the oppressed from gaining knowledge in order to further their own goals. In the short story The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber, Margot Macomber insults and uses mind games to

Macomber felt utter disgust for Wilson. Every time Wilson spoke, Macomber threw back daggers for words. It annoyed Wilson, for he was unphased by the fact that Macomber knew Wilson had been with his wife. He ignored Macomber’s harsh words so they could go hunting for the buffalo. As they drove out, Macomber spotted three large buffalo. Wilson told him, “We’ll cut them off before they get to the swamp.” They both got their guns ready, where Macomber almost began to shoot from his position in the car before being shouted at by Wilson. They jumped out of the vehicle as it came to a bolting stop, aimed, and began shooting. Macomber struck the first one down, and with the help of Wilson, eventually the other two. Margot was awe-struck, telling Macomber how “marvelous” he had done. “Macomber felt a wild unreasonable happiness that he had never known before” (Hemingway). Meaning, Macomber felt as though he had restored his

But he ends up having a shift towards the end. The readers can view Mr. Wilson and Macomber beside each other and can tell Macomber is very inexperienced by saying “He was dressed in the same sort of safari clothes that Wilson wore except that his were new” (pg. 2). The readers perspective of Macomber is that he is very inexperience with hunting. He’s clothes he has on shows how he is new to this and how he wants to be more like WIlson with his clothes and have his perspective of the hunting stage. Macomber is very inexperience with hunting and being out in the woods learning new things. But he also has a fear of WIlson telling his secret with the lion. The readers see how much of a coward Macomber is because he keeps asking Wilson, “I’m awfully sorry about that lion business. It doesn’t have to go any further, does it? I mean no one will hear about it, will they?” (pg. 3). Macomber is new to all of the things that Wilson is teaching him with the hunting. The reader's perspective of him is that he has a fear of someone telling on him to his wife, because he wants to feel like a man, and what happens doesn't make him look like a man through the reader's perspective. Mrs. Macomber thinks he is a coward already since they wouldn't let her go on the hunt with them.Macomber was very fearful and new to things in the beginning of the story. But after the intercourse with his wife and Wilson, he suddenly changes

Lions, and impala, and buffalo, oh my! While on safari in Africa, novice hunter Francis Macomber embodies the cowardice within mankind, on the other hand his professional guide, Robert Wilson, represents a force of masculinity. Such character foils are especially prevalent when Macomber chooses to flee when coming face to face with a lion, while Wilson chooses to stand his ground and fight. Thus in Ernest Hemingway's “The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber”, the notion that everybody is afraid of something, but not everybody is a coward is highlighted through the thoughts, appearance, and actions of the two main male characters.

Dodging bullets, the buffalo struggled to stay alive after getting shot. Hemingway describes the scene as, “ fragments burst from the huge boss of the horns, the head jerked, and he shot again.” This scene represents Macomber's inner conflict on some level because throughout the trip he dealt with disapproval and embarrassment form his wife, judgement and jealousy of Wilson, and the inner battle that he fought against to make it through each day of complete inner torture.

On page two, Francis is open to his wife’s ridicule and manipulation by letting her flirt with Mr. Wilson. Francis’ cowardice allows this negative treatment and disrespect from his wife to become a normal recurrence. If Francis did not act as a coward toward Margaret, her bad demeanor could halt; however, he lets her control over him strengthen while his cowardice also keeps growing. Through Macomber’s dialogue, Hemingway uses his ingenious craft to deepen the trait of cowardice in the character of Francis. Through Hemingway’s craft, readers can see a varied amount of pervasiveness through the actions and perspective of Francis. Additionally, the trait of cowardice in Macomber is broadened more to show how he is scared of facing his fears. Francis verbally spoke how he was scared by saying “I don’t want to go in there” (pg.13). Initially, both Mr. Wilson and Francis were supposed to go after and kill the lion; however, Francis has second thoughts because he became scared and frightened. The dialogue between Francis and those he is in relation to help to provide readers with another trait of scaredness to the character of Francis. The craft of perspective provided by Hemingway lets readers see into Macomber’s internal thoughts which provide more examples to how he is very scared and afraid. Near the end of the story, a shift from being a scared coward to a courageous man, occurred within Francis as he discovered his self-worth and dignity. Macomber finds pride in himself and his actions later on in the short story when “instead of fear, he had a feeling of definite elation” (pg.22). After Macomber and Wilson kill the buffalo they hunt, Francis feels more proud of himself than he has ever before. Although his wife tries to be condescending toward Francis, he finally receives courage to ignore all of the negative

After Macomber finished killing the buffalo Macomber felt proud of his himself and felt brave. Even Wilson and Macombers wife saw a change. Wilson says “[He] had probably been afraid all his life. Don’t know what started it. But it’s over now” (388).

In the short story, “Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber”, by Ernest Hemingway, the reader can see the life and characteristic changes of Francis Macomber through various perspectives of other characters. Francis displays three main characteristics in his development of Macomber as shamefulness, cowardice, and confidence throughout different sections of the story through the perspectives of Mr. Wilson, Margaret Macomber, the gun-bearers, and himself.

In Hemingway's short story “Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber,” Hemingway uses writer’s technique of perspective to show readers the characterization of the three main protagonists in this story. Hemingway creates a multi-part claim using perspective as well as dialogue to readers a pervasive, negative tone carried throughout the story. Wilson, Margaret, and Macomber are characterized by multiple perspectives with multiple aspects to their characters.

Finally, the conflict and the rising action of Hemingway’s story leads to the climax. This occurs when Wilson, Macomber, and his wife take their final journey into the wild. As a result of the sheer anger Macomber has for Wilson and his wife, his fear is drowned by adrenaline. Macomber instantly takes on the characteristics of Wilson as he takes out two buffalo on the journey. At this point, Wilson respects this

Margaret gets frustrated when Macomber shows through his actions that he lacks knowledge or wisdom when it comes to being masculine, which seemingly gives her permission to disrespect him. Secondly, Mr. Robert Wilson, the hunting guide, notices Macomber's cowardly nature when there is an accident on the hunt. In this moment, the narrator's internal dialogue gives insight on Wilson's feelings of disappointment towards Macomber by expressing, ¨while two black men and a white man looked back at him in contempt¨ (page 14) . Through the example, Hemingway's craft of perspective relates to characterization. As Macomber is hunting, his fear and inexperience overpowers his actions leading him to look bad through Wilson's judgmental eyes. Lastly, Through the perspective of a third person narrator, readers are allowed to see how Macomber's actions can affect the view of others. An example of Macomber's behavior is explained in the quote, ¨The next thing he knew he was running; running wildly,

Ernest Hemingway has long been known for his two “heroes” in his writing. The hero who is a weak, pathetic individual who is often lost physically and mentally, and the code hero who usually shows “grace under pressure” and helps the Hemingway hero find his place. These two heroes often come together in a relationship where the code hero is the teacher who initiates the Hemingway hero into the code. Ernest Hemingway’s short story, “The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber,” is the quintessential example of Hemingway’s heroes.

Ernest Hemingway’s short story, “The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber,” chronicles a rich American couple’s safari hunting trip. Francis Macomber, a seemingly perfect man- handsome, wealthy, and athletic- and his wife, Margot Macomber travel to Africa for a hunting trip. The story opens on an afternoon cocktail hour, after a morning of hunting. Quickly, Margot’s frustration towards her husband emerges. She is embarrassed of his cowardness, and torments him. Richard Wilson, their safari guide, listens to the argument. Wilson is brave and athletic, essentially the qualities Macomber lacks. Earlier that morning, Macomber ran away from a lion, leaving Wilson to mercy kill it. Later, in an effort to win back Margot’s admiration, Macomber successfully gunned down three buffalo. However, an injured one charges, leaving Margot to shoot the buffalo, and Macomber. Hemingway’s use of literary elements enhance and deepen the reader’s understanding of the characters. He develops their actions and motivations through a code hero, symbolism, and allusion.

“Hemingway’s greatness is in his short stories, which rival any other master of the form”(Bloom 1). The Old Man and the Sea is the most popular of his later works (1). The themes represented in this book are religion (Gurko 13-14), heroism (Brenner 31-32), and character symbolism (28). These themes combine to create a book that won Hemingway a Pulitzer Prize in 1953 and contributed to his Nobel Prize for literature in 1954 (3).

Ernest Hemingway the winner of the Nobel Peace prize lived a troubled life over his Sixty-two years of life and experienced many struggles. He went through a few marriages, different faiths and in the end, he lost his battle with depression. However, though all of this he made an impact on the world with the style and theme of American literature he wrote and is a significant influence to many authors and readers alike. During his life, there were many things that were an influence and help shape his writing into what it is today. Hemingway heavily focused on the theme of war during his career and was a topic of several of his novels one of those novels being “For whom the bell tolls” (Hemingway) The recognizable effects of Hemingway’s influence on literature is still witnessed around the world in the many tributes to him to this day.