Symbolism in The Snows of Kilimanjaro

In addition to the thematic structure that juxtaposes leopard and hyena, The Snows of Kilimanjaro is replete with many other symbolic associations. The vultures that descend upon and fly above the camp and the hyena that visits the camp signify the continual presence of death. The gangrenous leg of the dying writer is a symbol of Harry’s moral corruption and artistic decay. Wealth and Harry’s wife’s fortune symbolize the very forces that have culminated in the deterioration of Harry’s moral and artistic integrity. The hunter, Compton, can be read in The Snows of Kilimanjaro as the realized man who through strict adherence to his personal principles is rewarded with physical and spiritual wholeness. Compton is an example of a classic archetype Ernest Hemingway often employed in his stories, known in literary criticism as code heroes. It is Compton who guides Harry to his figurative eternal life, at the peak of Kilimanjaro. The snow and the mountains are symbolic as further reminders of Harry’s irreparably damaged integrity. The frozen leopard of the epigraph is a symbol of Harry "immortalized" as a reward for his bravado in the face of his imminent death and for his ambition.

Whenever the hyena appears in The Snows of Kilimanjaro, they are associated with Harry’s death. When Harry faces the realization of his eminent death, it comes "with a rush . . . of a sudden evil-smelling emptiness. . . that the hyena slipped lightly on the edge of", and, when the death actually occurs, it is the hyena that announces it with "a strange, human, almost crying sound". Since it is with Harry's psychological state that the hyena is associated, it is not necessarily of Harry's physical death that the hyena is symbolic. It is more likely a symbol of the psychological deterioration and death that has already occurred because of his inability to act decisively for himself. The physical death is simply the last step in this process. These two animals represent conflicting personality traits. Harry, in the end, dies as he lives, as a hyena scavenging the leopard’s leftovers on his path to Kilimanjaro.

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