Francis Macomber

In Ernest Hemingway's, “The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber,” Hemingway uses themes to help portray the meanings behind what he writes. Starting off in the story, Hemingway sets it off with Francis Macomber, his wife Margot Macomber, and Robert Wilson sitting around having lunch. They are sitting quite grimmly like they are trying to forget about something, which the reader will learn later on that Francis did not do well on his first hunt, and is now dubbed as a “coward.” Francis cannot stop thinking about how disappointed everybody with his failure, especially his wife. Continuing on in the story, the reader finds out that during the hunt Francis could not bring himself to finish off the lion so Wilson does then Margot kisses Wilson

Back in the camp after lunch Wilson tries to calm Francis, and tells him they will hunt buffalo the next day. That night, Margot sneaks off in the middle of the night and sleeps with Wilson, then returns. She does not try to hide the fact she slept with Wilson, and in the morning Wilson attempts to tell Francis that this typically and that he has slept with many of the wives of the people he takes hunting when they feel like they are not getting enough out of the trip. The next day when they are hunting Buffalo the hunt goes differently than that of the one from the day before. Francis mangages to get a good shot yet, the buffalo does not die. So, they follow it and when they find it Francis and Wilson get out to finish the job. Francis misses his shot so Wilson takes a shot as well with the same result. Francis takes another shot and hits the buffalo and kills it. However, at this moment Margot takes a shot from the car and nails Francis in the skull and kills him immediately. The ending is a little weird because it is unknown as to if Margot intentionally killed him or not. Wilson tells her that he will conduct an investigation, for he believes that she did it on

One’s understanding Hemingways background helps into understand why one of his key themes is so apparent in the majority of his stories. His first theme seen in this story is masculinity. Lisa Garrigues, one of the authors in the analysis of Hemingway's writing craft wrote in her english journal that, “The study of a writers past brings forth his craft… Hemingway was a boxer, a fighter, a war hero, a heavy drinker, and larger than life it is no doubt you do not see a translation of that onto his pages.” Now, because Hemingway was a very masculine figure, many times in his stories that is seen to come to life. Especially in “The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber.” The importance of a characters masculinity is seen in the story as to why Margot tends to drift towards Wilson when he proves to be a more masculine figure than her own husband. Hemingway writes in a way which the reader wants to take the side of the more masculine character and in this story it happens to be Wilson. However, because Francis is portrayed as childish, especially seen when he argues with his wife, one can only have a bitter taste in their mouth when he shows up in the text while it is enjoyable for the reader when Wilson shows up. However, because Hemingway writes this way, he portrays his protagonists, in this case it is Francis, to be one of the less masculine of the characters.