Ernest Hemingway's The Short Happy Life Of Francis Macomber

Margot Macomber as the Hemingway Code Hero in “The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber”

In Ernest Hemingway’s short story, ¨The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber,¨ readers learn about Francis’ character through the perspectives of other characters. Hemingway develops Francis’ character as a man full of shame, cowardice, and bravery by using multiple perspectives as he threads a negative tone throughout the story.

Ernest Hemingway is known for writing novels and short stories with unresolved endings. In his short story, ?The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber?, he

Women in Hemingway’s stories are portrayed to be heavily sensitive and emotional, and unable to deal with the realities of life. They do not seem to understand how life is not necessarily always going to be a picture perfect world. In “The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber”, Margot Macomber is shown as a very emotional women in many circumstances, as if she is not able to deal with obstacles that life will throw at her. One instance of this is when the two men are having a discussion about killing the lion. At one point, she is making jokes and seeming perfectly fine, then the next thing she starts to cry. Her husband, Francis, and Wilson even acknowledge this as well. They describe how they “both saw

Wagner-Martin, Linda, Reynolds, David S., and Myerson, Joel, eds. A Historical Guide to Ernest Hemingway. New York: Oxford University Press, Inc., 2000. Print.

Francis Macomber is described as “very tall, very well built... and considered handsome” (Hemingway). He and his wife, Margot, clearly do not have a very healthy relationship, and on various occasions she flirts heavily with Wilson. This story is quite ironic, as in the title it says Francis Macomber’s life was “happy,” though throughout the story you can see that it very much isn’t. He seems to be miserable in his relationship with his wife but as later on stated, “Margot was too beautiful for Macomber to divorce, and Macomber had too much money for Margot to ever leave him” (Hemingway). On the topic of irony, it can also be seen as ironic when he is

Ernest Hemingway was born July 21, 1989 (Ernest Hemingway Biography, 2015). Ernest is a 40 year old white male, average build weighing no more than 180 pounds. He was born in Cicero, Illinois. Ernest is a heterosexual male, who enjoys the company of woman. Hemingway is an author of many novels and many publications within newspapers.

The period between World War I and World War II was a very turbulent time in America. Ernest Hemingway most represented this period with his unrestrained lifestyle. This lifestyle brought him many successes, but it eventually destroyed him in the end. His stories are read in classrooms across America, but his semi-autobiographical writings are horrible role models for the students who read them. Hemingway’s lifestyle greatly influenced his writings in many ways.

Introduction In Hemmingway’s short story “Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber”, Hemmingway uses writer’s technique of perspective to show readers the characterization of the three main protagonists in the story. Hemmingway creates a multi-part claim using perspective as well as dialogue to show readers a pervasive, negative tone throughout the story. Wilson

Hemingway, Ernest. “The Short Happy Life of Francis MaComber.” Michael Ryan. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2010. 205-219.

When he was quite young, Ernest Hemingway’s mother dressed him up as a girl. He later grew out of the age of tolerating this madness and soon resented his mother for trying to make him feminine. As a repercussion he found himself choosing to be even more manly doing things like fishing, bull fighting, and smoking. His mother also neglected her husband most of the time, according to letters exchanged between Ernest and his father. Ernest decided at a young age he wanted to love his wife more than anything else in the world.

Hemingway views men and women almost equal in their share of power. In the story Hills Like White Elephants ultimately she has the power because she is the one who is pregnant and must make the choice whether to have an abortion or not. But the man has power over her because she doesn’t want him to leave her. During their conversation she directly asks him “And if I do it you’ll be happy and things will be like they were and you’ll love me?” This question shows the roll and power that he has over her. In the story The Short Happy Life Of Francis Macomber Macomber starts off as a weak, cowardly man who relies on his wife, while she is a strong person but is afraid of being left. A commonality between these two stories is the women gives the

credibility of the safari guide, Robert Wilson. He gives the reader an outside perspective of the relationship between Francis and Margot, but it is whether or not his presumptions are accurate that deems him credible or not. When Margot tries to downplay the killing of the buffalos by saying, "You're both talking rot...Just because you've chased some helpless animals in a motor car, you talk like heroes, " Wilson thinks to himself, "She's worried about it already." It is obvious that Wilson accurately interprets the state of the relationship between Francis and Margot because he sees the way that Margot controls her husband. The clear understanding of the relationship that Wilson shows throughout the story proves that he is indeed credible.

Ernest Hemingway was born on July 21, 1899, in Oak Park, Illinois. After graduating high school in 1917, Hemingway worked as a reporter for the Kansas City Star. A year later, in 1918, Hemingway served as an ambulance driver for the Red Cross in the Italian infantry during World War I and was wounded just before his 19th birthday. After being wounded, the injuries he sustained landed him in a hospital in Milan. There in the hospital, Hemingway met an older nurse named Agnes von Kurowky whom he quickly fell in love with. Consequently, this is where the similarities between Ernest Hemingway and Frederick Henry begin. (“Ernest Hemingway.” Bio…)

Ernest Miller Hemingway was an American novelist, journalist, writer of short stories, and winner of the 1954 Nobel Prize for literature. He created a distinguished body of prose fiction, much of it based on adventurous life. He was born on July 21, 1899, the second of six children, in Oak Park, Ill., in a house built by his widowed grandfather, Ernest Hall. Oak Park was a Protestant, upper middle class suburb of Chicago. He died on July 2, 1961.