In life there are many obstacles a man must face that show as an ultimate test of bravery. Ernest Hemingway's short story "The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber" shows three examples of life's tests in which the title character must ultimately confront his fears. Frances Macomber is someone who allows himself to be the victim of mental abuse from obstacles such as an animal, his wife and a safari hunter. He chooses, in each case, to ignore or run away from the fear which captivates him and so he lives the life of the cowardly rich man who is not really even a man at all. .
During his sleep of the first night on their safari, Francis Macomber is wakened by the deep roars of a lion that seems to him to be just outside his tent. He lay awake frightened and listening while his wife sleeps peacefully. It would seem fair enough to be scared, even terrified of a lion's roar, but in this camp surely he"d have known that he was completely safe thanks to the many Swahili guardsman. On the next day's hunt for the beast Macomber is still frightened at a distance by even the sight of the lion before shooting it. The fear consumes him and destroyed the control of his hands and muscles making it barely possible for him to shoot. He must have forgotten that he was on safari with an over-priced, highly experienced hunter and two of his Swahili gun-bearers. When they began the rush on the lion the cowardly Macomber tries to convince Wilson that they do not need to kill it; that they should merely leave it be, wounded in the open range for the next set of unsuspecting hunters to be mauled by. .
His act of pure cowardice could have been simply an act of instinct, meaning that perhaps in his life time he has become accustomed to running away from his problems or simply choosing to ignore them completely. Through the course of this story there are hints that lead someone to believe that his wife, Margot, has frequently cheated on him in the past.