The readings for this week were “The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber” and various poems by Emily Dickinson such as “Tell all the truth but tell it slant,” “Success is Counted Sweetest,” “I heard a Fly buzz—when I died,” and “Because I could not stop for death.” All of the readings, “The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber was my favorite. I thought it was very humorous to the way things turned out when Francis tried to change his ways.
In “The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber,” the main characters are on a hunt in the safari. The main characters Francis, his wife Margaret (referred to as “Margot”) and their tour guide on the hunt Robert Wilson. Earlier in the day, Francis becomes scared of a lion and his wife mocks him for being a coward. She basically tests him as she walks away from their tent and goes to Wilson’s tent at night to sleep with him instead. In the morning, Francis decides to become a new man and rejects his cowardice ways in the effort to win back his wife and prove to himself that he is not a coward. He and Wilson hunt buffalo that day and after killing two of the buffalo, he is filled with confidence and his ego is greatly boosted. Going on nothing but adrenaline he tracks one of the buffalo he wounded before and it begins to charge him. Instead of running away he stands his ground and shoots at the buffalo, but keeps missing. Wilson shoots the buffalo and finally Francis kills it but Margot misses and shoots Francis from the car.
In the end Francis’ courage worked against him because he foolishly tried to impress his wife by showing her newfound courage and it backfired completely as she ended up shooting him on “accident.” Maybe she shot him on purpose because she was sick of the way that he was acting like. It is one of the great mysteries of this short story that only through personal interpretation that somebody could form an opinion.
In the poem “Success is counted sweetest,” Dickinson writes of success and the human interpretation of it. Success to those who don’t succeed Dickinson says is sweeter when it’s not always taken for granted like it usually is to those who succeed. People who rarely succeed enjoy the sweetness of success when it comes to them because it is their chance to feel happy about something.
“Tell the truth but tell it slant” talks about how the blatant truth is blinding to us humans. Truth cannot be revealed all at once because it is too complicated for us to understand all at once. As we grow older we must find our purpose in life, rather than it given to us. It makes the discovery of who we are as a person that much more exciting.
“I heard a fly buzz when I died” starts with the speaker lying on her deathbed and thinking about her life. The only thing that is bringing her in some sort of reality of her life on earth is the sound of a fly buzzing over her head. It is the last thing she can hear before she ends up dying as the light fades away from her windows.
The last poem by Dickinson “Because I could not stop for Death,” is about how the speaker isn’t ready to die or go to death. She does not realize that death isn’t an option and it can sneak up on you. Everything happens for a reason and you need to the make the best of your opportunities before death picks you up and takes you away.
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