The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber bull herself. If this is the case, she wins back her power, but ironically, she destroys the thing she is trying to control. The bullet accomplishes exactly what she was trying to avoid. "The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber" has been acclaimed as one of Hemingway's most successful artistic achievements. This is largely due to the ambiguous complexity of its characters and their motivations, and the debate this ambiguity has generated. In the estimation of critic Kenneth G. Johnston, "the prevailing critical view is that she deliberately—or at best, 'accidentally on purpose'—murdered him", but there are many, including Johnston
Book censorship in the United States of World War I, and the story of the two lovers, Frederic Henry and Catherine Barkley, includes graphic details of a childbirth gone awry. This story strays greatly from traditionalist literature, the majority of American literature at the time, which depicted good prevailing over evil. Some cities, including Boston, banned "A Farewell to Arms" in 1929, labeling the book "salacious." In addition, Boston in the 1920s censored other novels such as "The American Mercury", "Elmer Gantry", "An American Tragedy", "Strange Interlude", and "Lady Chatterley’s Lover". The rise of censorship in Boston aroused local opposition. The Harvard Crimson in 1929 wrote,