The Snows of Kilimanjaro

The Masai Ngaje Ngai ( The Abode of God). There is a frozen carcass of a leopard near the
summit. This story is about a writer , Harry Street dying of gangrene on a safari. Its main themes
are death and regret. His main regret is that he has chosen to make living by marrying wealthy
women rather than writing. It is also Harry’s fault that he had developed gangrene by not
applying Iodine on his scratch, he allowed it to become septic. The African safari was Harry’s
attempt to put his life back on track.

Hemingway narrates some of Harry’s experiences in a Stream of Consciousness style.

Hemingway divides the story into six sections and within each of these sections inserts a
flashback that appears in italics. The flashback centers around: lost love, loose sex, drinking,
revenge and war. Good things happen in the mountains; bad things happen on the plains.

Part 1

Harry and Helen are talking about pain and horrible odor. A truck that, they were driving has
broken down, and are now waiting for a rescue plane to take them away.

Flashback 1

Harry remembers the railway station in Karagatch, Turkey and leaving on the famous Orient
Express and riding through northern Greece, where he recalled the fighting between the Greeks
and Turks. He remembers Bulgaria: the mountains covered with snow; the people walking in the
snow until they died in it. There, he also protected a deserter. While it snowed in at the
Madlener-haus for a week, the owner of the gasthaus lost everything while gambling. There
someone named Barker bombed Austrian officers’ leave train and strafed those who escaped and
then came into the Austrian mess hall and bragged about it.

He remembers Vorarlberg and Arlberg, winter ski resorts where he was skiing on the snow like a
bird in the air.

Part 2

Harry blames Helen for his predicament; then he admits if it had not been Helen, there would
have been another rich women and that his abuse is about leaving things behind that he never
did. Then he wakens and discovers that Helen is away to shoot a Tommie for meat and broth.

Flashback 2

Harry remembers quarreling in Paris andgoing to Constantinople and spending his time in sex
and fights. Then he leaves for Anatolia, the great plains of Turkey, where poppies are grown for
opium. He saw such horrors that when he returned to Paris, he couldn’t write about it. In Paris,
Harry met Tristian Tzara, a Romanian poet who founded the Dada Movement (Dadaism) and
who represented everything that Harry opposed.

Part 3

Harry feels he’s going to die that night. He wonders if Helen can take dictation so that he could
record his last thoughts.

Flashback 3

Harry recalls his grandfather’s log house that burned and destroyed all of his grandfather’s guns,
and even though it was rebuilt, his grandfather never hunted again. The remnants of the
destroyed guns lay in the coffin with his grandfather.

He remembers Germany’s black forest, where he went after the war and fished; he remembers
the hotel where, because of inflation, the proprietor lost all his money and hanged himself. Harry
recalls all the neighbourhoods in Paris where he lived when he was poor. They were happy
despite their poverty. Important here is the mention of the famous writer Paul Verlain dying in
the cheap hotel in the neighbourhood.

Part 4

Helen gives his some broth; but he asks for whiskey. Harry is hallucinating, rapidly about
approaching his death.

Flashback 4

Harry remembers a ranch and a “half-wit chore boy” who was given the task of protecting the
farm in the absence of the owner. Another farmer, tried to steal some feed from the barn and
threatened to beat the chore boy if he tried to stop him. The chore boy got a rifle, shot the man,
and left him for the dogs to eat. Harry remembers talking the carcass into town with the chore
boy’s help, who thought he was going to be rewarded for protecting his master’s property, but to
his amazement, was arrested and handcuffed. Then he turned to harry and began to cry.

This particular flashback deals with misguided loyalty.

Part 5

Harry recalls talking about his views of the rich and of the very rich with Julian.

Flashback 5

Harry remembers the death of a soldier named Williamson, who had been hit by a bomb, and
while he was trying to move, realized that he was snagged and caught in a wire fence with his
bowels spilling out onto the wire. He begged Harry to kill him. Harry fed him all his morphine
tablets to ease the pain.