Ernest Hemingway's life and literary works
Is Ernest Hemingway a misogynist, a woman hater? Whenever one discusses Hemingway, his personal life, his literary works, this question inevitable pops up in the conversation. While it's a fascinating question, one that's fun to discuss from time to time, it's ultimately a reductive pursuit. It's reductive for two reasons (a) one can never truly know what's in another person's heart, (b) the purpose of great literature is not to provide one with answers about the author's convictions, but to raise questions that challenge the reader's convictions.
To cut to the chase, Hemingway's short story "The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber" doesn't reveal how Hemingway feels about women, it ultimately asks the reader how he/she feels about women. In short, it can be considered a Rorschach test for the reader on the subject of misogyny. It is the purpose of this paper to examine the way in which Hemingway forces the reader to question his/her perspective of women as well as the dynamic between men and women.