How Does Hemingway Use Imagery To Catch The Reader's Attention?

Set on an African Safari in the early 1900s, Ernest Hemingway’s “The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber” tells the story of a young man and wife, Francis and Margot Macomber, and their English guide, Robert Wilson, on a hunting trip gone awry. This essay will show how Hemingway’s character tied into the story itself.

Throughout the short story, “The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber,” Ernest Hemingway recalls the controversial events that took place when a group of three individuals venture out on an Africa Safari. Francis Macomber, Margot Macomber and Wilson are placed in several awkward situations and endure many questionable conversations that reveal the true personalities of each character. Wilson, the tour guide, is initially viewed as the stereotypical hero and macho man. Francis Macomber is initially seen as a coward and, in effect, Margot Macomber views her husband as a weakling which has a negative effect on their relationship in the future. As seen throughout the short story, each character is not who they appear to be and as time goes

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,

Hemingway’s writing style is not the most complicated one in contrast to other authors of his time. He uses plain grammar and easily accessible vocabulary in his short stories; capturing more audience, especially an audience with less reading experience. “‘If you’d gone on that way we wouldn’t be here now,’ Bill said” (174). His characters speak very plain day to day language which many readers wouldn’t have a problem reading. “They spent the night of the day they were married in a Bostan Hotel” (8). Even

To illustrate the idea, after the old man left the cafe, the narrator made a distinctive or yet unusual sentences. Here is what the narrator said, “Some lived in it and never felt it but he knew it all was nada y pues nada y nada y pues nada.” (Hemingway 4). From this example, you can see how the narrator casually talks to the readers in which shows how Hemingway wants to show. He also made where the narrator’s voice is lousy because of the same repetitive words. He also had shown some words in this example to make the narrator’s words be taken at the face value. These are the ways of telling on what Hemingway tries to tell us based from the way every characters

thoughts? Hemingway writes the books based on his experiences and thoughts like masculinity from a character to showing his self-confidence, death from alcohol which is showing the self-injury, fatalistic heroism like the character, Schatz from the book, A Day’s Wait and nature from mountain and safari (Africa) in The Snows of Kilimanjaro and The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber or other books. Hemingway puts the meaningful themes and symbols through his experience and thoughts.

Ernest Hemingway was one of America’s premiere authors during the early 1900’s. He brilliantly wrote a short story or novel in a fashion that was unconventional for the time period. While reading any work by Hemingway the reader has to keep in mind that what is written might be tied to some other part in the story. Hemingway many different writing strategies to keep the reader engaged throughout his stories. Ernest Hemingway is able to keep the readers engaged throughout this novel by incorporating symbolism in his writing such as water for cleansing the soul, color as a sign of purity, and elevation as a reflection of mood.

Macomber is a cruel and remorseless person who won’t leave Macomber. However, later in the story Mrs. Macomber starts to shift in her personality and starts to get afraid of what is to come. On page 4 Mrs. Macomber is being cruel and says “What importance is there to whether Francis is any good at killing lions? That’s not his trade. That’s Mr. Wilson’s trade. Mr. Wilson is really very impressive killing anything.” Here, Mrs. Macomber is directly humiliating her husband through her comparison of Macomber to Wilson. She is trying to undermine Macomber and make him feel ill about the lion because she is mad about the incident. Through Hemingway’s use of a third person narrator the readers able to see how Mrs. Macomber hates and disrespects her husband for what he did. The dialogue of Mrs. Macomber shows the readers what she does daily and how he had had to put up with it for his whole marriage. Later, Mrs Macomber and Macomber have a row but both of them come to the same conclusion, that they won’t leave each other. It’s the morning after Mrs. Macomber slept with Wilson and Macomber is getting riled up. Mrs. Macomber then says “If you make a scene I’ll leave you, darling,” she adds on later “No,” she said. “I won’t leave you and you’ll behave yourself” (Page 24). This shows how Macomber is mad about the way her husband is acting and threatens him because of it. Then, the readers see how even if they both say that they both won’t leave other. Mrs Macomber is there for Macomber’s wealth while Macomber is their for Mrs. Macomber’s beauty. The dialogue between the couple shows the readers how they want to leave but both know that they won’t. This use of insight into the characters reactions to each other makes the story way much deeper and gets the readers more involved. After the row, Macomber starts to change which makes Mrs. Macomber nervous and scared. Mr. Macomber is changing and Mrs. Macomber is getting nervous. She then

The author uses amplification and ekphrastic literary device to describe the surroundings of the protagonist. The author tends to show the protagonist point of view with lots of explaining and metonymies to make the text seem more interesting. Sometimes the additional information the author inputs to help with imagery can get tedious. In all the author creates descriptive text that shows vivid images.

Hemingway lived in Europe by the 1920’s where most of his stories were taken place. In the biography article it states that in the four years of writing his short stories he became one of the most popular writers, through his work of the literary devices. His work was admired by many and inspired many people. His stories are very visual and vivid in every single setting. It also states that he wrote his short stories with depth in each because of his journey and experiences he wanted to tell the world through different scenes and characters. He used the three elements of writing to get a powerful impact within each of the stories. As its seen in “Hills Like White Elephants” and “Cat in The Rain.” With many controversy issues as like abortion and isolation women were facing. As well as the issues being taboo due to the time period and place the stories were written. The dialogue is very clear in each because of the strong conversations the characters are having. Clearly stating the issues within the dialogue using symbolism and

Another work of Hemingway’s that goes along with his reoccurring theme of nature is, The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber. It also takes place on an African safari. The main character Francis Macomber is accompanied by his wife, Margot, and the safari guide Richard Wilson. They partake in hunting adventures all throughout the story, while Francis Macomber battles an internal conflict of a lack of self-confidence and self-assurance. Francis Macomber makes the following remark in the story when discussing his reaction when he faces a lion, "I bolted like a rabbit" (Hemingway). At the end of the story, Francis Macomber is shot and killed accidentally as a buffalo he wounded is charging him head on. Macomber was standing his ground against the buffalo, in order to show he has gotten over his lack of bravery. This story relates to the theme first off through its setting. It was set on an African safari, where the characters hunted a number of different types of game throughout the story. This relates to the theme and the author, because Hemingway himself enjoyed hunting. It also relates through the symbolism it uses throughout the story. It symbolizes Francis Macomber’s hatred through the lion by saying "his big yellow eyes, narrowed with hate, looked straight ahead,

Finally, and for me, Hemingway’s description accomplished several hidden emotional cues. One cue was that this is a real place and not some abstract that people who are reading do not see. We, as a society, tend to think of war, far off places, and people in the abstract. Look at where the book’s beginning description is taking place. It takes place in Italy.

takes great prestige to be considered a classic and Hemingway’s work possesses all of the

Hemingway’s style of writing has had an enormous influence on American writers. Many American writers have followed the footsteps of Hemingway and have tried or are now using his method.      Ernest Hemingway had a lot of important thoughts when writing each and every one of his novelettes.

Hemingway was best known for this novel as to be one of the best novel that he has ever written. The novel is recognized by its style, characterization, and tragedy.