The snows of Kilimanjaro

Ernest Hemingway’s Concept of Courage ---Take “The Snows of Kilimanjaro” as an ExampleErnest Hemingway’s Concept of Courage-----Take “The Snows of Kilimanjaro” as an ExampleAbstract：Ernest Hemingway is generally regarded as the spokesman for the lost generation. He is famous for his novels and short stories and all his stories deal with the theme of courage in face of tragedy. Hemingway spends one year writing “The Snows of Kilimanjaro” to reflect his writing because the publishment of “Death in the Afternoon” and “Green Hills of Africa” are censured by the outside. He shapes the protagonist---- a writer Harry who is dying physically and psychologically and whose soul is free and sublimed at the end of his life. The famous American critic Malcolm Cowley once said this short story is Hemingway’s most skilled one. I will appreciate this short story on Harry’s courage when he faces death, women’s courage in Hemingway’s works, the six parts of the theme of d eath and the symbol of leopard which reveals soul’s eternity.Key Word: Hemingway; courage; the theme of death; leopard and free and eternity of lifeBody:The hero Harry in “The Snows of Kilimanjaro” gets his leg infected with gangrene, lies on the cot and can’t move. He waits the plane to carry him to treat his disease with his lover, but the fact is that he does not think the plane will come. When he is dying on the cot, he thinks of his life and his writing career. The theme of death is repeated in the six parts of recalls which are inserted in narrating. Finally the plane in the dream carries Harry to the leopard which is on the summit of Kilimanjaro and means eternity and purity of soul.I. Harry is Courageous when He Faces DeathHemingway’s works are autobiographical in a way. He spends a large part of his time in big game hunting in Africa and following bullfights in Spain. His own adventures life provides much raw material for his strong masculine story. He writes in “The Sun Also Rises” that he wants to hunt in east Africa in 1926. On the way to east Africa in 1934, Hemingway infects dysentery and the disease deteriorates. His white assistant rents a private plane to send him to accept better treat. He returns to hunt after a week and remembers the plane which saves him. In “The Snows of Kilimanjaro”, the plane appears in Harry’s dream, but it does not save Harry’s life. This time the plane carries Harry to Kilimanjaro---the eternity of his life.Harry’s words and behavior of waiting death are strong evidences to show a man’s courage. Firstly, lying on the cot and can’t move, Harry waits the plane but he does not think the plane will come. “…I think we might make it as easy as we can until the plane comes.” “Or until the plane does not come.” That means Harry is waiting for death soberly. He knowsthat he will die definitely and can do nothing. He describes his infection simply--- he forgets to put iodine on his wound, does not have enough antiseptics and hires a second-rate mechanic and so on. Describing the tragedy calmly, death is waiting him. Secondly, faced with Helen’s care, his answer is fine, though he is tortured by death and wage. Saying the odor will bother Helen and pretending that he is strong to endure it, he kn ows everything’s going wrong. He begs Helen to quarrel with him to relieve his pain and saw off his leg. He curses Helen and hurts her, which do not appropriate for his status. It is this malposition of his words, behavior and his status that reveals his fear and wage. At the same time, it shows his calm and courage to face his death’s coming. Thirdly, in the end, the hyena, the vulture and the locust are all symbols of death. Seeing them Harry knows he will die in east Africa and feeling that he will die on that night, he chooses to sleep out of the tent. He is sensitive and courageous to face his death.II. Women are Courageous in Hemingway’s WorksHemingway is good at shaping steel-willed man, women is full of men’s characters in He mingway’s works.On the one hand, Helen is an independent and strong-willed woman. First of all, she is courageous when she faces life and love. When she is young, her husband dies and her first child also dies in an air accident. She endures all disasters and removes her pain through men and alcohol. She is played by fate, but she is eager for true love and a man who she can rely on. She loves Harry and abandons her comfortable life in Paris and goes to untraversed east Africa with Harry. When Harry quarrels with her and queries why she picks him as her lover, she answers confirmedly: No, I love you. The disease can ruin one’s life, destroy one’s will and take away one’s morality, but Helen does not leave Harry when he is seriously ill and takes care of him carefully. Besides, she is a woman who is good at shooting. Harry also says that she shoots very well. When Harry can’t move on the cot, she hunts animals to make broth for Harry.On the other hand, in “The Snows of Kilimanjaro”, Hemingway’s att itudes towards woman are contradictive. He thinks that it is women that make men corrupt. Men can’t resist women’s temptation. Harry says “She shot very well, this good, this rich bitch, this kindly caretaker and destroyer of his talent.” Harry is annoyed by his experience and attributes his misfortune to Helen. What’s more, Hemingway believes men’s self-corruption is the essential reason of his extermination of their talent but women’s temptation. He shows mercy to women’s pure love for men.In Heming way’s life, women have played very important roles. His bosom friend Scott Fitzgerald once said Hemingway needs a new woman when he creates an excellent work. There is an individualistic woman with the hero both in “The Snows of Kilimanjaro” and in “Green Hills of Africa”.III. The Six Parts of the Theme of DeathThese short stories can be divided into six parts and every part is inserted in a flashback in italics. In these flashbacks, Harry memories his writing life before he gains reputation--his first girlfriend, his grandfather’s cabin and the drunken old men and women. They are filled with the fear of poverty and Harry leaves them. Then he spends time in dating rich womenand corrupts his talent of writing. Pain and despair parallel with the recalls of past. The repetition of past story also shows the theme of death. These six recalls are Harry’s experience and deep self-examination of his life. Harry is same as the heroes in Hemingway’s other works. He experiences the cruel of war and wounds. Not only does he face the cruelty of war and the reality of the society, his mental world is empty. He sells himself and whatever he believes. He remembers that he sees dead man in Constantinople in the first time, the Turkish man who is kill ed by officer, the boss who can’t bear the inflection and commits suicide, and Williamson dies in front of him. The bloody scenes show us courageous Harry who experiences a lot and is influenced by these memories deeply. The war and reality destroy Harry and he does not believe that man can endure which God has given to mankind. He indulges himself and refuses to re turn to his own orbit of life.The six recalls of past stay around the theme of death and form an umbrella stream-of consciousness process. It is the bedding of Harry’s death and accumulates the powerful effect for the climax. Though the recalcitrant soul leaves his body, he does not die actually. His strong and courageous will flies with the plane to the summit of Kilimanjaro to stay with the leopard which is the symbol of toughness, free of spirit and eternity. It is also a kind of iclusio. The leopard in the end echoes the body of leopard which is mentioned at the beginning of the short story.IV.The Symbol of Snow and L eopard Which Reveals Strength, Soul’s Eternity, Purity, Life and DestroyLeopard is the animal which means strength and Hemingway loves very much. Through the description of the endurance and intelligence between men and leopard, Hemingway shapes th e leopard by personification in “Green Hills of Africa”. As I have mentioned in the last part. The leopard in the end echoes the leopard at the beginning of the short story. Why does the leopard climb to the summit of Kilimanjaro? It climbs to the summit of the mountain and dies and becomes the legend of people. We can answer this question by asking why Harry is in east Africa. They are seek eternity and free of soul. They all have strong will and pursue perfect. At first, we may wonder why the author describes leopard at the beginning. But when we reach the end, we find the leopard is a disregardful symbol which reveals the theme—death and courage. Over the death is another creation in this short story.The snow which is also revealed in the tile is the symbol of purity, cold, empty and quiet. It is the altitudinal cohesion of some specific things which can also mean death, perfect and love. The snows of Kilimanjaro are the symbol of immortality.V. ConclusionWe can surprisingly fi nd that the protagonists in Hemingway’s works are all filled with pain and tragedy like Harry. They live in void and can’t bear the physical and psychological pain. They are so painful that they become numb of themselves and life. The process of Harry’s se lf-knowledge and self-development is also the development of Hemingway himself. The image of Harry is actually Hemingway in a way. Harry and Hemingway have the same experience of war and suffering and are examples of the lost generation.References:1.Ernest Hemingway. The Snows of Kilimanjaro Selected Short Stories of ErnestHemingway. [M]. 上海世界图书出版公司，2010.2.Ernest Hemingway. Green Hills of Africa. [M]. 上海世界图书出版公司,2004.3.周红兴．外国小说名篇选读[z]．北京：作家出版社，1986．4.李忠华．浅谈《乞力马扎罗的雪》中的象征．解放军外国语学院学报[J]．20005(5)78--81．5. 刘长江．论《乞力马扎罗的雪》的叙事结构和叙事技巧．重庆科技学院学报[J]．2008(10)，127--128．。