Critical Analysis of Hemingway's The Snows of Kilamanjaro: Death and Dying

Famous American writer Ernest Hemingway is known for his almost stoic attitude toward death. He believed that every man's life ends in the same way; the difference is in how they lived. In "The Snows of Kilimanjaro," the main character is dying from the very beginning of the story. Unfortunately, he has not lived in a way that makes his death any easier. He has "sold out" for money and traded his talents and skills. Therefore, Hemingway's' short story, "The Snows of Kilimanjaro" is not only filled with recurrent images of death but death's presence overshadows the entire story as Harry slowly rots away from gangrene.

Death is shown largely through symbolism. The white, mysterious mountain of Kilimanjaro is one symbol. From the very beginning, the reader is told that the native call the mountain "The House of God." And so it will become the final resting place for Harry as he continues to rot away with gangrene. If the frozen leopard is a symbol of the entrance to heaven, then it makes sense that Harry would spend his last days on earth passing judgment on himself. "No one has explained what the leopard was seeking at that altitude" (Hemingway). In this way it remains mysterious as does the ending of the story.

The reader never really knows if the peak of the mountain is heaven or hell. The snow-capped mountain could certainly stand for sterile death, but the whiteness of it could also stand for heaven. He leaves earth and travels through a dark rainstorm with a bright light at the end. Kilimanjaro is only described as "wide as all the world, great, high, and unbelievably white in the sun" (Hemingway). All the reader comes away with is the mystery of death, especially with Hemingway using that whole dreamlike sequence at the end of the story. He slips into a coma and his friend Compton arrives to get him help. However, the reader does know that the story ends in death because of the double ending where the woman finds Harry dead.

The whiteness of the snow both on Kilimanjaro and interspersed into his other reveries as well is a symbol. Of course, white stands for innocence and purity. However, in the italicized part of this story are the stories that Harry never told. In these stories the snow is dirtied in some way. This stands for the fact that Harry has never written all the stories he wanted to write. As Harry tells the reader, "Now he would never write the things that he had saved to write until he knew enough to write them well. Well, he would not have to fail at trying to write them either. Maybe you could never write them, and that was why you put them off and delayed the starting. Well he would never know, now" (Hemingway). His purity is dirtied by the fact that he sold his talent out for money and comfort. As a result of not using his talent, he says that he stinks. "It was a talent all right but instead of using it, he had traded on it.

It was never what he had done, but always what he could do. And he had chosen to make his living with something else instead of a pen or a pencil" (Hemingway). Of course this must condemnation of himself must be taken both literally and figuratively since he is rotting as well. So, maybe the rot coming from his leg symbolizes the very moral decay that led him here. In fact, the very idea that he doesn't not suffer this slow-death may be a figurative way of saying that everything good about Harry was already dead. He gets almost nonchalant about his death as he contemplates his life. "So now it was all over, he thought. So now he would never have a chance to finish it. So this was the way it ended, in a bickering over a drink. Since the gangrene started in his right leg he had no pain and with the pain the horror had gone and all he felt now was a great tiredness and anger that this was the end of it" (Hemingway).

The hyena that hovers throughout the story is another symbol. Hyenas are traditional symbols of death since they feed on the dead bodies of animals and occasionally people. The woman actually goes out to kill the hyena, telling Harry that she doesn't want to disturb wildlife when clearly she does not want to disturb her dying husband with yet another image of death. The hyena, as a scavenger and sure symbol of death contrasts with the frozen leopard, which may be a symbol of heaven. However the hyena wakes the woman up to tell her of Harry's death. "Just then the hyena stopped whimpering in the night and started to make a strange, human, almost crying sound. The woman heard it and, stirred uneasily" (Hemingway). She awakens and shines a flashlight to find Harry dead.

Throughout the story, the symbols are repeated in different ways. The story begins with death and ends with death. Mount Kilimanjaro may symbolize heaven or hell in its ambiguity, but it is definitely the final resting place of Harry. The whiteness is also a double-edged symbol. White is purity, but where white is sullied, it represents all the failings of Harry. Lastly, the hyena is the symbol of death and the very presence that lets the woman know of Harry's death. This is contrasted with the frozen leopard on the mountain. Harry's physical death runs parallel to his reminiscing about his life and detailing his spiritual and professional death. The ambiguity of the symbols leaves the reader guessing, but the wasteland of Harry's life is certain.

Works Cited

Hemingway, Ernest, "The Snows of Kilimanjaro."