Short Happy Life Of Francis Macomber Essay

In Ernest Hemingway’s short story, “Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber,” Hemingway uses the author’s craft of perspective along with dialogue and internal dialogue to create a multi-part claim that develops an overall negative characterization of the three characters. Through this use of author’s craft, each character's inner personalities unleash in a slow process which ultimately reveals to readers their complex dimensions.
Wilson is first introduced as a buff professional but slowly makes readers, as well as the other characters, realize he is only a bastard reprobate with no desire to change. In the beginning of the story, Macomber’s wife described Wilson with the use of internal dialogue by stating, “...the way his shoulders sloped in the loose

This shows how much of a man Wilson is portrayed as by talking about his dirty clothes and hands, how he holds a gun in his breast pocket, and the way Margaret talks about his shoulders being sloped, indicating that he is fit. This illustrative image of Wilson gets the readers to portray him as a good person solely relying on his looks. Although, this image of Wilson being the “good person” was quickly gone whenever Macomber decided Wilson was, in fact, a bastard for sleeping with his wife. Wilson talks about his “experience” with American women from the beginning and how even married females would throw themselves at him, including Margaret. When Macomber realized that his wife was sleeping with Wilson he became angry and stated, “You bastard, thought Macomber, you insolent bastard.” (page 16). In this situation Francis is clearly irritated by both Wilson and Margaret’s actions. He realizes then, that Wilson was never actually his acquaintance, even less his friend. Macomber calls him an “insolent bastard”, showing us a perspective towards Wilson no one generally had. As readers wait for a change in Wilson, he would