About Josh Silverstein Expertise I will answer questions relating to Ernest Hemingway's life or literature. I can also help with quotation source requests. No homework questions please.
Experience Mr. Silverstein holds a B.A. in English Literature and has been studying the life and works of Ernest Hemingway for the past ten years. His major work on Hemingway is titled, "The Importance of Being Ernest: Hemingway's Truth in Fiction and his Fiction in Truth." He is also author of "Hemingway: Alive and Well Online," an article exploring Hemingway's presence and position in the online community. He is the founder of "Timeless Hemingway," an award winning web site devoted to Ernest Hemingway.
Hemingway, Ernest - Hemingway´s the short happy life of Francis Macomber
Expert: Josh Silverstein - 4/21/2005
Question I will asked you some questions, if you donīt mind.
The first one, do you really think that Francis is a coward? What about his wife by killing him? Donīt you think her action can be considererd a coward one?, and the last one, what is considered to be a coward to Hemingway?
Answer Hello,
The closing sequence of "The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber" has for many years ignited great debate in the critical world. Did Margot Macomber intentionally shoot at her husband to kill him or was she in fact aiming at the buffalo in an attempt to protect him from a certain death?
Many feel that she was trying to kill her husband because he was becoming too brave, too soon. As a brave man, he would have the courage to leave her. After Margot has shot and killed her husband, white hunter Robert Wilson confirms the fact that Macomber would have left her. Perhaps this is what she feared and explains why she had no other choice but murder. If she truly wanted him dead, however, there would have been no need for her to pull the trigger herself. Remember that from her vantage point, it looked as if the buffalo was about to fatally gore Macomber.
If we examine the text more carefully and take Hemingway's words (ambiguous as they may be) at face value, we will observe that Margot indeed was aiming at the buffalo, likely in an attempt to protect her husband. Even if she had killed the buffalo without hitting Macomber, she'd still be depriving him of his courageous act. The buffalo would be her kill and Francis would again be the cowardly runner-up.
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