...English 102 02 October 2011 Word Count: 500 The Short Happy Life of Francis MaComber Deep in Africa on a Safari, where man and beast roam as one, a husband Francis MaComber ventures on an unforeseen journey. He and his wife Margaret MaComber endure moments that were not foreseen, but the safari has a way of changing perspectives and opening up minds. Courage defined by the Merriam-Webster Website, is “mental or moral strength to venture, persevere, and withstand danger, fear or difficulty”. The Safari will definitely change Francis MaComber. Come let’s go on an adventure that will leave you thinking. The African Safari where life, marriage, infidelity and courage is lost and regained, but by what means, accident or a plot to kill. Francis MaComber is in his 35 years old, very tall, very well built…and considerably handsome. He excels at court games and has quite a number of big game fishing records. One could say that he is very athletic and outgoing on the surface. He is a very wealthy married man of 11 years to Margaret MaComber. Mr. MaComber is easygoing, tolerable, patient, naïve, gullible and a coward. He has allowed his wife Margaret to control their marriage for years due to his lack of courage. Mr. MaComber is the story without his fears you would not have a story to tell. He overcomes his fears and starts to regain and take control over his fears, his life, and his marriage. Courage is the theme and Francis MaComber finds courage in the Safari of Africa while out...
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...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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...Gabrielle Doucette-Poirier Amanda Tripp American Classics December 12th 2014 Machismo The societal construct of gender is a volatile subject that has been constantly redefined through social movements for equality and rights. The image of masculinity and its definitive fragility have become more rampant in North America 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...
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...Shalonda Fields ENG 102-55 29 October, 2014 The Literary Details in “The Short Happy Life 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...
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...“Not So Happy Endings” In the unusually written short story, “Happy Endings” by Margaret Atwood, Atwood gives the reader six very different possible storylines using many stereotypes and a good deal of cliché to propel a few main themes of the story. Atwood’s story is not only unusually written, it is also funny, thought provoking, and interesting despite the lack of detail and odd structure. After she has presented the six different storylines Atwood suddenly moves to the ending, which ironically, does not provoke any happy feelings as the title would indicate. The following literary analysis presented will discuss Atwood’s use of short scenarios, point of view, lack of detail, flat characters, and a flat tone which all together help to get one of her themes across. In “Happy Endings” Atwood uses theme to illustrate to the reader that everyone’s beginning and ending are the predictable skeleton of a story; the how and why you go through life to create your journey to the end are the important parts of life. Atwood’s six storylines, A through F, range from the stereotypical life in version A to the completely eccentric version F. In the first line of the story Atwood introduces John and Mary by simply stating that they meet (395). Atwood goes on to bring the reader into the story by asking the reader “What happens next?” (395), and then goes on to Version A. Version A is the “happy ending,” with John and Mary who live a flawless life. John and Mary are happy, healthy...
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...perfectly with his short story Zombie. Most of us really don’t know what we want out of life. We go to college hoping to land a job that will make us money, yet, sacrifice the passion that makes life meaningful. In the short story Zombie, many characters struggle with the lack of purpose, challenge, or opportunities of life. Out of frustration, they choose to do something drastic to get away from it all. Initially, these choices are satisfying. They become a quick fix to a much bigger problem or “A new reality begins”: a reality that again someone does not have the power to control. At least they don’t think they do. So, they get reckless. They make painful decisions that not only affect their own life, but they bleed into those around them. This imagery of frustration and depression is what Palahniuk uses to create eccentric characters in this bold short story. Chuck Palahniuk, the author of Zombie, along with many...
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...An emotion is what you feel. Emotions can be short lived or long term. Some emotions, like fear, can come and go. Long lasting fear usually is undesirable. Happiness, on the other hand, is an emotion that most people would like to experience over the long term. People often seek short-term ways to make them feel happy. But, long-term happiness is a bit more challenging to create. Money certainly can buy things that can make a person happy...for a while. In today’s world, IPhones, fancy cars, and nice clothes seem to have become a necessity in life. The problem is, soon there is a newer phone or a fancier car. People can get stuck in a never-ending cycle of trying to buy short-term happiness. Over a lifespan, purchases meant to provide short-term happiness can result in insufficient money for the necessities of life ultimately resulting in unhappiness. Money may actually not be necessary in the first place. There are numerous examples where people who have a lot less are happier. If you travel outside of the typical American city you can find that buying happiness with money is not always the case. I got to meet someone who was happy with having less. When my family and me went on a cruise, we had a waiter who was working on his son’s birthday. Not many Americans would choose to work serving food and miss a child's birthday. The waiter said that he didn’t have enough money to buy his son a present and that he was happy to be working that day. Buying a present for...
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...shall we find in our daily lives, but we could also find it while reading literary works, watching movies and suchlike. Reading literary works has interesting adventure in which an extra attention is needed to figure it out. For some people, reading novel or short story is more than just about looking for the beautiful story or the greatnesses of the story. Yet, there are some people who only read novel without a deep understanding. Usually the readers will be facing some questions which have something to do with the author’s intention making story. Common question coming out automatically after reading novel or short story is such what is the author trying to tell us in the story or what the moral lessons of the story is. According to Nurgiyantoro (1995:66) to know of what the author feels like to convey in the story is the main task of reading fiction work, it is either Novel or Short story. As a matter of fact, there are a lot of advantages gained by reading fiction. According to Nurgiyantoro (1995:3) Fiction talks about various problems of life in terms of interaction with environment, ourselves, and our interaction with god. Fiction is the result of dialogue, contemplation, and author reactions of environment and life. Although it is fictitious, it is not true if fiction considered as the...
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...Standing on the sideline and just stand there and watch something bad happening. To be a specta-tor and take a distance to the wrong thing what is happening. Just standing there as a spectator, without taking any action without doing anything and being just as responsible as the per-son/persons committing the bad thing. In the two short stories: ‘The Lottery’ and ‘The Ones Who Walks Away From Omelas’, we see spectators who doesn’t take any action, and just look away from all the bad thing happening in their town. When you compare the two stories and look and the atmosphere, characters, and the theme you will see the similarities and the difference be-tween the two short stories. Both short stories begin with a harmonious setting and atmosphere. They both begin with descrip-tion of a beautiful summer day. “The flowers were blossoming profusely and the grass was richly green” - The Lottery, p. 25 l. 4-5. “Old moss-grown gardens and under avenues of trees,” - The Ones Who Walks Away From Omelas, p.35 l. 5. The setting and the atmosphere is very peacefully in both stories, and you get the impression that the life in the town in both stories are in harmony. But then the atmosphere changes in the lottery it happens when we are introduced to the black box the people from the town are all scared of what is going to happen, and whose name will be drawn from the black box. In the end all the children are excited about stoning the person who was drawn from the black box. In Omelas we...
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...husband, have children and be happy. Are we fooled into thinking this is the lifestyle we’re all supposed to live? And will this even make us happy? In the short story The Decline of the West by Hanif Kureishi, the reader is introduced to a man who grew up with the exact same expectations forced upon him. After losing his job he realizes how unhappy he is, even though he followed every step society and his parents laid out for him. The short story takes place in the high end of London, where Mike lives with his family. They live in a large house with 5 stories and 4 bathrooms, yet Mike and Imogen’s two sons Billy and Tom do not think this is enough, because their school friends have bigger, better, faster houses, cars and so on. But they are fairly rich with a housemaid and au pair to take care of the children, when Mike is at work, and Imogen does her charity work. Mike is the main character and narrator of this short story. He is 45 and works every day to be able to afford this lifestyle, which he has been fooled into believing will make him happy. At one point Mike thinks about his father, the expectations and all the things in his life that has been laid out for him. And at first he seems to be grateful for the time, intelligence and the education the state provided me with, but it does not bring him happiness. “Mike you have been stalked by good fortune your whole life.” His father automatically assumes that good fortune means that his son is happy. He’s got a beautiful wife...
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..."The Arena" is a short story written by Martin Golan. I am going through this task to analyze and interpret this text. The text sheds light on several different areas. This means that the text comes in on topics, such as nervousness, stress, discomfort, family, children, etc. In rough outline deals with text around a father who has promised her that drive him over to an arena where ice hockey is played. The majority of the novel takes place in the car where the danger and the son sit and talk and discuss how far they will achieve it or not. For the son's point of view, it is not a disaster, whether they reach it or not, but in the father's heart, it is different. But getting through the text hints that there is a reason to believe that this incident has happened something cruel. In the text do you get as a reader to know that the father in the past have lost a son, and that he has gone to therapy. You may be able to call it his earlier life when this occurred. Through the short story will be told that the father has got a new wife, and thus also a new child. Although he is married, and "happy" there are still some different traits that makes you as a reader, becomes aware that he is not happy. It will be told in the short story, to his father's new wife is very similar to his previous wife. This can be a symbol of unrequited love and need. I believe that his new wife is a symbol of his old wife. He would like to have the Lady, which he lost, and the closest he comes to this is...
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...environment is describe in more detail, for an example on page 225 line 34 where a mountain is describe, " a hundred yards off the road was a high, sloping, black mound of rock, part of a low range of hills, honeycombed with footpaths and small caves, Indian sign-painting here and there on the cave walls.". The third person narrator do not present Bill thoughts directly, but throw what Jerry is telling and what the person is telling as a narrator. Beside the indirect thoughts I also hear some of the dialogues between Jerry and Bill. In the short story there is two main character, there is Bill and Jerry. Bill is the point of view where the short story is told from. Bill is a married man, but he is not satisfied in his married. He is not happy with the amount of sex, he is having with his wife. It is showed on page 224 line 2 to 8. Where he is talking with Jerry about having sex with one of the two girls. This do not only show that he not is happy in his relationship, but also that he is a man driven by his desire....
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...THE HAPPY PRINCE Literature study is a book consists of many useful short stories. Each of them is very beneficial for the reader. One of the stories in that book that caught my attention was “The Happy Prince”. This short story was written by Oscar Wilde in 1888. In this story, it talks about the generosity of a talking statue. I really love reading this book. In addition, I am going to analyze the whole story: a summary of the story, an analysis of a symbol of happy prince, and my idea toward the contribution of the happy prince toward his people. Happy prince was once a human whose life was full of exhilaration and happiness. He never gets to see what life like beyond that thick wall of his palace. When he died, they built him a status and put him up high in the middle of the town. There, he saw a lot of misery, starvation, and poverty. Next he made a friend with a swallow, whose friends are leaving to Egypt to escape the frozen season, and begged him to be his massager. The swallow continues to help the happy prince doing the charity job by talking the valuable stones and gold from the happy prince status—the happy prince status was made of god and rare sapphires. The little bird continues to take those priceless stuffs from happy prince status to help the poor until there were none left. Next, the winter strive, the swallow died because of the cold. Then, the major of the town order his servants to remove the happy prince status from his place since the status was not...
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...you ever been forced to make a life altering decision? A decision where you much choose one option or the other? The short story Hills Like White Elephants depict a situation in which many, if not all readers can relate to at one point in their lives. The author Ernest Hemingway describes this scenario with a young couple who are at a crossroads in their life, and they are unsure of the future. The young couple are forced, but shying away from the rather large “white elephant in the room”, deciding to go through with having a child or an abortion. The theme in Hills Like White Elephants is expressed using typical thematic literary elements. Hemingway uses elements such as character, setting, conflict, and irony all to express the short story theme and symbolism. All of these elements help to develop the theme of decision making and sacrifice. The reader gets very little background on the relationship of the young couple but at the same time receives insight into the norms of the relationship between the “American man” and Jig the “girl” who is pregnant. Jig is represented as a young dependent girl, in article Tim O’brian writes, “Even the nickname "Jig" develops this central conflict. The name suggests a dance, the music for the dance, and a joke, for instance, and thereby exposes the man's ultimately condescending attitude toward her: she is entertainment, material for an interlude, perhaps. “Hemingway uses the character as an element to his short story as well. He uses the characters...
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...who cannot find their places in the world. The main characters in their short stories both feel as prisoners but in their imprisonment there are several differences. Both of them live in a reality in which they do not feel happy and they use their imagination to escape from their forlorn position. They dream about a world where they can finally be happy. The main character in Saki’s Sredni Vashtar short story is Conradin, a young boy who is told by the doctor that he is going to die in 5 years. Knowing the fact that his life is going to end soon makes him a prisoner of his own. In Conradin’s life plays an important role also his aunt, who does not let him do anything he wants. He cannot have friends, cannot go out. For his aunt Conradin is only another problem in her life and the reader feels that she is even happy about the fact that Conradin is going to die. The little boy’s life is miserable and lonely. He has to face the cruel truth that he is a prisoner not only because of his illness but also because of his aunt, who hates him. The protagonist of the second short story Such a pretty little picture is Mr. Wheelock. His imprisonment is of a totally different kind than Conradin’s. Mr. Wheelock feels like a prisoner not because he does not have other choice in his life, but because he thinks it is his duty towards the society. Mr. Wheelock and his family believe that the most important thing in life is what others think about us. Therefore he acts like he is the perfect...
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