Short Stories of Ernest Hemingway Lesson Plan

How do threats feature in these stories? In what ways do threats help define the outlines of character and plot?

In both stories read for Day 1, threat and the response to threat play central roles in the action and help define characters. This is especially true in “Short Happy Life,” whose central theme is the ‘happiness’ found in conquering fear of the threat posed by big game. The tension of “Short Happy Life” rests on the mutual threat that the hunter and prey pose to each other. Students can consider the nature of these respective threats and their legitimacy as mortal dangers in view of the power imbalance between game hunter and animal. They can also think about the...