The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber
By: Ernest Hemingway
By: Ernest Hemingway
This short story is about a man named Francis Macomber who decides to go on a hunting safari that takes a turn for the worst.
The first day of the safari starts out rough because Mr. Macomber fails to hit the lion he was hunting with the first shot, this results in Mr. Macomber running from the lion and having to be saved by his hunting guide, who shoots the lion dead. The situation worsens even more when Mr. Macomber’s supermodel wife tells him that he is a coward, because he ran from the lion instead of shooting it while he still had the chance. Eventually, in another expedition on the hunting safari, Mr. Macomber makes the same mistake, but to find out what happens after that mistake, you’ll have to read the short story.
What really made this short story great in my opinion was the way that Ernest Hemingway brought out different characters emotions through their dialogue and by describing how they felt at a particular moment in time. He also did a great job at describing the different settings in the story. Even though he didn’t explain the details of each setting directly, he still made it easy for you to imagine what each setting was like by explaining the setting through the eyes of a character. Although the plot in this story wasn’t clear, I guess you say that it was tragedy. Also, I think it terms of the conflicts that Mr. Hemingway’s protagonist [Mr. Macomber] dealt with, the biggest two were Person vs self and Person vs Nature, although there was one other minor one which was Person vs person. Another thing that made this story interesting was the fact that there were a lot of complications and irritations that Mr. Hemingway piled onto his protagonist. These irritations and complications really helped add a lot suspense to the story in some parts. The story was good overall and I would defiantly recommend it to anyone who wants to read it. - Paul
