The character of Harry in The Snows of Kilimanjaro is a complex one. I think Hemmingway wrote him (and the whole story) brilliantly, but I cannot like him. Despite the fact that he is dying of infection throughout the whole story it was hard for me to even feel sorry for him after a while.
All of Harry’s reminiscences and his present dialogues with Helen and the servant are thoroughly drenched in bitterness. It is evident when he thinks about his lost loves, his affairs, his aspirations, and experiences. He is most bitter of all when he thinks about his lost writing talent.
“It was his duty to write of it; but now he never would….That was one story he had saved to write. He knew at least twenty good stories from out there and he had never written one. Why?”
The sting Harry experiences when remembering the decline of his talent is doubled in that he lost it by becoming just what he had planned to write out clearly for everyone to see. He had planned to write a sort of scoop on the rich from the perspective of an inside-outsider, but he became a part of the system himself, dependent on the rich women he lived with. He is aware of this double standard in his life, of hating the thing he depends on for his comfort, but he does not have the fortitude to completely remove it and return to his writing. The Africa trip is an attempt in that direction, but even he has to admit that it could not succeed in “burning the fat from his soul” because of the presence of Helen and Helen’s money, which, while not extending to luxury on the trip, at least prevents any hardship.
Hardships and luxuries aside, Harry still contracts an infection and gangrene in his leg. Knowing that he is dying, he begins to self-destruct in a way, drinking alcohol despite Helen’s advice, intentionally wounding her, and giving up generally.
“Do you have to kill your horse, and your wife and burn your saddle and your armour?...Stop it, Harry, why do you have to turn into a devil now?” “I don’t like to leave anything,” the man said. “I don’t like to leave things behind.”
This seems to indicate a pattern of Harry’s life, then. He never leaves things behind. From his recounted stories it seems that he is constantly on the move: Germany, Paris, Constantinople, rich woman to rich woman. He is convinced that “no thing could hurt him if he did not care,” so he refuses to care, simply pulling everything down around him as he leaves. Only as he is dying he realizes that this pattern of leaving nothing behind, of doing “anything…too bloody long,” means that at the end of his life, there is nothing for him to turn to, no chance for “the company that he would like to have.”
He’s worn everything out—his love, his talent, his life—and since he has left nothing behind, he has nothing left ahead of him but his curiosity and his bitterness.
Harry is convinced that everything is easier and better if you just do not care, and thereby avoid pain. But as he is dying he does not seem content with what that has brought him to, in the end.
The desensitization of his emotions is truly tragic. He has truly worked hard to get to the point where he can truly feel "nothing" and not care about anything. This seems to be a pattern witnessed with addicts in that they become so careless in their pursuit that whatever consequences result, the feeling is lost. The story certainly shows how Harry became addicted to a certain image of himself, wanting a certain status as a writer and a man of power. This makes the scene of this story even more ironic
ReplyDeleteIt's worth noting the contradictions in Harry throughout the story, too - perhaps forgivable in a man who is dying. Or is a human being. When I read "don't like to leave anything behind," I take it as "don't like to leave," i.e., fears dying. But I like how you point out it there is also an impulse in him to destroy what he has so that, when he leaves, he is leaving nothing behind. This, too, is a kind of fear, the kind that motivates his disciplined indifference.
ReplyDeleteKelley, these were my thoughts exactly as I was reading. I was waiting for a moment in the story that made me feel bad for him, but I just couldn't. He seems to think that if he pushes everything away, he'll have nothing left to live for, so he won't mind dying. I guess this thought process kind of makes sense, I just don't think I could ever do it myself. I feel like he's pushing her away to make himself feel better but he's hurting himself more by doing so.
ReplyDeleteThis story reminds me in some ways of our reading of Winter Dreams by Fitzgerald. Like Judy and Dexter, Harry seems to be seeking that "high" of life; the best feelings all the time. Obviously, this is an impossible thing to seek, since some of the greatest moments in life manifest after an extended period of suffering or hardship (which Harry would be avoiding by living he lifestyle he lived. He also seemed to avoid difficult circumstances as well). It is indeed a sobering lesson about the end result of a solely hedonistic lifestyle. Harry certainly went to fairly extensive lengths to keep comfortable/within his element (such as rejecting his wife, and drinking while he died), and was ultimately killed by it.
ReplyDeleteI personally did not feel bad for Harry, he is one of those people who tries to push everything away in hope to not feel pain or anything. He is a miserable person and why feel bad for someone who doesnt care about the people around him. I wanted to feel bad for him, because thats the type of person I am, I want people to be happy and if they are not, I want to help them.
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