...Young 1 Kenneth Young ENG 112 (01) October 26, 2014 Character Analysis of Robert Wilson Robert Wilson is one of the main characters in the short story “The Short, Happy Life of Francis Macomber” written by Ernest Hemingway. Robert Wilson is a professional hunter that guides hunts for animals in Africa, and Francis Macomber is one of his clients. At the beginning of the story, we think that Robert is a good man. He works with people doing the thing that he loves, he fought in World War I, and always gets his clients the things that they want. As we read the story more, we find out that he isn’t such a good man. Like everybody else, he has his good things and his bad things. The things however seem to balance each other out. He is conflicted by the things that he knows what is right and the things that he wants to do. The first good thing about Robert Wilson is his appearance. His appearance isn’t only the way he looks but the thing that he wears. “He was about middle height with sandy hair, a stubby mustache, a very red face and extremely cold, blue eyes with faint white wrinkles at the corners that grooved merrily when he smiled” (Hemingway, 2). In short terms, he is handsome. He has a red face from being out in the sun all day and eyes that are “both cruel and seductive at the same time” (Shmoop). He also is ready for anything that his job requires. He is ready for the hunt because he is “wearing old slacks, very dirty boots and a necklace of ammunition” (Shmoop). He doesn’t...
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...of Francis Macomber” The complicated details used by Ernest Hemingway made a stroke of genius of secrets in his story "The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber". The anonymous secrets does not reveal itself to the reader until the end of the story, yet it leaves a lot to the imagination. At the end of the story Margaret Macomber kills her husband by accident, in order to save him from being attacked by an enormous Buffalo while trying to kill it in the safari in Africa. The anonymous secret is whether or not this killing was truly accidental, or premeditated with an accomplice Robert Wilson. If it would of to be considered premeditation; therefore, it would certainly have to be evidence in the story suggesting such, with a clear motive as well. What makes this story so unique is the conflict theories that Hemingway gives the reader a very virtuously instances that would lead the reader to create a standard motive, yet Hemingway shows the reader that this killing or accident could not have been premeditated. From a virtuously impartial analysis of the story, the reader would see far more evidence supporting the theory of a premeditated killing rather than an unintentional criminal act. The narrator of “The Short Happy Life”, Wilson, is very blunt, tough hunter and tourist. He is a realistic and static character whose awareness, thoughtful environment and impartiality to those around him greatly aid his telling of the story. His current custodies are Francis Macomber, the...
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...through advertisements and mass media. “The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber” by Ernest Hemingway offers a critical analysis of the use of violence as a testament of one’s manhood and explores a common-ground that will always delineate man: woman. Along with the short story, these ideas will be further developed through “What's Love Got to Do with It? An Evolutionary Analysis of ‘The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber,’” and “Hemingway's ‘Francis Macomber’ in Pirandellian and Freudian Perspectives.” A lack of violence in Francis Macomber paints him as the weaker man in this short story. The bold, gruff exterior of Wilson is parallel to what America used to define as manly. These two characters find that their manliness, or lack thereof, can always be overlooked when they rejoice over a woman’s misfortune. The aforementioned ideas insist that the obsession with idealized gender-roles is unrealistic in the American ethos as it is never satisfactory and often a threat to others as they are insecure in their own positions. The character of Francis Macomber is the new American man: he is handsome, married to a beautiful woman, proficient in court games and fishing, and rich enough to hunt for sport. However, this American model is portrayed as fragile, weak, naïve, and most prominently a coward. Francis takes comfort in the safety of the jeep; he loathes the idea of shooting this creature from up close. “Macomber stood there feeling sick at his stomach, his hands that held the...
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...,July 21st 2009 ENC 1102 M,W, 7:45am Term Paper “The Theme of Human Struggle in the Works of Ernest Hemingway” In my research paper I will show how elements of life and death, folklore/fables, myths, and rites of passage support the theme of human struggle against nature in the stories "The Old Man and the Sea," "Indian Camp," "The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber" and "The Snows of Kilimanjaro” by Ernest Hemingway. Through comparative analysis of these stories' underlying themes I will address the initiation experiences of his heroes. Human dignity, morality, and the formation of human individuality through mental strife and the struggle against nature are often themes of Hemingway. Humans cope with the complexity of the world by developing simple mental models based on opposite parts. Life and death are together, two extremes of one energy. Life is the active force and death is the inactive force, but they cannot be separated. Thus, they are two aspects of one reality. When people are reading about living beings and mythological beings or those who are dead, they view the word of the dead as a living world. The dead eat, sleep and move. In the book “The Hero in Hemingway's short stories”, J. DeFalco points out that: " in the Myth there are usually three dominant movements which are cyclic in pattern. They are the departure of the hero, the initiation, and the return from heroic adventure." (17). The movements of the hero to the world where...
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