One of my favorite authors is Ernest Hemingway. I know so much about him and I’ve spent most of my freshmen year reading his novels and short stories. I’ve enjoyed many stories by Hemingway such as The Old Man and the Sea, The Snows of Kilimanjaro, and I just finished reading The Short, Happy Life of Francis Macomber. In most of Hemingway’s short stories, the common themes he likes to use are Wilderness, Nature and Isolation. In The Old Man and the Sea, Santiago was isolated from society (Class struggles/Marxism) and dragged into the wilderness of the ocean while trying to catch the Marlin. In The Snows of Kilimanjaro, The setting takes places in the Safari of Africa (Ironically, the readers would expect it to be in Mt. Kilimanjaro) where he awaits his slow and painful death. There is a connection between Hemingway and the wandering Wilderness. The short, Happy life of Francis Macomber takes place in the safari. Macomber, his wife Margot, and the guide Wilson are on a hunting trip. Macomber wants to redeem himself after he was scared from the lion and to prove that he does indeed have courage. Meanwhile, Wilson slept with Margaret and the situation got intense between Macomber and Wilson. The next morning, they went out to hunt buffalos and Macomber got the first kill. Margaret was somewhat surprised of her husband’s sudden courage. She ends up shooting Macomber in the head, Wilson and Margaret had a verbal exchange and the story ends there. There was a major use of irony in this story. The title of this story is the short, happy life of Macomber. I wouldn’t say it was anything like that. Macomber was viewed as a coward by Wilson and Margaret, His wife ended up sleeping with Wilson, and he was killed by his wife in the end. His life was short but bitter. I didn’t really grasp the last scene quite clearly. Wilson kept going on with the situation and all Margaret could say was “Stop it,” If you read this story, Then you would ask this same question: Did Margaret really intended on killing her husband, or was it an accident?
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