2 lessonplan: Indian Camp & The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber

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1 2 lessonplan: Indian Camp & The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber 1. Lesson: - Homework for this lesson: read Indian Camp + choose certain parts of interest to discuss in class - Possible topics: masculinity turn of a typically female act in a female space into a male-dominated situation, suicide, stoicism,... - Aim: students have the opportunity to talk about what they are interested in, make students aware of critical thinking - Backup: teacher gives some information on Ernest Hemingway, if necessary - Homework: depending on level of class let them read a part or the whole short story Francis Macomber 2. Lesson: - Ask one two students for a summary of what they read - Then, every student reads a small passage reading exercise - Next, the teacher gives a certain passage which is to be discussed in class - After this, students in groups of 4-5 choose a passage of their choice and present it to the class - At the end teacher asks class to compare Indian Camp with Francis Macomber what seems to be common in Hemingway s short stories?

2 What expectations do the titles (Indian Camp, One Night Last Summer), cover images, and editions (In Our Time, The Nick Adams Stories) raise? Which one would you choose? character: two Indians, Nick, father, Uncle George, Indian lady, old woman, men, husband, baby; who speaks? setting: USA, 1924?, early morning (dark), dawn, sunny morning linear plot: reading > understanding perspective: focalizer (see: young Nick) and narrator (tell: older Nick?); childhood experience haunting the adult? style: parataxis, the instead of a, fragmented, jumpy, juvenile, coordination (no subordination, no emphasis) Fachdidaktik II FS 2011 iceberg theory: crux of the story lies below the surface. What is the reader (not) told? life - death, (un-) conscious, read - interpret, (in-)visible, language - thoughts, form - function, character s present - past/future, action (what) - motive (why) theme: birth/life and death, innocence - initiation - experience, acquisition of knowledge, death (not) entering the world, Adam (and Eve), Nick Adams

3 Indian Camp / One Night Last Summer The Nick Adams Stories / In Our Time

4 Ernest Hemingway Indian Camp Fachdidaktik II FS 2011 setting character plot perspective theme style paratactic style parataxis For example: (from Greek for beside arrangement ) The arrangement of sentences or clauses in coordinate rather than subordinate constructions. At the lake shore there was another rowboat drawn up. The two Indians stood waiting. (NOT: Another rowboat was drawn up at the lake shore where the two Indians stood waiting.)

5 movie: lion 35:00-41:50 (p.8-19) setting: Africa, (high) noon, safari Fachdidaktik II FS 2011 movie: buffalo 1:08: 47-1:17:20 (p.17-20) character representtation of Macomber, Margot, Robert Wilson in the movie? from movie to text/ group work task: close reading of selected passages movie: Macomber rabbit 46:06-49:38 Hemingway biography plot: represented through dialogue, implicit (not explicit), analepsis (flashback) perspective: narrator withholding certain information symbols: animals, lion, characters seating positions style: hypotaxis, long-winded sentences, passages of dialogue iceberg theory: crux of the story lies below the surface. life - death, character s present - past/future, action (what) - motive (why); fill out iceberg sheet in class theme: cowardice, courage, life and death, gracefully hero s task to face their own mortality, life in the presence of death, adultery; personalising task

6 Passages to be discussed: The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber - His wife had been through with him before but it never lasted. He was very wealthy, and would be much wealthier, and he knew she would not leave him ever now. That was one of the few things that he really knew. He knew about that, about motorcycles that was earliest about motor cars, about duck-shooting, about fishing, trout, salmon and big-sea, about sex in books, many books, too many books, about all court games, about dogs, not much about horses, about hanging on to his money, about most of the other things his world dealt in, and about his wife not leaving him. His wife had been a great beauty and she was still a great beauty in Africa, but she was not a great enough beauty any more at home to be able to leave him and better herself and she knew it and he knew it. She had missed the chance to leave him and he knew it. If he had been better with women she would probably have started to worry about him getting another new, beautiful wife; but she knew too much about him to worry about him either.... Margot was too beautiful for Macomber to divorce her and Macomber had too much money for Margot ever to leave him. (page 11) - At the end of that time his wife came into the tent, lifted her mosquito bar and crawled cozily into bed. Where have you been? Macomber asked in the darkness. Hello, she said. Are you awake? Where have you been? I just went out to get a breath of air. You did, like hell. What do you want me to say, darling? Where have you been? Out to get a breath of air. That s a new name for it. You are a bitch. Well, you re coward. All right, he said. What of it? Nothing as far as I m concerned. But please let s not talk, darling, because I m very sleepy. You think that I ll take anything. I know you will, sweet. Well, I won t. Please, darling, let s not talk. I m so very sleepy. There wasn t going to be any of that. You promised there wouldn t be. Well, there is now, she said sweetly. You said if we made this trip that there would be none of that. You promised. Yes, darling. That s the way I meant it to be. But the trip was spoiled yesterday. We don t have to talk about it, do we? You don t wait long when you have an advantage, do you? Please let s not talk. I m so sleepy, darling. I m going to talk. Don t mind me then, because I m going to sleep. And she did. (page 12) - Thanks, yes, Macomber said. He expected the feeling he had had about the lion to come back but it did not. For the first time in his life he really felt wholly without fear. Instead of fear he had a feeling of definite elation. (page 16) Tasks: 1. Read the passages and summarise them in your own words. 2. How would you describe the relationship of the Macombers? 3. At the end of the story, Hemingway leaves it open whether Francis Macomber was accidentally or intentionally killed by his wife. What do you make of it taking these passages into account?

7 Ernest Hemingway If a writer of prose knows enough of what he is writing about he may omit things that he knows and the reader, if the writer is writing truly enough, will have a feeling of those things as strongly as though the writer had stated them. The dignity of movement of an ice-berg is due to only one-eighth of it being above water. A writer who omits things because he does not know them only makes hollow places in his writing.

8 form character s language character s present life facts read conscious level action (what) death interpret unconscious level symbols function character s past/future motive (why) character s thoughts

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