The Snows of Kilimanjaro

    "Kilimanjaro is a snow covered mountain 19,710 feet high, and is said to be the highest mountain in Africa. Its western summit is called the Masai 'Ngaje Ngai,' the House of God. Close to the western summit there is the dried frozen carcass of a leopard. No one has explained what the leopard was seeking at that altitude." Through out the whole first few pages of the story, Harry discusses the birds flying over the mountain, he says they are after him, but knows they are going for the leopard carcass that is not quite visible. As the story begins Harry and Helen are bickering about his untimely exaggerated death. The readers get a glimpse as to how the attitude or mood of the story will be like. As readers get into the story, they find out Harry has gangrene in his right leg, causing no pain or discomfort. Hemingway has a strange way of making certain characters seem vulnerable to another character, like Helen in this story, and the old man to the young boy in  The Old Man and the Sea.

     Harry has many flashbacks into his past, wondering how he got here with this woman he has long despised, but loved the most at the same time. Knowing from Hemingway's past experiences with his many wives and lady friends, he may have wrote about this anger towards the woman by his own past romances.  Why did Hemingway choose this mountain to write about? Or put Harry on during his last days of life? The Mountain is called "The House of God," surrounding Harry is this supposedly having much tranquility and a safe place to be. There were many symbols in the story referring to Harry and his situation. The buzzards referring to his approaching death, or the hyena searching for death at the same time. The plane is also a symbol, this is Harry's escape from it all, his wife, the thought of death, being able to write what he wants, and even just dying in peace. Harry dies at the end of the story, with the traveling hyena close to the camp.  

    This whole story is centered on the death of the Harry. He went through many stages throughout the story, at first it was denial, then acceptance, and finally his fear of death and his unfinished works. Harry was a convincing character because of his love for money motivated him to lie and even fail at his dream of being a writer. Perhaps the most important way Hemingway develops the theme of this story is his uses of foreshadowing and symbolism. Using different animals to enforce the symbolism as we discussed earlier. The leopard starts off the foreshadowing by getting the readers to think about death and how it happens.

    This story achieves its purpose by the use of different writing skills and techniques. Hemingway uses not only his imaginative analytical skills, but draws upon his own life experiences. If readers are into the thought of death or processes of death, then read The Snows of Kilimanjaro.            

The Lost Generation

You have just finished your 3,000 page book on how to save the earth. You have worked on it for so long and hard, to the point of tears and anger, or tears of happiness from all that you have accomplished. A few months later your book has already made millions of dollars. You have helped change a generation of peoples thoughts about the world and how to save it from destruction. This may be called a literary movement towards a healthier earth. 

"Hemingway is probably one of the most celebrated authors of his time, known for his fiction. His take on fiction is something invented or imagined." (Article 1) Hemingway and other known authors were part of a literary movement known as "The Lost Generation." "The Lost Generation is a term used to describe a group of American writers who were rebelling against what America had become by the 1900's. At this point in time, America had become a great place to go into some area of business.' The Lost Generation writers felt that America was not such a success story because it lacked a cosmopolitan culture." (Article 1) These writers wanted their literacy culture to be reflected in America, but never found it to come about. 
"Ernest Hemingway has been credited with changing American literature forever with his writing style. He moved American literature from the proper, often overblown prose of the Victorian Age to the unadorned frankness of his work. Hemingway used the term the lost generation as an epigraph for his novel, The Sun Also Rises." (Article 3) For Hemingway nothing seemed to stop him from writing whatever he wanted, people called him cruel and vulgar, yet he was never without his devoted readers. On a review of Hemingway's The Sun Also Rises, Herbert Gorman writes "The Sun Also Rises is, therefore, the tail of a great spiritual debacle of a generation that has lost it's guiding purpose...Almost 75 years later and this characterization of the 'lost generation' is extremely prevalent in academia and justifiably so." (Article 2) The Lost Generation may not be well-known to many young readers, but in time that generation will become the lost. 
















Article 1:


"Hemingway: Generation Lost." Blog Catalog. Last Island. 30 November 2007. Web. 8 November  
                       2010. <http://www.engliterarium.blogspot/com/2008/11/hemingway-generation-
                       lost.html>


Article 2:


Sinclair, Brian Gordon." "Ahead of His Time: Reevaluating the Expatriate Status of Jake Barnes."
                      Timeless Hemingway, 1998-2010. Web. 8 November 2010.
                     < http://www.timelesshemingway.com/content/aheadofhistime>


Article 3:


Czech, Jan. "The Lost Generation." Suite 101. 1 March 2010. Web. 8 November 2010.
                     <http://www.suite101.com/content/the-lost-generation>




Photo 1 Courtesy of "Lost Generation" the band.
Photo 2 Courtesy of Paul Sahre & Christopher Brand