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The Short Happy Life of Mr. F. Macomber” by E. Hemingway and “The Married Woman” from The Second Sex by Simon de Beauvoir.
“The second sex”, as was documented by de Beauvoir, presents a revolutionary and incendiary piece that outlines the history of humans from a feminist perspective. From de Beauvoir’s content, a woman is presented as the fiddle to the male gender (Hemingway, 2). He primarily crafts the thesis of the story such that it addresses the issue that men are fundamentally oppressors of women in the society as if it is a doctrine that forever women are destined to be second after men and submissive to the men (Hemingway, 5). de Beauvoir title the ” The second sex” resonates with the plot and the context of the writings expressing the women’s oppression by men and characterizing women at every level as others in an exclusively opposite manner as men are identified (Beauvoir, 517). Man is presented as absolutely essential and transcendent, assuming the role of the self and subject. At the same time, women are portrayed as the inessential, mutilated, and incomplete and viewed as the object, the other. Man has total authority; without restriction, he can freely extend out into the world and act at his own will while women are doomed to inwardness and immanence. On the other hand, Hemingway, in the short happy life of Mr. Macomber” presents another perspective quite different from de Beauvoir’s feminism in “second sex.” Hemingway introduces the story with Mr. Macomber as the week gender, a coward scared by a lion, while Margaret, Macomber’s wife, is devastated by the act and thinks of his husband as a lesser man.
In comparison, both Hemingway in his “The Short Life of Mr. Macomber” and de Beauvoir’s “The second sex” in the persona and the perceived feminism and hyper-masculinity are the limiting factors the utility of the contemporary gender theory. Therefore, this argumentative synthesis focuses on proving to analyze both contents to prove that women and men of such (de Beauvoir and Hemingway) fiction dilate and cover the concept and superposition of how both genders react and behave heterosexist hierarchy.
Hemingway depicts a complex inter-marital situation between married couples that is gradually fading out of marital integrity. In the context of the story, it is notable that there are two exaggerated and distinct judgments of Mr. Macomber and his wife, Margaret. Though most of Hemingway’s characters perceive Mr. Macomber as a hero, Robert Wilson, who has first-hand information of what happened to Mr. Macomber, has a complete perception of the couples. Robert’s monolog reduces both Margaret and Francis to a mere presentation of his perception of American behavior. Mr. Macomber’s temerity and cowardice trait mark him as “the great American boy-men” (Beauvoir 526). In contrast, Margret’s promiscuity and boldness lump her just like other women taking part in a grand scheme of “American female cruelty” (Beauvoir, 510). Robert makes these comments based on his occasional observations on most American couples. Robert complicates the gender binary by his dissimilarities to either female or male figures. Acknowledging Robert’s thoughts, we identify dueling masculinity in how he diminishes Margaret’s close to madness point (Hemingway, 11). Another aspect presented by Hemingway is that Margret is introduced as a character of beauty. In the ancient society, women were only reorganized for beauty and not by what they could do in the capacity as women, “She was an extremely handsome and well-kept woman of the beauty and social position which had, five years before, commanded five thousand dollars as the price of endorsing, with photographs, a beauty product which she had never used” (Beauvoir, 506). This description only shows that Margaret earned her position in society because of her appearance. In reality, she was courageous, and through her commitment, she managed to attain financial independence.
On the other hand, “The Second Sex” by de Beauvoir presents a foundation of contemporary gender theories. The story is focused on the dismissal and deconstruction of the cultural gender imperatives in entire Europe. In the structure of the story, de Beauvoir organizes his content in three sections; destiny, history, and myths, where his exploration portrays the system of reproductive slavery directed towards women. Another theme presented here is the disappointing depiction of womanhood in the context of the western world. According to de Beauvoir’s thoughts, it is clear that even though culture absorbs and present gender as a polar two-party system, the immovability of the concept is what prevents the propagation of the feminism concept (Beauvoir, 577). Relating the content of the story with the contemporary world, feminism and masculinity are systematically used to depict women as the second sex after men.
For instance, most publications often use man to refer to humanity (human beings), with women only used to express negativity. Beauvoir presents advocacy of the emancipation of womanhood and loosening of the grid categories in which society perceives gender bodies, “the emancipated woman, on the contrary, wants to be active, a taker, and refuses the passivity man means to impose on her. The ‘modern’ woman accepts masculine values: she prides herself on thinking, taking action, working, creating, on the same terms as men; instead of seeking to disparage them, she declares herself their equal” Both Beauvoir and Hemingway’s work in explicit addresses the most pertinent issue that had engulfed the European space for a long period, the gender inequality and male chauvinism that was attributed to racism (Hemingway, 17). The two philosophies have proved to be fundamental in articulating gender disparity issues. They have attracted wide and extensive applications in forming the root foundation for many works on gender and binary systems.
The two works tackle sensitive issues that revolve around gender and feminism, which has sparked mixed reactions whenever a discussion is hosted on them. Though male chauvinism and gender inequality have been a challenge for centuries, little progress has been made to resolve the issue. “The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber” outlines a rich text full of important insights into the kind of life of a married couple. Lesions derived from the story is that most “perfect marriages” at times are misleading (Hemingway, 19). This is exposed to Robert, Margaret, and Francis’s relationship that revealed dysfunctional grasps for power through manipulation. Just as in contemporary society, Margaret attempts to emasculate Francis leads her in fornication with the safari guide. While perceiving the content in connection with de Beauvoir cultural theory in his “The Second Sex,” I gleaned a deeper understanding of the purpose of killing in the texts, for Margaret the restrictions and societal notions that restricted her from emasculating Francis for a prolonged period overwhelmed her due to the outdated system restriction on gender binaries. And the shooting of Francis by Margaret serves as the ultimate achievement of emancipation and rejection of male chauvinism.
Works Cited
Beauvoir, Simone de. “The second sex.” 2011. 504-594
Hemingway, Ernest. The short stories of Ernest Hemingway. Simon and Schuster, 1995, 1-20