Poor Francis Macomber

I don’t know why, but I felt like Margot was going to kill her husband from the beginning.  The title made it obvious that he would die, and as soon as she was introduced I just got a feeling.  Everything she says to her husband is designed to undermine him in some way.  She is very aggressive. I know you hate that word, Dr. Williams, but I think it’s necessary here.  She keeps reminding Francis of his failure with the lion.  When she asks at dinner if Francis shot the eland, she immediately asks if they are dangerous when Francis says he did shoot them.  If he is happy about something or having a good time, she has to shoot him down.  I did think some of Margot and Francis’ conversations were funny though, because she is so mean to him in such a sweet tone.  I can just picture the scene in my head.  It seems like something that would be on a sitcom.  I liked the way Wilson analyzes Margot.  He says that American women are the cruelest in the world, and this section where he describes her sounds like he is describing an animal that he is hunting.  He clearly labels her as a predator, which is completely accurate. 

Wilson to me is a funny character.  He is so manly that he is almost ridiculous.  I feel like Wilson is Hemingway’s alter ego, which I thought was funny.  The whole time I was reading the story I just pictured Hemingway writing this and wanting to be Wilson.  He is the epitome of Hemingway’s idea of manliness: he hunts, he drinks, he sleeps with women but isn’t married to any of them, he breaks the rules, and other men are jealous of him.  He is also a fairly level-headed character who provides a contrast to Margot and Francis’ violent relationship. 

I hated reading about the hunting parts of the story, because I don’t understand the desire to hunt things.  Reading about it just makes me sad for the animals.  I did like the way Hemingway described the way the lion felt when he was shot though.  It was heartbreaking to read, but it gave me a real sense of the scene.  It set the ending up nicely too.  When it said “he felt a sudden, white-hot, blinding flash explode inside his head and that was all he ever felt,” I wasn’t sure if it was the buffalo’s feeling or Francis’.  I figured it was Francis, but I still wasn’t sure that he was shot.  I thought maybe he had a heart attack or something because of his excitement. 

I think Margot killed her husband on purpose.  She couldn’t stand not having control over him, so she did the only thing left that she could do to control him.  Shooting Francis was so desperate and cowardly that it shows she was really powerless to him once he found his confidence.  Like Taylor said in her blog, Margot is now afraid of her husband and she loses control.  I don’t think this is really intended in the story at all, but something was weird to me about how Wilson suggested leaving the gun in the car with Margot.  I felt like maybe they planned to kill Francis together.  When Wilson kept mocking her at the end it made me feel like he had talked her into doing something that she didn’t really think through.  The last thing he says to her is really creepy to me.  He will only stop when she says please, showing that he has power over her and he is in charge of the situation.  That is the line that made me think he might have set her up to kill Francis, because it seemed manipulative and controlling.  Like I said, I don’t think this is what Hemingway intended, I just thought it was interesting to read it that way. 

I felt bad for Francis.  I think he went on this hunt in the first place to prove himself.  He seemed like an okay guy, and both society and his cruel wife had him trapped and emasculated.  Instead of finding his masculinity and courage like he expected on the trip, he is further mocked by Wilson's manliness and the incident with the lion.  When he finally does take control and find himself, he only gets to enjoy it for a few minutes before it gets taken away with a cowardly shot.  His wife shoots him in the back of the head, while he is turned around and defenseless like an animal.