The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber in hours, and indeed even in minutes. Hemingway biographer Carlos Baker claims that Macomber loses his fear as the buffalo charges, and the loss of fear ushers Macomber into manhood, which Margot instantly kills. Baker believes Wilson symbolizes the man free of woman (because he refuses to allow Margot to dominate him) or of fear; the man Macomber wishes to be. Wilson understands, as he blasts the lion dead, that Margot is a woman who needs to be dominated. Jeffrey Meyers considers Margot Macomber to be the villain of the story. She characterises "a predatory (rather than a passive) female
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,