Hemingway's Reaction to a Current Event

 As I turn on my television I hear the faint sounds of sadness ringing throughout the air. As I turn the volume up I know it is reality. The crashing of a military plane in South Africa, a place I once visited. Military planes crash quite often but it’s the overall sadness of all of them that I am feeling remorseful about. It crashed among the beautiful mountains I always find myself dreaming about, and it huts to know such pain can endure so high up in God’s land. It was headed the hometown of Nelson Mandela and even more shockingly the plane was carrying doctors that were in charge of President Mandela’s health. I sometimes wonder, is this conspiracy? When military planes are shot down it always seems that someone on board was important. Important in social status, because every life and death is meaningful or sad for someone out there and President Mandela probably believes in that as well. Mandela is a man I admire, even faced with death he looked promisingly towards to future, especially in the case of him fighting against oppression of blacks in South Africa. As I turn the television off because I can’t stand to hear anymore sadness in this world I hear something tapping at my window. Walking over to the window I look and there is a bird starting to build a nest right on the outside ledge of the window near the corner. There are three little white speckled eggs nestled already inside of the nest and my mind begins to wonder again. Why would this bird choose my window with the possibility of it crashing down and being so high up on the apartment building? I guess the bird only wants protection of her young, despite the height, higher up and closer to the heavens, just like the airplane that came soaring down in the beautiful mountains. After watching this I finally come to realize life is fragile just like the eggs and airplane and you have to live and soar high to get what you want, despite the sad outcome that could arise.

Literary Analysis

One of Ernest Hemingway’s short stories “The Snows of Kilimanjaro” is one of his greatest masterpieces. Hemingway wrote it after he had taken a safari to Africa and was so captured by the place he had to start writing based on his experiences there. The main character Harry is the protagonist of the story. Harry is facing death due to an injury he endured on his trip and knows he is going to get gangrene. For most of the story he spends drinking and insulting his wife Helen, whom he married for money and doesn’t love. He is so drunk throughout the story that he goes back and forth saying “I love you” or “I don’t love you” to Helen because self-consciously he doesn’t love her, just her money. Harry has a lot of remorse towards his life and Helen because he feels like he was held back by her from what he really wanted to do which was writing. “But what Harry is never allowed to write, the pieces of "Snows" in italics, is in fact written. How can Harry be viewed as a failure when what he most desires to write is, in the end, readable?” (Gagne para.6). “While he rests, she shoots a ram. Harry reminisces about the people and places in his past. He has multiple flashbacks and contemplates all the writing he had one day hoped to do about the many experiences he has accumulated in his life but realizes nothing more will be accomplished. He senses the heavy presence of death” (“Literature” para. 2). He is about to be rescued by a plane and then comes to realize he is only dreaming of his rescue, and when he realizes this he knows he must be dying. When Harry goes back to dreaming his wife finally realizes that he has died in his sleep, and then the strange sounds of a hyena crying out are heard as if symbolizing his death (“Literature” para. 3). The overall story is about Harry trying to put his life back on track. The safari is the idea of bringing him back down to reality after marrying into riches. Harry represents Hemingway in many ways. Helen is an easy comparison to Hemingway’s second wife Pauline, who also was rich. Throughout the story Hemingway writes in italics to represent flashbacks that Harry is having and hopes of a brighter future within his past flashbacks. Kilimanjaro and the plains he was dying in contrast different ideas. Kilimanjaro represents the promise of future and life, while the plain represents pain, regret, and death. When Harry dies his spirit goes up to the mountains, where he really wanted to be in the first place, where his dreams lived. Kilimanjaro to Hemingway meant, “House of God” and that is exactly where Harry wanted to end up. After some research it is found that no one really knows the true meaning of Kilimanjaro, but the assumptions are all close to Hemingway’s. Harry shows in the story that he knows he is going to die and signifies it in three ways; when he saves his morphine pill for his friend, when he opens up to his wife, and his flashbacks. The leopard Harry sees in his out-of-body flight represents immortality and life symbolism for what Harry really always wanted. “In considering the author's writing style, the piece has a wonderfully poetic and lyrical quality with lots of figurative language and symbolic imagery to bring the story coherence and unity in illuminating the theme of glorious sadness as experienced by sudden, unexpected death. The narrative structural tense shifts back and forth flawlessly from direct conversations in first person, to long winded thoughts of Harry’s recollections in third, then occasionally changing back to second to give the reader an authentic feel of exactly how it might feel to be there in the desert with him” (Paniotte para. 2). Hemingway’s way of writing really captures the audience and only makes you want to read more. His writings are beautiful and beautifully written, the way he uses the mountains and animals to symbolize life in the story is absolutely amazing.

Works cited: 

Paniotte, Magdalene. "'The Snows of Kilimanjaro' by Ernest Hemingway." Examiner.com. Examiner.com, 6 Nov. 2010. Web. 28 Nov. 2012.

"Literature, Arts, and Medicine Database." Nyu.edu. Scribner, 12 May 2004. Web. 28 Nov. 2012.

Gagne, David. ""The Snows of Kilimanjaro": A Written Work." The Snows of Kilimanjaro. Eduhi.at, 24 May 2006. Web. 28 Nov. 2012.

Literary Movement

Ernest Hemingway’s writings belong in the Modernism era; most of his writing was either romantic or involved nature/adventure. Hemingway used his own life experiences in a lot of his novels, such as when he joined a group of expatriate Americans in Paris he described his experience and used it in The Sun Also Rises and A Farewell to Arms which had detail from his own life working on an ambulance (“Nobel Lectures” para. 2). Modernism; “In broad terms, the period was marked by sudden and unexpected breaks with traditional ways of viewing and interacting with the world. Experimentation and individualism became virtues, where in the past they were often heartily discouraged” (Rahn para. 1). Most writers during this time wrote very modernistic deliberately or self-consciously (Rahn. para. 1). Hemingway has a style all his own, and if I were to write like anyone I would want to imitate his style in my own. He broke away from what was considered “normal” and really captured his character’s thoughts and how they really would speak (Ernest para. 1).  He is most known for his use of repetition in his stories. In “The Snows of Kilimanjaro” Hemingway’s use of “pleasant” is a good example of repetition and how he was really trying to use it to show the characters feelings without actually saying them. In “The Snows of Kilimanjaro” the main character Harry repeats “pleasant” a lot to show his attitude about the situation he is in, but also to hide his feelings for the main woman character Helen because he doesn’t want to show his feelings. Modernism really brought about more literate readers, possibilities of new writing techniques such as the easy style of writing which made modern writers more likeable among the public and a whole new love for all kinds of literature came about. 

Works cited:

"Ernest Hemingway FAQ: Style." Ernest Hemingway FAQ: Style. Timelesshemingway.com, n.d. Web. 25

 Nov. 2012.

"Ernest Hemingway - Biography". Nobelprize.org, n.d. Web. 25 Nov. 2012.

Rahn, Josh. "Modernism." - Literature Periods & Movements. Online-literature.com, 2011. Web. 25 Nov. 2012.

Ernest Hemingway's Biography-Contribution

To understand an author and his/her writings first we have to uncover their past. Ernest Miller Hemingway was born on July 21, 1899. Hemingway grew up in Oak Park, Illinois where he was shaped by his father, Clarence Edmunds Hemingway, a physician, whom taught him how to respect knowledge and love learning. His mother, Grace Hall Hemingway, introduced him to the world of the arts and made sure they were made available to him. Through his high school years Hemingway wrote for the school newspaper, The Trapeze, and also a literary magazine called the Tabula. Writing for the school prepared himself for his first job outside of high school writing for the Kansas City Star, which at the time was considered one of the best newspapers in America. The Kansas City Star had lots of rules when it came to writing, and according to Hemingway shaped his writing and gave him a different style. Hemingway said it was the best thing he had ever learned. Hemingway then left the Kansas City Star in in April of 1918, to help in the war efforts by joining the American Red Cross and later on received an injury overseas and came back home in January of 1919. When he returned home he continued to write for mass-marketing magazines but had trouble finding his own voice by working for them. Hemingway was married to Hadley Richardson on September 3, 1921 and divorced and remarried to Pfeiffer in May 1928. He continued his writing and traveling over the years, writing numerous books, stories, magazine articles, and much more. Hemingway died in Ketchum, Idaho on July 2, 1961 from a gunshot wound to the head. His wife claimed he had been cleaning his gun, and no foul play was suspected. Ernest Miller Hemingway was an astounding writer, had a list of very broad characters, but according to others his best character was himself.

Best of all he loved the fall
The leaves yellow on the cottonwoods
Leaves floating on the trout streams
And above the hills
The high blue windless skies
…Now he will be a part of them forever

Ernest Hemingway - Idaho - 1939

 Works cited:

Dictionary of Literary Biography, Volume 330: Nobel Prize Laureates in Literature, Part  2: Faulkner-Kipling. A Bruccoli Clark Layman Book. Gale, 2007. pp. 309-325.

“Ernest Hemingway FAQ: Death.” TimelessHemingway.com. n.p., n.d. Web. 20 Nov. 2012.

 

“Hemingway Dead of Shotgun Wound; Wife Says He Was Cleaning Weapon.”   nytimes.com. NY Times. 1999. Web. 20 Nov. 2012.