Criticism Of Modernism In The Snows Of Kilimanjaro By Hemingway

Every writer’s personal experience in life is reflected in one way or another in his/her

work, either consciously or unconsciously. Ernest Hemingway’s “The Snows of Kilimanjaro” is

no exception. Debra Moddelmog says that Hemingway wrote this story after going on a four

month tour through Africa with his wife. The trip was cut short after Hemingway suffered from

a serious disease (Moddelmog). He was then brought to a hospital in Nairobi, where he first

saw Mount Kilimanjaro (Moddelmog).The memory of this traumatic experience inspired him to

write “The Snows of Kilimanjaro”. This short story, written in 1936, is told though the

conversation of a dying man and his wife, who are stranded in the African wilderness. By

examining this conversation, the themes of the story can be depicted, even though they are never

directly addressed. This is typical of the Modernist Movement of which Hemingway was a part.

Modernism is a literary movement, spanning the period from the last quarter of the Nineteenth

Century to the start of the Second World War. It generally focuses on accepting historical and

social change, thus rebelling against Nineteenth Century academic and historic traditions.

Modern literature is characterized by the use of tropes such as metaphors and imagery to create

ambiguity in the text. This is present in abundance in “The Snows of Kilimanjaro.”

Hemingway’s “The Snows of Kilimanjaro” is a story which very much resembles his life. The

main character in this story, Harry, is a writer who is suffering from gangrene while stranded in

the African wilderness with his wife, Helen. The two characters are waiting for a rescue plane

throughout the entire story. Unfortunately, the plane nev...

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...limanjaro” is a story which almost has no plot whatsoever. The story begins with a man suffering in the African wilderness and ends with the man dying in the
African Wilderness. However, the story contains hidden meaning which cannot be depicted by reading it from the first time. It contains many features which breaks from traditional methods, and that was exactly what the Modernist writer, Ernest Hemingway, was trying to do. He decides to metaphorically address the subject of death and guilt through the use of metaphor and simile, in order to reflect his own life experiences as a writer and to express his thoughts about death.
Hemingway’s decision to discuss the subject of death, in addition to the use of multiple types of literary tropes, sets this story on a pedestal for being an exceptional example for what a work of modern literature should look like.