Ernest Hemingway "The Snows of Kilimanjaro"


You can find the text of the story  here


You can also listen to the story here

Topics for Discussion:


  1. Read the epigraph again and discuss the significance of the epigraph for the story. What does the leopard stand for, what the “Ngaje Ngai”, the house of Gods?
  2. The relationship Harry and Helen: How did it start?
    What brought them together?
    What drives them apart?
    What was/is his role in her life and vice versa?
    Why does he hate her in the end? - Or does he rather hate himself?
    Who or what destroyed Harry's talent? - Who does he blame?
  3. The flashback: a narrative technique from the genre film. What is its function in this text? Retreat into the past or escape? - Discuss.
  4. Hemingway has always been obsessed with “death” in his writing. So is “Harry” in “The Snows”. What does Harry say about death? Which symbols of death can you find in this story? Is “Snows” a story about “death”?
  5. Have a look at “interior monologues” in this story. Try to find out how many there are, what they are about and what their function might be in the narrative structure of the text.
  6. What is Harry's attitude and view of his own life: is he frustrated, bitter, dissatisfied, disappointed of himself? Did he meet/ live up to his own expectations? Can you find traces/characteristics of the writer Ernest Hemingway in the writer “Harry” in the story? So, are there autobiographical elements in the text and which ones could you find?
  7. You (certainly) have noticed the “double ending” of the story. Try to link the ending(s) with the epigraph at the beginning of the story. What interest/ purpose may Hemingway have had for the ambiguous ending of the story? Try to pin down the point in the text where Harry is dying/ is dead. Perhaps there are not “two” endings but different perspectives of the same event.
  8. “Harry -  a typical Hemingway hero”. In which way is Harry an “anti-hero” -  the typical Hemingway-style would-like-to-be-macho, the rather ridiculous than truly “heroic” figure?
  9. Another typical Hemingway symbolism is that of the “plain”, where the nagative things happen and the “mountains”, where the good times/ things are. Find out to which extent this also applies to the story “The Snows”.
  10. Is “The Snows of Kilmanjaro” a short novel or a longish short-story? List arguments which support your opinion.
Analysis
Analysis 1
Research Paper
Study Guide

Comments

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