27 pages • 54 minutes read
Ernest HemingwayThe Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber
Fiction | Short Story | Adult | Published in 1936A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Symbols & Motifs
The Lion’s Roar
The lion’s roar symbolizes the call to courage and masculinity, something Francis Macomber lacks for most of the story. The lion roams just outside the camp, awakening him with its roar. This noise is a call for Macomber to conquer his fears: “When Francis Macomber woke in the night to hear [the roaring] he was afraid” (122). Despite his fear, he cannot avoid the encounter with the lion forever.
The lion acts as a measurement or test of the men’s courage; Wilson tells him he “must make it stop that racket” (124). Stopping the lion from roaring equates to answering the call to masculinity and exerting force over nature's threats. However, Macomber leaves the task half-done, reducing the roars to agonizing grunts when he only wounds the animal. Wilson succeeds at silencing the lion after Macomber fails to complete the task.
The Camp
The camp symbolizes society, with all its materialism, security, and luxury. Here, Macomber lives a risk-free, passive existence just on the edge of danger, yet shielded from it by tents and skilled marksmen. In this space, he is passive and frightened, and Wilson notes that he still has the face of an "adolescent." The camp sustains the illusion of an exoticized African experience, but Macomber spends his wealth on servants and a guide who attend to all his needs.
Wilson helps him hunt—and hunts for him when the experience becomes dangerous early in the story. Likewise, workers skin and cook the animals, serve him meals, hold his guns, and drive him around. The camp offers whiskey and gimlet and allows him to sleep sheltered from the elements under a tent roof, on a cot, with a mosquito bar around him; thus, the camp protects the safari guests from nature while allowing them to enjoy the performance of adventure.
The Cots
The cots symbolize intimacy—or its absence—and sexual experience. Wilson's need for a double cot—in contrast to the Macombers' single ones—reveals that his "international, fast" female clients expect sex with their guide, viewing it as part of the adventure they purchased. Thus, the cot prompts Wilson's critique of the faithlessness and coldness of his wealthy clients.
In contrast, Macomber's cot highlights his inexperience and his loneliness. While lying on his cot at night, he first hears the lion’s roar and feels both alone and afraid, unable to speak with his wife about his emotions. He sleeps in a separate cot from his wife, demonstrating their lack of physical intimacy. Hours after his humiliation upon fleeing the lion, Macomber lies awake on his cot for two hours in the middle of the night, staring at his wife’s empty cot, as he realizes she is in Wilson's bed.
Related Titles
By Ernest Hemingway
Featured Collections
American Literature
View Collection
Books on U.S. History
View Collection
Fate
View Collection
Fear
View Collection
Guilt
View Collection
Loyalty & Betrayal
View Collection
Marriage
View Collection
Nobel Laureates in Literature
View Collection
Pride & Shame
View Collection
Safety & Danger
View Collection