The Snows of Kilimanjaro �The Snows of Kilimanjaro� written by Ernest Hemingway starts out in Africa where a couple is resting in a tent. Harry, the protagonist, is suffering from gangrene which, he has caught in the bush. The story revolves around his relationship with his cash-filled lover and a reflection on the past while powerful symbolism provides depth to each old story. The antagonist can be seen as death or lifestyle regrets, but ultimately Harry dies while the gangrene spreads at the end, but he has a vision of flying over Africa and finally Kilimanjaro. The story chews about the idea of our satisfaction or dissatisfaction at the time of our deaths and the mystery of the experience as a whole.

One of the most important methods Hemingway uses in this story to reveal his message is symbolism. Ernest Hemingway is not only known for his symbolism he even has his own theory on it. In �The Short Stories of Ernest Hemingway: Critical Essays� by Benson, Gennaro Santangelo writes, �Hemingway�s �iceburg� theory has often caused critical confusion readings of the short stories.�(250) This style greatly goes along with the �The Snows of Kilimanjaro� as at first glance we see a man dying, but at a second look we see what makes people truly happy rather than mere comfort. His line from the first page of the story gives a taste of mystery and curiosity, �Close to the western summit there is the dried and frozen carcass of a leopard. No one has explained what the leopard was seeking at that altitude.� At first it seems strange to begin the story with a fact like that, but it definitely gets your mind thinking from the very beginning and many others have analyzed this aspect of the story itself. The symbol seems to convey accomplishment and a satisfied life. The animal may have died, but it reached an altitude never performed. It shows a need for fame that some people desire before they die. On E-notes they speak about this fame in their section of major themes, �the leopard's preserved corpse suggests the possibility of permanence through fame�� Also the leopard�s death summarizes Harry�s death in the way that they sought achievement, but ultimately died. Harry on the other hand lacked the ability to achieve the immortality that the leopard did. Also they both went to Kilimanjaro in the end, but Harry�s was either a dream or a spiritual adventure while the leopard accomplished the venture in the physical world. At the same time the quote from the story also promotes the mystery of death as a whole. On the last page a quote seems to coincide with this one in the way they bring up two polar opposites when Hemingway states, �Outside the tent the hyena made the same strange noise that had awakened her. But she did not hear him for the beating of her heart.� The hyena symbolizes the common life. Their achievements are outshined by the routine of living. They go on unappreciated, but can still live a satisfactory life. So there is a faint question it seems to have created, is it more advised to live life in a fun and exciting way or to live it to promote your immortality and influence on the world? These are not to be confused with a selfish or selfless living as both can have selfish and selfless points. These two symbols lit up brighter than any other symbol to me as they describe the theme of the story with just two animals. While others have a different view on the hyena�s symbolism, it still correlates to the mortality of the animal rather than the immortality of the leopard. In �The Hero in Hemingway�s Short Stories� by Joseph DeFalco, Falco states, �The buzzards and hyena function as the two natural symbols of death.� Also in �Ernest Hemingway� by Earl Rovit & Gerry Brenner, it says, ��into which the glow of the campfire in �Snows of Kilimanjaro� into which the hyena and death will creep,�(98) which again connects the hyena to symbolize the mortal side of life. The simple life so to speak that Harry has been living under the influence of money. All in all Harry bears much more resemblance to the hyena in the end with Harry dying a much less noble death than the leopard and his gangrene resembling the deathly stench of a hyena.

These decisions come up elsewhere and Harry has decided the common life. Even though Harry has money and lives a life of luxury, he has strayed away from his creative pursuits and writing. In �Short Stories of Ernest Hemingway: Critical Essays� edited by Jackson Benson, Benson writes, �Having given up to a luxurious way of life by marrying wealth and then growing into complete dependence on it, he has died artistically long before his physical death.� This idea is reinforced throughout by his frustration throughout with his caring lover who never really does anything wrong. Hemingway states Harry�s thought about Helen in a third person perspective about Helen on page seven, �She shot very well this good, this rich bitch, this kindly caretaker and destroyer of his talent.� Then Hemingway admits immediately after, �Nonsense. He had destroyed his talent himself. Why should he blame this woman because she kept him well?� His real frustration is the fact he wasted his talent and he is looking for someone or something to blame even though it is his fault. It also shows that he does not truly love her. He has created a relationship based on the dependence of sex and money. Genarro Santangelo also writes in �Dark Snows of Kilimajaro� (from �The Short Stories of Ernest Hemingway: Critical Essays�), ��love involves pain and misunderstanding, sex a tool for financial ease and superficial harmony.� (252)This is yet another factor that has been upsetting to him in the way he has lived his life. Since so much of the story has been about Hemingway himself the woman he is frustrated with has been related to his second wife, which was a marriage that made him very unhappy. Basically, he does not want to come to terms with that because he is near death and is not able to change that fact. In �The Hero in Hemingway�s Short Stories�, DeFalco describes Harry�s situation as follows; �The form of the story is that of the traditional lament for a lost life.� (207). Also, Genarro Santangelo writes in his essay from �The Short Stories of Ernest Hemingway: Critical Essays�, ��although Harry has failed as a writer because of moral delinquencies, and there is no longer any chance for professional redemption, he is morally redeemed and finally reasserted the full force of his talented and superior personality. Conversely, there are serious doubts about the quality of this self-realization�� (251) Santangelo�s quote brings up the ambiguity of the ending is he redeemed or damned?

The physical setting also plays a major role in the short story, especially the Africa aspect. Harry likes Africa because it�s an escape from his life of luxury with Helen. In the story Hemingway states, �Africa was where he had been happiest in the good time of his life, so he had come here to start again. They had made this safari with the minimum of comfort.� (7) He also continues on his recent actions to turn his life around and remove the laziness from his life, �That in some way he could work the fat off his soul the way a fighter went into the mountains to work and train in order to burn it out of his body.�(7) Sadly Harry was unsuccessful in his attempts and was bedridden to continue his life of comfort rather than immortality and creation, although the ending�s ambiguity can change this assumption. Santangelo questions in �The Short Stories of Ernest Hemingway�, �Do the mountains represent clean salvation and the plains stinking damnation?� (251) When Hemingway describes Harry�s death he states, ��all he could see , as wide as all the world, great, high, and unbelievably white in the sun, was the square top of Kilimanjaro. And then he knew that there was where he was going.� (18) It seemed to very much resemble where he thought he was going, but it was not physical as Helen found him dead at the camp in his cot.

The social setting also plays a major role. Their safari in Africa was said to be �with minimum comfort� (7), but looking at small aspects of the story it reveals they are surely still clinging on to a small amount of luxury. Harry says, �Molo!�� �Bring whiskey-soda.�(3) which implies that they have a servant that brings them drinks proving that their �minimum comfort� (7) still contains servants, a luxury most of us do not have. At the time it also brings up questions about the morality of the social setting at the time. At the time the land was a British colony and the black people in the area were still considered subordinate to whites on vacation. This is supported by Debra S. Moddelmog�s essay, �Re-placing Africa in �The Snows of Kilimanjaro�: The Intersecting Economies of Capitalist-Imperialism and Hemingway Biography� which states, �The black, African servant is always in the background, coming into sight only when Harry or Helen calls to him, their voices carrying the authority of command.�(122) Moddelmog continues, �Reflected in this dynamic is the economy of a colonial situation in which, to quote David Spur, �one race holds, however provisionally and uneasily, authority over another�(14).� (122) This subject brings up the thought that Harry and Helen�s comfortable life ensues condescension on another race causing an uncomfortable life for others. This social setting implies that it is wrong to live this way. This lifestyle gives nothing to society except the money given to servants to help them survive. They are purely consumers without creative production. Hemingway puts a lot of effort into showing the dangers of a lazy rich life almost to the point of hatred for the rich. There isn�t much irony in the story itself, but when you connect it with Hemingway�s life at the time there is a significant irony in the story. At the time the story was written Hemingway wasn�t producing much artistic material as he had in the past. In �New Essays on Hemingway�s Short Fiction� they state, �Similarly, Gennaro Santangelo writes that the �ultimate irony� of �Snows� is that the achieved story itself denies its possible premises for in contrast to Harry�s lack of discipline and his fakery, Hemingway has dedicated himself to his craft and has written �a great work�(261). � (112) Also to back up this claim the same source quoted what Hemingway supposedly said to A. E. Hotchner, �Never wrote so directly about myself as in that story� (112). While the main irony lies in the connection of the story to the author there are other ironies in the story such as final scene of his flight through the plains of Africa and Kilimanjaro. The fact that scene may be merely a dream while he departs is ironic that his lost life he has lived can also be interpreted as merely a dream. ��or the ride is only a dream, an ironic counterpart to his wasted life.� (251). Quoted from Gennaro Santangelo in his essay, �The Dark Snows of Kilimanjaro� from the book �The Short Stories of Ernest Hemingway: Critical Essays�.

This story brings up many interesting questions about life. It seems to argue against the materialistic life Harry has chosen and how only at death will you realize your lack of accomplishments. Only in a story about death is the meaning of one�s life discussed and Hemingway did a great job using his �iceburg� theory to show a man dying at the tip and his whole life beneath the waves. Also in that life whether to choose comfort over greatness or just creation over lazy enjoyment in life itself is a big question for us all and we think about it even more at the urgency of death knocking on our door. While we may choose enjoying life, only at death will we find that what we truly needed was creation.

Work writen by editor Vanessa at essaysamurai.co.uk