The Snows Of Kilimanjaro And Death Of A Ball Turret Gunner

Have you ever seen a movie or television show where the setting or weather has no impact on the story at all? The use of weather in any work, including written, has a major impact on the feel and overall meaning of a work. Two such works are “The Snows of Kilimanjaro” by Ernest Hemingway, and “Death of a Ball Turret Gunner” by Randall Jarrell. At first glance these two works seem to have little in common, one is a short story, the other a poem; one is written about a man who has contracted gangrene and is close to death, the other about fighting in World War II. There is one idea that is shared between these two however, and that is the use of weather, primarily the cold, to impart different meanings on the works. Weather is a powerful tool

in writing, and these two works: “The Snows of Kilimanjaro” and “Death of a Ball Turret Gunner” prove this through their use of the cold and snow throughout. Weather is used heavily in “The Snows of Kilimanjaro”, and it is most prevalent during the main character Harry’s first flashback; snow and cold in this story carry multiple meanings, both literal and figurative; the literal sense being the cold and snow of the mountains, and the figurative sense coming from the cold as it relates to life and death.

Although it is a short poem, “Death of a Ball Turret Gunner” uses cold in a literal sense with the narrator being freezing while flying miles above the earth and in a figurative sense with the cold being associated with isolation both from his mother and the people around him. These two works use weather to help describe the feelings associated with life and death; they are similar in this

way. The use of weather in the overall theme of these works however is very different. “The Snows of Kilimanjaro” uses the cold and the mountains to signify hope, and the ascension to heaven; whereas “Death of a Ball Turret Gunner” uses the cold to add to the sorrow and pain felt throughout the poem.
To begin, “The Snows of Kilimanjaro” is a short story in which a man named Harry, along with his wife have embarked on an African Safari where Harry contracted gangrene through a scratch on his leg that was left untreated. Harry and his wife are waiting on a rescue plane, but Harry knows it will not come in time and thusly spends much of his time drinking and insulting his wife. He endures a series of flashbacks which allow him to realize he has wasted much of his life and ruined himself as a writer in the process. Harry’s first flashback is filled with feelings of loss and sadness. Harry reminisces about mountains which were covered in snow in the country of Bulgaria, and the exchanges of populations where people walked through the snow until they perished. He remembered the owner of a Gasthaus which he was staying at, losing everything because of gambling while they were snowed in for a week, unable to leave. A third event recalled in this flashback is a train which was bombed while carrying Austrian soldiers on leave, and after the event, the pilot who was responsible entered the Austrian mess hall, bragging about his deed. The weather in this flashback has more than just literal implications also. Although this flashback has a feeling of sorrow and loss for the money lost during gambling, or lives lost because of the bombing of the train; snow is a precursor for Harry and his ascension to the heavens. This is because during a hallucination, Harry envisions himself flying over the summit of Kilimanjaro which he describes as being “wide as all the world” (Hemingway 1036). Atop this summit lies a leopard, perfectly preserved in the ice for all eternity, just as Harry will be preserved in the heavens for all eternity. Different religions have used some of the highest places in the world as their reduction of the heavens to a worldly place: the Jewish have used Mount Sinai, as the Japanese have used Mount Fuji, thusly this description of Kilimanjaro as being the heavens makes sense. Though not directly stated in the story, the cold in Harry’s first flashback could be a metaphor for the coldness of death. People, especially spouses of close family of the deceased often feel empty and cold, that is, detached from the world for a time after the death. I assert that although Kilimanjaro and its snow are associated with the ascension of Harry, the cold also associates itself with the feeling of loss that Harry’s wife feels after he has passed away.
Next, “The Death of a Ball Turret Gunner” by Randall Jarrell is a poem narrated from the perspective of the gunner of a ball turret in the belly of a bomber during World War II. The poem is written in protest of war as well as the pain and loss that comes with it. The narrator is ripped away from his mother and thrust into military service, before he knows it, he is miles above the earth with flak exploding around him until his death, at which point he is evacuated from the ball turret with a hose in preparation for the next body to occupy his position. Weather, as it is used in this poem, works to increase the impact of the poem, and help the ideas of anti-war hit home with the reader. The line reads: “And I hunched in its belly till my wet fur froze” (Jarrell). The belly is the ball turret of either a B-17 Flying Fortress or a B-24 Liberator; it is not made clear which aircraft it is in the poem. Neither of these aircraft featured pressurized cabins, which meant its occupants were exposed to the temperatures of the ambient air around them, which was well below freezing at the altitudes these aircraft operated at. The coldest area of the aircraft was the ball turret, where our narrator resided, which would explain the extreme cold and the freezing of the fur on his coat. The cold can also be related to feelings of isolation felt by the narrator. There is a feeling of isolation by a ball turret gunner in relation to the rest of his flight crew; because he is loaded into his ball turret before the aircraft leaves the ground, a ball turret gunner is unable to interact with the other members of the flight crew for hours on end during the mission, curled up in a fetal position, alone and cold. There is isolation on another level as well; isolation from his civilian life, specifically his mother. He is torn from his mother at an early age and “thrust upon the state” to fight a war. A soldier like this had very little communication with loved ones during this time, adding to the cold feeling of isolation from his mother who carried him as a fetus, just as his bomber carries him like a fetus through enemy territory.
These two works both use the cold as a powerful tool in delivering their intended message, though these messages are very dissimilar to eachother.

“The Snows of Kilimanjaro” uses snow in such a way as to relate to death, and salvation, but the major emphasis being on the salvation and ascension of Harry. The loss that Harry recalls during times of extreme cold such as the bombing of the train, bring on great sadness; but this sadness is contrasted heavily by the indication that Harry is going to heaven which is at the top of Kilimanjaro, much in the same way that the Jewish use Mount Sinai as their portrayal of heaven on Earth. Conversely, “The Death of a Ball Turret Gunner” uses the cold for only one thing, to increase the impact and chilling effect of what war does to people. The narrator is stripped away from the warm love of his mother, and thrust into one of the most dangerous occupations of the war, which had one of the lowest survival rates. Miles above the earth, freezing inside a Plexiglas bubble, cut off from even the people in his own aircraft, one cannot help but feel pity for the

narrator.
These two works illustrate how an author can use weather to increase the impact and drive their point home in a particular work. “The Snows of Kilimanjaro” uses cold weather and snow to both recount instances of incredible loss and sadness, and uses the same cold weather to indicate that Harry is going to ascend into heaven. This is done shortly before Harry’s death as he is hallucinating that he is seeing the peak of Kilimanjaro, and at the summit lays a Leopard which has been perfectly preserved for all of eternity, just as Harry would be preserved for eternity in heaven. “The Death of a Ball Turret Gunner” uses cold to increase sympathy for the narrator. This is done by adding to the heartbreaking situation of a ball turret gunner during World War II who had very little chance of surviving his tour of duty; freshly snatched from his mother, and thrust into this position would make anybody cringe, and adding biting cold and isolation to this, greatly intensifies the impact of the meaning that Randall is trying to achieve in his work.