The Snows of Kilimanjaro Free Essay Example, 1250 words

of the of the Concerned English 24 December The Snows of Kilimanjaro by Ernest Hemingway In the short story The Snows of Kilimanjaro, the writer Ernest Hemingway seems to be pursuing a stoic attitude towards death. The story tends to revolve around the memories of a writer named Harry and the stage of the story is set in an African safari. The writer in the story is awaiting a slow but sure death owing to an infected wound he suffered when he got his leg punctured by a thorn. Owing to the dearth of physical activity occurring from an injured and infected leg, the writer tends to divert his attention towards the inner aspects of his life. The thoughts of the writer are predominantly possesses by a disturbing lack of accomplishment in his primary vocation that is writing (Tyler 20). While doing so the memories of the writer shuttle continually between his past and present life. The very realization that he has been through and has experienced many amazing and brilliant things in his life is at the same time doused by a disturbing acknowledgment that he had done very litt le to transform these experiences into moving and lasting writing. We will write a custom essay sample on The Snows of Kilimanjaro or any topic specifically for you Only $17.96 $11.86/pageorder now To relive the irritating pain of this true yet disturbing realization, he continually quarrels with the women with him, blaming her time and again from distracting him from his true vocation that is writing. The irony is that an ever present sense of failure and a lack of purpose make the death of the writer more meaningless and common. In this story that begins and ends with death, Hemingway explores the ever existing sense of waste and demise by resorting to the usage of varied symbols and double meanings (Tyler, 99). It goes without saying that throughout the story the writer is shown to be aware of the fact that he had sold his talent and aptitude by opting for an easy and luxurious life. He had bartered his skills for the kind of love that is pretentious and insincere in reality. In that sense the ever occurring representations of death in The Snows of Kilimanjaro are loaded with multiple meanings. At a superficial level, these images of death are indicative of the slow approaching death of the sick and ailing writer. However, at a deeper level they are also indicative of the death of a talent that chooses to give up before the promises of ease and comfort. This dual sense of death, one literal and other vocational are continually built up in the story through the usage of varied symbols (Tyler 99). At the very beginning of the story, the introduction of the white and lofty Kilimanjaro, as â€Å"the House of God (Hemingway 1)† hints towards the eventual destination where the slowly rotting Harry is bound to end up.