In Ernest Hemingway's "The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber", Francis
Macomber and his wife Margot attempt to rekindle their marriage on a vacation; however, they
succeed only in growing further apart. Hemingway himself would frequently go fishing or even
make expensive Safari trips to Africa. The setting of his short story "The Short Happy Life of
Francis Macomber" takes place on a Safari tour in Africa. The main characters are Francis
Macomber, Margot Macomber, and Robert Wilson. The story begins with the two men talking
about a lion they had killed. At some time earlier, Francis proved himself to be a coward
when he fled away from the lion, when set out for a chase. At the sight of this, his wife puts
herself in the arms of Robert Wilson, the man who appears to be the most masculine of the
two. On a different occasion, the following day, Francis was so enraged that courage and self-
confidence struck him, thus making him the hero of the day. What happens is that he hunted a
buffalo and went straight out to kill it while it charged him. At the sight of this, Margot falls into
great shock, realizing that her husband now has the power and ability to leave her. The men and
women of the story play symbolic roles in one way or another, the men trying to be as
masculine as possible only to portray an image, the women falling into the arms of only the
masculine men. Through the development of opposing characters Francis Macomber and Robert
Wilson, Ernest Hemingway highlights those male characteristics which attract women.
The size of Robert Wilson's shot gun is representative of his masculinity, which is
considerably larger than Francis Macomber's pistol. Hemingway links the size of the gun
correspondingly to the more masculine of the two characters for the simple reason to prove what
attracts women. The resemblance of a gun to a man's masculinity is enormous. A gun is an
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