In Our Time (short story collection) we are in hell." Hemingway conjures a world where "the weak are pitilessly exploited by the strong, and ... all functions of life ... promise only pain." Hemingway's semi-autobiographical character Nick Adams is "vital to Hemingway's career", writes Mellow, and generally his character reflects Hemingway's experiences. Nick, who features in eight of the stories, is an alter ego, a means for Hemingway to express his own experiences, from the first story '"Indian Camp" which features Nick as a child. According to critic Howard Hannum, the trauma of birth and suicide Hemingway paints in "Indian Camp" rendered a leitmotif that gave
The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber the omniscient narrator’s. Her motivations are more often narrated by Wilson, the great white hunter, who thinks very little of her, except for her beauty and her sexuality when she is quiet. Her spoken dialogue is often minimized by both Macomber and Wilson. Like the trophy prey they hunt, Margot's expressiveness is cast by her audibility and visuality. Margot’s characterization centers on the “femme-fatale” paradigm—the beautiful, sexual, adulterous and murdering wife. Ironic, as she is Francis’ trophy wife. The next day the party hunts buffalo. Macomber and Wilson hunt together and shoot three buffalo. Two of the buffalo are killed,