The Realistic Life of Francis Macomber It is common sense that artists would derive inspiration from their life to use in their work, be it painting, lyrics, or writing. This adds a personal touch to what the artist creates, and Ernest Hemingway is no exception. Hemingway’s life was so full of adventure, it was bound to have saturated his writing with personal experiences. A prime example of this is his short story, “The Short Happy Life Of Francis Macomber”, written shortly after his time in Africa. The diction, characterization, and theme in “The Short Happy Life Of Francis Macomber” were all affected by Hemingway’s life in a way that made the story much realer to readers and Hemingway himself. A distinct relation between Hemingway’s life and his literary work is his diction. Hemingway is known for his writing style, unique to only him. He wrote in short sentences and his work consisted of mainly dialogue. These characteristics are apparent in “The Short Happy Life Of Francis Macomber”, especially when Francis and his wife, Margot, are speaking about Francis’ nervousness:
“What’s the matter, Francis?” his wife asked him.
“Nothing.” Macomber said.
“Yes, there is,” she said. “What are you upset about?”
“Nothing,” he said.
“Tell me,”
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The real life elements that influenced this scene come from Hemingway’s childhood, and are also caused by his mother. As a child, Hemingway was raised as his older sister’s twin, dressed in girl clothes and treated like one. The only times he was allowed to dress as a boy was when he went hunting with his father, hence his obsession with masculinity and hunting (Ernest Hemingway- Wrestling With Life). Hemingway’s experiences caused him to overcompensate for his childhood’s lack of masculinity in his writing. Hemingway found solace with this theme, in the sense that it represented him finding his own
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
One observation that can be made on Hemingway’s narrative technique as shown in his short stories is his clipped, spare style, which aims to produce a sense of objectivity through highly selected details. Hemingway refuses to romanticize his characters. Being “tough” people, such as boxers, bullfighters, gangsters, and soldiers, they are depicted as leading a life more or less without thought. The world is full of s...
Ernest Hemingway was an intricate and dedicated writer who devoted a significant portion of his life to writing multiple genres of stories. Throughout his stories, the similarities in his style and technique are easily noted and identified. Two of the short stories he wrote contain themes and motifs that specifically explain the plotline. The first story, “The Snows of Kilimanjaro,” sets its scene in the depths of a desolate area in Africa, where the main characters, Harry and his wife, decide to make their home. After living there for a few years, Harry ventures out and falls into a thorn bush, thus infecting his leg with gangrene. A few weeks later, he finds himself on the brink between life and death, unable to treat such a severe infection. Throughout the whole story, his life is flashing before his eyes as he recalls all of the major events that occurred in his past. By nightfall, Harry is acting unusual, and he begins to feel as if life is not worth living anymore. After he drifts off to sleep that evening, his wife goes to check on him and discovers that her husband has passed away (Hemingway 52-77). The second great work of Hemingway, “The Short, Happy Life of Francis Macomber,” is also set in a deserted section of Africa. Francis and his wife, Margot, are on a safari adventure along with their tour guide named Wilson. The way these three characters interact with each other creates tension and provides an adequate plot for the story. The trip begins with the couple intending on hunting big game. At first they track down a lion that continuously roars throughout the night, and later decide to chase after buffalos. To add to the complications of the trip, Margot has an intimate relationship with their tour guide. The story c...
In Hemingway’s short story “Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber,” Hemingway uses the writer’s technique of perspective to show readers the characterization of the three main protagonists in this story. Hemingway creates a multipart claim using perspective as well as dialogue to show readers a pervasive, negative tone carried throughout the story. Wilson, Margaret, and Macomber are characterized by multiple perspectives with multiple traits and negative aspects to their characters.
His style was described as “an attempt to get at minds and souls and what goes on within.” Also as “oblique, inferential, suggestive rather than overt, explicit, explanatory.” And yet somehow, “Mr. Hemingway can pack a whole character into a phrase, an entire situation into a sentence or two.”
In The Heath Anthology of American Literature, Volume II. Edited by Paul Lauter et al. Lexington, MA: D.C. Heath and Company, 1991: 1208-1209. Hemingway, Ernest. A.
Hemingway, Ernest. "The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber." 1936. The First Forty Nine Stories. London: Cape, 1946. 9-43. PDF File.
“Sometimes when I was starting a new story and I could not get it going, I would stand and look out over the roofs of Paris and think, ‘Do not worry. You have always written before and you will write now. All you have to do is write on true sentence. Write the truest sentence you know” (shmoop.com). Ernest Hemingway was an honest and noble man. His life was highlighted by his successful writing career that brought him fame, fortune, but ultimately loneliness. Ernest Hemingway fell into a hole of drinking and depression (lib.utexas.edu). It was odd for Hemingway to become so emotionally unstable after having a happy childhood, quality experiences, and a successful writing career.
When a writer picks up their pen and paper, begins one of the most personal and cathartic experiences in their lives, and forms this creation, this seemingly incoherent sets of words and phrases that, read without any critical thinking, any form of analysis or reflexion, can be easily misconstrued as worthless or empty. When one reads an author’s work, in any shape or form, what floats off of the ink of the paper and implants itself in our minds is the author’s personality, their style. Reading any of the greats, many would be able to spot the minute details that separates each author from another; whether it be their use of dialogue, their complex descriptions, their syntax, or their tone. When reading an excerpt of Hemingway’s A Moveable Feast one could easily dissect the work, pick apart each significant moment from Hemingway’s life and analyze it in order to form their own idea of the author’s voice, of his identity. Ernest Hemingway’s writing immediately comes across as rather familiar in one sense. His vocabulary is not all that complicated, his layout is rather straightforward, and it is presented in a simplistic form. While he may meander into seemingly unnecessary detail, his work can be easily read. It is when one looks deeper into the work, examines the techniques Hemingway uses to create this comfortable aura surrounding his body of work, that one begins to lift much more complex thoughts and ideas. Hemingway’s tone is stark, unsympathetic, his details are precise and explored in depth, and he organizes his thoughts with clarity and focus. All of this is presented in A Moveable Feast with expertise every writer dreams to achieve. While Hemingway’s style may seem simplistic on the surface, what lies below is a layered...
Through the characters' dialogue, Hemingway explores the emptiness generated by pleasure-seeking actions. Throughout the beginning of the story, Hemingway describes the trivial topics that the two characters discuss. The debate about the life-changing issue of the woman's ...
The Cambridge Companion to Ernest Hemingway; edited by Scott Donaldson; Cambridge U. P.; New York, NY; 1996
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 in his third person omniscient point of view he uses a basic vocabulary which is common to the reader.
Hemingway has a very simple and straightforward writing style however his story lacks emotion. He makes the reader figure out the characters’ feelings by using dialogue. “...
... much to be learned about the deeply troubled and equally enthusiastic Ernest Hemingway. From thrill-seeking to several failed marriages nearly every aspect of his life shines through into his style, attitude, and life choices most clearly of all his writing both professional and informal. The straightforwardness and simplicity of his prose ushered in a new style drastically different from the flowery, embellished descriptions and drawn out stories from the previous century. Ultimately Ernest Miller Hemingway will forever be a timeless, classic American writer who succeeded despite his alcoholism, faltering health, intimacy issues, and presumed psychological disease which is most likely the perpetrator creating both his risky escapades and adulterous rendezvous in addition to his debilitating bouts of depression, bitterness, and eventually suicidal behaviors.
As it can clearly be seen, Earnest Hemingway has reflected his life throughout his works. This outlet of expression has proven to be worth the time and effort he had put forward in crafting these stories. It is unfortunate that factors such as human suffering as well as intimate harm were present in Hemingway's life, but it is thanks to those themes that such great works came about. In the short stories "Indian Camp," "The Old Man at the Bridge," and "Hills Like White Elephants," Hemingway has proven that he was indeed the voice of his generation and has crafted a path for future authors and writers to write in a similar manner and style.