The Snows of Kilimanjaro by Ernest Hemingway
"The Snows of Kilimanjaro" is a short story by Ernest Hemingway that explores themes of mortality, regret, and the complexities of relationships. The narrative centers on a writer named Harry, who is experiencing a life-threatening infection while trapped in a remote location near Mount Kilimanjaro, Africa's highest mountain. Alongside his wealthy wife, Helen, who is devoted to him, Harry grapples with feelings of guilt and anger stemming from his failure to pursue his writing career and his deteriorating relationship with Helen.
As Harry's physical condition worsens due to untreated gangrene, the story delves into his memories and reflections, revealing his internal struggles and disdain for the comfortable life Helen has provided. Their interactions highlight a combative dynamic, marked by Harry's contempt for Helen and women in general. The urgency of their situation is underscored by their isolation and the hope for rescue, which ultimately proves to be illusory. The story concludes with a poignant moment of realization for Helen as she confronts the inevitability of Harry's death, encapsulated by a haunting scene with a hyena's howl, symbolizing the cycle of life and death.
On this Page
The Snows of Kilimanjaro by Ernest Hemingway
First published: 1936
Type of plot: Psychological
Time of work: The late 1920's or early 1930's
Locale: Tanganyika near the Kenya border, close to Mount Kilimanjaro
Principal Characters:
Harry Walden , an American writerHelen , his rich American wife
The Story
As the story opens, the speaker, later identified as Harry, is proclaiming that something is painless. It soon reveals that Harry and his wife, Helen, are encamped somewhere near Mount Kilimanjaro, which, at nearly twenty thousand feet, is Africa's highest mountain. An epigraph at the beginning of the story, before the action is under way, describes the snow-capped mountain, mentioning that the name for its western summit is translated from the local Masai language as the House of God.
Extensive dialogue at the beginning of the story reveals that the speakers, husband and wife, have a combative relationship. Harry has ceased to be in love with Helen, although she adores him. In Harry's dialogue, one quickly detects a deep-seated underlying anger and a contempt for not just Helen but all women. Indeed, Harry feels and expresses guilt about the deterioration of his relationship with his wife, who has quite willingly put her considerable fortune at Harry's disposal. The rub is that the comfortable life that Helen has provided seems to have robbed Harry of the motivation he needs to write. Harry and Helen have left their superficial rich friends behind in Paris, where they are pursuing their inconsequential lives. Harry toys with idea of writing about the idle rich, viewing himself as a sort of spy in their territory.
It is soon revealed that Harry is on his deathbed, suffering from gangrene that is moving rapidly from his lower legs to other parts of his body. He and Helen, along with their African servant, Molo, are stranded in this remote part of Tanganyika because an inept driver failed to check the oil in their truck, causing it to burn out a bearing and become inoperable. Their only hope now is that a plane will land on their compound and fly Harry to a medical facility.
Harry has gangrene because he ignored a thorn prick to his knee some days earlier. As his wound festered and became swollen, he treated it with a mild solution of carbolic acid, which proved to be too little too late. The gangrene kept one step ahead of Harry's attempts to thwart its progress.
Throughout the story, Harry vacillates between consciousness and unconsciousness. His conscious periods become shorter and shorter. Unconsciousness reveries of his past fill his mind and reveal a great deal about his past. The passages during the unconscious state are printed in italics except for the one very near the end in which Harry hallucinates about the plane coming to rescue him.
As it turns out, Harry's illusion of the plane is just that: an illusion. In the end, Helen has Harry's cot carried into their tent. Before long, she tries to rouse him but cannot. She becomes aware that his breathing has stopped, just as a hyena, a carnivore that feeds on dead animals, howls outside their tent.
Bibliography
Benson, Jackson J., ed. New Critical Approaches to the Short Stories of Ernest Hemingway. Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press, 1990.
Berman, Ronald. Fitzgerald, Hemingway, and the Twenties. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 2001.
Bloom, Harold, ed. Ernest Hemingway. Philadelphia: Chelsea House, 2005.
Burgess, Anthony. Ernest Hemingway. New York: Thames and Hudson, 1999.
Flora, Joseph M. Ernest Hemingway: A Study of the Short Fiction. Boston: Twayne, 1989.
Hays, Peter L. Ernest Hemingway. New York: Continuum, 1990.
Hotchner, A. E. Papa Hemingway: A Personal Memoir. New ed. New York: Carroll & Graf, 1999.
Meyers, Jeffrey. Hemingway: A Biography. 1985. Reprint. New York: Da Capo Press, 1999.
Padura Fuentes, Leonardo. Adiós Hemingway. Translated by John King. New York: Canongate, 2005.
Reynolds, Michael. The Young Hemingway. New York: Blackwell, 1986.
Reynolds, Michael. Hemingway: The Paris Years. New York: Blackwell, 1989.
Reynolds, Michael. Hemingway: The Homecoming. New York: W. W. Norton, 1999.
Reynolds, Michael. Hemingway: The 1930's. New York: W. W. Norton, 1997.
Reynolds, Michael. Hemingway: The Final Years. New York: W. W. Norton, 1999.
Rovit, Earl, and Arthur Waldhorn, eds. Hemingway and Faulkner in Their Time. New York: Continuum, 2005.
Wagner-Martin, Linda, ed. Hemingway: Seven Decades of Criticism. East Lansing: Michigan State University Press, 1998.