Short Happy Life Of Francis Macomber

In Hemingway’s short story “Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber,” Hemingway uses writer’s technique of perspective to show readers the characterization of the three main protagonist in the story.Hemingway creates a multipart claim using perspective as well as dialogue to show readers a pervasive, negative tone carried through the story. As shown in the examples that follow.
Wilson is quite judgmental especially with Francis and Margaret and their marital difficulties. Wilson shows this by saying, ” ‘No I’m a professional hunter. We never talk about our clients.’ “. When Macomber questions Wilson’s professionalism in fear of others finding out about his cowardice concerning the lion, Wilson becomes insulted and appalled at what kind of person …show more content…
She uses fear in a way that lets her get away with what she wants.Evidence:”Wilson looked over at her without smiling and she smiled at him”. It proves that Margaret is in control because she wouldn’t be allowed to do this if Francis isn’t a coward. This is one of Margaret’s ideas to make her husband mad and jealous of other men and to notice her more. Hemingway uses her actions to show her characterization in the story and to give us her perspective on the subject of her being in control and mean. She shows this nature throughout the story when she does whatever she wants around Francis. In the story she even kisses Wilson in this example. The story says ”she had leaned forward over the low seat and kissed him on the mouth”. He also wouldn’t allow this to happen if Francis would be in control. On the other hand this allows the story’s build to work up into the ending when Hemingway uses the perspective of the third person narrator and their dialogue. Margaret has developed throughout the story as a controlling character and that will soon change. Now when Francis becomes brave and fearless as written in the story, Margaret loses control and is dominated by fear. This is shown when she says ” ‘It was frightfully exciting,’ she said. ‘It’s given me a dreadful headache. I didn’t know you were allowed to shoot them from cars though.’ ”. She was losing control so she tried to bring Francis down by making it seem like he …show more content…
We see this cowardice show when he says ” ‘I bolted like a rabbit’ ”. He says this when saying he’s a coward. This shows Hemingway’s craft as making Francis a coward through his dialogue and perspective. There are examples of this in many places throughout the story. Francis starts to show his bravery and anger in the next example. Francis says“’I hate that red-faced swine,’ Macomber said.” when he was mad. He says this when mad at Wilson and his wife and he becomes more brave. Hemingway uses this scene to show the change and transfer that Francis shows to enter manhood. Francis shows his later blossoming into manhood through his anger and hatred in the story later on. Francis shows his anger turning into a man. He shows this by saying that he wanted to go after the bull that escaped unlike the lion. Hemingway uses the anger of Francis in the story to make him brave and fearless forcing Margaret to shoot Francis. This is an important part of the story because without this we would not have a true story. Without Francis in the story Hemingway couldn’t have developed a story of this caliber so as you can see he is an important part of the