In the following brief essay, Bell argues that the character of Wilson in "The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber" is a man who lives by the moral code of the hunter, which explains his actions towards Margot at the end of the story.

Ernest Hemingway's story "The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber" is often taught in both high school and college classrooms because it is a good story, one that appeals at one and the same time to the Hemingway scholar as well as to youth in general. As widely read and as widely taught as it is, though, it is often misunderstood and misinterpreted by both teachers and students alike with regard to Robert Wilson's treatment of Margot Macomber at the very end of the story.

As Hemingway sees it, one very important aspect of the code of the professional hunter is that he...