he 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. (18)This conflict becomes an external one when Margot sleeps with Wilson and Macomber is awake when she returns, and they begin to fight:"Where have you been?""Out to get a fresh breath of air.""That's a new name for it. You are a bitch.""Well you're a coward.""There wasn't going to be any of that. You promised there wouldn't be.""Well there is now." She said sweetly. (19)The conflict lies deeper then just with his wife; there is also conflict between Macomber and Wilson. Wilson is a man's man. He provides a direct contrast to Macomber. On the surface he understands women and is not afraid of wild animals, but deeper he has earned all of his possessions and success in life. He has worked hard for his living, and earned respect, something that Macomber lacks, even from his wife. When Macomber shoots the wounded buffalo he has overcome his fear, and for a moment shares a mutual respect with Wilson. As Richard Lehan said it in Hemingway In Our Time, "[Macomber] intuits the falsity of his past values and rejects the corrupting influence of civilization for the primitive vitality of the big-game hunt with its life-and-death consequences" (204) The confidence that filled him, propelled him in action, and may have also been enough to even make him leave his unfaithful wife. The reader never knows for sure though, since Margot kills him with one fatal bullet.Ambiguity is defined by Pickering as, "A word phrase, event, or situation that may be understood or interpreted in two or more ways, each valid in the immediate context" (1168). The ending leaves the reader wondering if the conflict between Margot and Macomber was such that it drove her to murder him, or if he had finally become the man she wanted and in a desperate attempt ...
