The short story, "The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber", focuses on the theme of the misanthropic characterization between the two sexes and the role reversal of husband and wife. This is a story about a rich man's fear when he must confront danger. Francis Macomber is thirty-five years-old, an adventurer who is in good shape. He is still young looking, good at sports, and likes to fish and hunt. However, while on an African safari one day, he hunts a lion and injures it, and the lion chases Macomber. Macomber then seems to break down as he, according to the narrator "[is] running; running wildly, in panic" (Hemmingway, 50). Margot, his wife, is appalled by her husband's dread, and makes fun of him in front of their guide Robert Wilson. That night she sleeps with Wilson, and she is confident that her husband will do nothing about it because she has done it before without his acknowledgement."The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber" focuses, among other things, on the misanthropic characterization of the sexes. In the story it is said that Francis Macomber is an adventurer who enjoy hunting, much like Hemingway did when he was a young boy. Before the safari and the lion, Macomber seems like he is a very active brave man, but breaks down in the face of danger. Margot Macomber mocks her husband openly by asking their guide, Robert William, if elands are dangerous. Hemingway tells us that she not as attractive as she once was and would not try to divorce him because of it. Instead what she does is sleep with other men, and this is allowed to occur because her husband does nothing about it. Although they are in this type of marriage, where they always argue and fight, you never hear any talk of divorce or leaving; Hemingway even comments, almost with a mocking attitude, by saying "they [are] known as a comparatively happily married couple" which is not true demonstrated by Margot's mocking attitude and "one of those whose disruption is often rumored but never occurs" (Mellow 442) which is also another lie because disruption occurs many times in the safari, demonstrated by Margot sleeping with Robert Wilson, the other character in this love triangle.
