ERNEST HEMINGWAY
THE SHORT HAPPY LIFE OF FRANCIS MACOMBER


Like Joyce and Proust, Hemingway is a writer who uses the material of his own life to construct fiction. For example, “A Farewell to Arms” (1929) was inspired by his war experience in Italy, and “For Whom the Bell Tolls” (1940) reflects part of his experience after travelling in Spain. He believed that the writer’s role was to work hard and write about true things. Therefore he once remarked that his job as a writer was to “put down what I see and what I feel in the best and simplest way I can tell it.” He writes only about those aspects of life he has encountered personally, although those are many – warfare, big-game hunting, sports, fishing, bull-fighting, etc.
The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber (1936) is based on the 1933-1934 African trip. It is the tragic story of an American couple, Francis and Margot Macomber who arrive in Nairobi and hire a professional hunter named Wilson to take them on a hunt expedition. Macomber is a rather spineless character- his wife despises him and makes no effort to conceal her affaires to other man. Macomber hopes the solitude of the safari will bring them back together. But on first day of hunting he disgraces himself and loses his chance to win his wife esteem. He wounds a lion but dashes away in front of it. Margot now snubs at him totally and begins to throw herself at Wilson. Macomber knows about the affair, but in his disgrace he is too weak to make any objections. At this point, Margot hates Francis, Francis hates Wilson, and Wilson is beginning to despise them both.
The buffalo hunting scene represents the climax of this story. The description of the chase shows us Hemingway as a writer preoccupied almost exclusively with action, both in real life and in the life of his characters, whose inner life is revealed by the actions they undertake. Even the finer sensation of his characters – love, fear, loyalty – are re-scaled by their physical reactions, thus