The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber

“‘Don’t worry about me talking,’ he said. ‘I have a living to make. You know in Africa no woman ever misses her lion and no white man ever bolts.”

Wilson attempts to comfort Francis Macomber with humor after the humiliating “lion business.” He tells Macomber he won’t tell anyone what happened; he doesn’t want to discourage future business, and hunting stories must flatter the customer. These lines also indicate that Macomber is not the first man to run from a beast. Wilson speaks these lines despite knowing that word of his customer's humiliation is beginning to spread.

“‘I’m sorry,’ Macomber said and looked at him with his American face that would stay adolescent until it became middle-aged.”

Wilson doesn’t think highly of Americans in general in this story and blames their society for making Macomber “soft.” He views Macomber as being too sheltered and too pampered, hindering his transition to manhood.

“‘Mr. Wilson is really very impressive killing anything. You do kill anything, don’t you?’ ‘Oh, anything,’ said Wilson. ‘Simply anything.’”

Margot manipulates her husband’s emotions and furthers his sense of humiliation by highlighting Wilson's courage and skill. Unlike Macomber, Wilson is powerful and capable.

“They are, he thought, the hardest in the world; the hardest, the cruelest, the most predatory and the most attractive and their men have softened or gone to pieces nervously as they have hardened.”

Reflecting on American women in general, Wilson believes Margot is “hard,” “cruel,” and “predatory.” This contrasts with American men, whom Wilson views as weak and easy prey. This foreshadows the way Margot hunts her husband, preying on him and eventually shooting him dead.

“It’s not very pleasant to have your wife see you do something like that.”

Macomber is most worried about his wife’s gaze. He’s aware that she is watching his performance of masculinity and stays with him only because he has money and her beauty has begun to fade a bit. This tension is coupled with the continued struggle to get Margot to stay behind at camp and not join the men on their hunting trip.

“But that night after dinner and a whisky and soda by the fire before going to bed, as Francis Macomber lay on his cot with the mosquito bar over him and listened to the night noises it was not all over.” 

Despite his attempts to rationalize, joke, and ignore what happened, Macomber can’t let it go. Margot’s scorn for him, his concern for his reputation, and her kissing Wilson trap him in the aftermath of his fearful response to the lion.

“It was a deep sound and at the end there were sort of coughing grunts that made him seem just outside the tent, and when Francis Macomber woke in the night to hear it he was afraid.”

This is the first time Macomber hears the lion’s roaring. He is inside his tent, which symbolizes civilization and materialism, and he’s afraid to leave that security to confront his fear. This passage also captures his sense of isolation, as he lies in his cot unable to speak to his sleeping wife about his feelings.

“‘Must make him stop that racket,’ Wilson said.”

Wilson’s response to the lion’s roaring is the opposite of Macomber’s. While Macomber is afraid, Wilson is resolved to pursue the lion and put an end to his taunting roars. This demonstrates his courage, in contrast to Macomber's fear.

“Macomber had not thought how the lion felt as he got out of the car. He only knew his hands were shaking and as he walked away from the car it was almost impossible for him to make his legs move.”

Macomber feels paralyzed as the time comes to confront the lion that he heard roaring the night before. He is incapable of anticipating the lion's responses because he is focused on trying to control his own body and will himself to prepare to shoot the animal.

“His flanks were wet and hot and flies were on the little openings the solid bullets had made in his tawny hide, and his big yellow eyes, narrowed with hate, looked straight ahead, only blinking when the pain came as he breathed, and his claws dug in the soft baked earth.”

Hemingway offers his reader the lion’s perspective before it is killed. This is juxtaposed with Macomber’s inability to imagine how the lion feels. The imagery in this description builds sympathy for the lion and personifies the animal as feeling hate for the men in its suffering.

“Macomber heard the blood-choked coughing grunt, and saw the swishing rush in the grass. The next thing he knew he was running; running wildly, in panic in the open, running toward the stream.”

This moment is the hinge on which the two sections of the story hang: Macomber flees the wounded animal, embarrassing himself and his wife in front of the group of skilled hunters. He cannot stop dwelling on this incident, which diminishes him in the eyes of his wife and of Wilson.

“‘I’ve never felt any such feeling. Wasn’t it marvelous, Margot?’ ‘I hated it.’ ‘Why?’ ‘I hated it,’ she said bitterly. ‘I loathed it.’ ‘You know I don’t think I’d ever be afraid of anything again,’ Macomber said to Wilson.”

Macomber experiences true happiness for the first time in his life when he demonstrates courage on his next hunt, killing a buffalo. Yet this passage also highlights the tension between his elation and his wife’s bitterness at realizing he will no longer be dominated by fear or subject to her manipulation. The balance of power in their marriage has shifted.

“‘That was a pretty thing to do,’ he said in a toneless voice. ‘He would have left you too.’”

In the aftermath of Margot's shooting her husband in the head, Wilson taunts her. There is irony in the understatement that shooting a person in the head is not “pretty," but the statement also reveals that Wilson believes this was a deliberate act by a woman who realized she was going to be abandoned. It also subverts the ways Hemingway’s society stereotypes women as being “soft” and “pretty” by contrasting this femininity with her brutal act.