Realism In Ernest Hemingway's The Snow Of Kiliman

In the work of Earnest Hemingway, “The Snow of Kilimanjaro” romanticism was sedimented throughout; as Harry and his wife had endured the harsh winter conditions of nature during their little adventure to Africa. In the beginning they were enjoying the trip and taking nice pictures like common people; while taking a photograph, Harry managed to cut his leg on a thorn. He made a decision not to treat the cut, a decision he would soon regret as gangrene began to grow on the cut. While driving their truck had broken down, they began looking for anything that could increase their chances of survival. The couple, unfortunately, found no help; they were all alone and defenseless against the cold elements of Kilimanjaro. It did not take long for Harry to lose hope in survival; he slowly stopped wanting to press on through the obstacles. “The gangrene started in his right leg he had no pain and with the pain the horror had

gone and all he left now was a great tiredness and anger that this was the end of it.”(1022)
Harry’s wife wanted him to get up for their safety, nothing else needed to go wrong and quit acting so cowardly; his response was nothing positive or motivating. “Can’t you let a man die as comfortable as he can without calling him names? What’s the use of slanging me?” (1022) Harry lacked the motivation to keep on fighting for survival; he was ready to let nature win this battle. Harry’s life seemed to have little value to him; the most important thing to him at that point was drinking. Letting alcohol take control of his life is an example of poor choices that could have led to a different outcome, just like Modernism.
Stephen Crane portrayed the weather having similar characteristics to a woman that feels no regret or care when making is hard and painful for others. “When it occurs to a man that nature does not regard him as important, and that she feels she would not maim the universe by disposing of him, he at first wished to throw bricks at the temple, and he hates deeply the fact that there are no bricks and no temples. Any visible expression of nature would surely be pelleted with his jeers”. (595) Nature surely does not have in mind the well being of others as it continues to have the upper hand on travelers. Of course, though, it is known that there are not human characteristics contained by weather.
Ernest Hemmingway has death show up during towards the end of the work; death had been given human-like characteristics as well. Such as “Death had come and rested its head on the foot of the cot, and he could smell its breath.”(1035) Hemmingway makes the death appear to be capable of walking, talking and even breathing such as humans. As he continues with this personification; he writes “It moved up closer to him still and he could not speak to it, and when it saw he could not speak it came a little closer, and now he tried to send It away without speaking, but it moved in on him, so its weight was upon his chest, and while it crouched there he could not move, or speak, he heard the woman say, ‘Bwana is asleep now. Take the cot up very gently and carry it into the tent.’” (1035) This visit of death instantly took an extreme toll on Harry psychologically; his constant comments and wishes for death would be a good hint at Harry going a little crazy.
CHARACTER
Earnest Hemingway brings realism into the picture in his work by basing the main characters in, “The Snow of Kilimanjaro” as people who fights like normal and realistic couples.

There was nothing that was supernatural about these situations; they are possible predicaments that would challenge anybody to their limits. The characters in Ernest Hemmingway’s “The Snow of Kilimanjaro” were clearly caught up in the idea that life is too hard, or only they experience problems in life. Harry is looking for sympathy, but after a while, his wife had had enough and gave very little to go along with his games.
According to Frank Norris, “This is Realism. It is the smaller details of everyday life, things that are likely to happen between lunch and supper, small passions, restricted, emotions, dramas of the reception-room, tragedies of an afternoon call, crises involving cups of tea.” (557) (Norris) Realism is said to be in charge of entertaining the readers; it contains information that would connect with the people on the topic of their normal

lives.

RELIGION
Naturalism was also noticed within the work of “The Snow of Kilimanjaro,” Earnest Hemingway left out all signs of religion as if it has died out.
Without religion taking part in the story it may come off to the readers as sad or depressing. In a sense that is what naturalism is, terrible things must happen to the characters, they have to come upon some greater obstacle for them to struggle with for the story to become written. According to Frank Norris, “The naturalist takes no note of common people, common in so far as their interests, their lives, and the things that occur in them are common, are ordinary. Terrible things must happen to the characters of the naturalistic tale.” (557)(Norris) Life lessons were based and taught from the works of naturalism and what those works said, according to Frank Norris.
Religion uses to be strong and vast, around the time of the nineteenth century the popularity or acceptance of religion decline. People became unsure in the existence of God; this was the start to many struggles for the people. In the beginnings of “Yet Do I Marvel”, Countee Cullen started with this undoubting faith in God, but as his story continues his mind begins to take over his faith in some way. “I doubt not God is good, well-meaning, kind.” (1056) (Cullen) It wasn’t long after Cullen made this statement of belief before he contradicted himself by questioning why God does what he does. By saying “Yet do I marvel at this curious thing: To make a poet black, and bid him sing!” (1057) Cullen can’t see to come to an understanding of why God would make him black if he were supposed to share His works, to put up with all prejudice and racial complications would just make it harder for people to listen to Cullen’s news about God.
Modernism shows that in “The Snow of Kilimanjaro”, by taking away religion out of these characters lives, their personalities slightly changes. It was much easier for them to give up in any struggle they came up against. Just like the men in Stephen Crane’s work “The Open Boat”; there was little reliance upon God; that caused constant fear among the men stranded on the boat. One man lost all confidence in survival that he cried out “If I am going to be drowned- If I am going to be drowned- If I am going to be drowned, why, in the name of the seven mad gods who rule the sea, was I allowed to come thus far and contemplate sand and trees?” (595) The man didn’t see why any of these “gods” would allow him to make it this far, and then let him die. Out of all the people that died at sea, he did not believe he should be one of them. “Other people had drowned at sea since galleys swarmed with painted sails, but still-” (595) The man thought of his death would be a crime that is considered most unnatural. He believed like most men did that his life is so much more valuable that others, even if nature does not feel the same way.
As the confidence of the people declined, they began to look back upon the good times and look for inspiration to get them through the rough patches. The behavior of several characters changed when obstacles they were facing turned into real situations that could have been prevented with simply extra care.

DIALOGUE
Earnest Hemingway intertwines modernism flashbacks in his work, “The Snow of Kilimanjaro” these bring back good memories along with the dreadful ones. Modernism took place during the 19th century; a very depressing and struggling period caused by World War II. The tone of characters in the stories that were written during this time, changed from encouraging and happy to sad and lonely. It is noticed early in “The Snow of Kilimanjaro”, that Harry and his wife do not have a happy and affectionate relationship. Harry openly admitted to marry her for her money, “ Your damned money was my amour. My Swift and my Amour.” (1025) Harry purposely tried to hurt his wife’s feelings all the time; the romantic part of their relationship was absent. This caused the dialogue between the two to be negative. These flashbacks they happened to Harry brought back peace to his life, reflecting on his life though caused doubt of his importance though.

PSYCHOLOGICAL/ PHILOSOPHICAL
Psychological and philosophical struggle were present in Earnest Hemingway’s “The Snow of Kilimanjaro”, as emotions and perspectives of reality changed throughout the work.