Comparing Snows Of Kilimanjaro And The Death Of Ivan Ilych
Is Death Really All There Is To Life? Ernest Hemingway’s “The Snows of Kilimanjaro” and Leo Tolstoy’s “The Death of Ivan Ilych” both depict middle-aged men faced with a drawn-out death and no rescue from its inevitability. Both men realize that their lives have been wasted and their motives misplaced, which parallel each author’s views of the meaning of life. The difference comes, though, in the final hours of each character’s life. Whereas Harry, the protagonist in Hemingway’s short story, dies with no final redemption and a life full of empty relationships and wasted wealth, Ivan Ilych experiences a conversion after fearing his imminent death and asking himself what the right thing is and tries to apologize and show compassion for his family during his final hours. In Ernest Hemingway’s “The Snows of Kilimanjaro,”
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It was a talent all right but instead of using it, he had traded on it. It was never what he had done, but always what he could do” (6). Now that Harry has spent time identifying each aspect of his life that he has wasted, he must deal with these awful revelations before his death in one way or another. He decides to fortify himself with an indifference towards death: “He could beat anything, he thought, because no thing could hurt him if he did not care. Now he would not care for death…there was nothing to worry about” (13-14). He even muses that he is getting as bored with dying as with everything else. As night falls, Harry senses the approach of death again, just like he has each time a hyena has passed by or vultures have sailed overhead. The following morning, the rescue plane arrives, and Harry is seemingly airlifted to safety. As the plane rises into the clouds though, he realizes that he is headed not for the hospital but the blindingly white summit of Kilimanjaro. The story cuts to his wife’s sobs as she discovers Harry’s corpse. The plane trip to the blinding light was, in a sense, the final flight of Harry’s
It was a talent all right but instead of using it, he had traded on it. It was never what he had done, but always what he could do” (6). Now that Harry has spent time identifying each aspect of his life that he has wasted, he must deal with these awful revelations before his death in one way or another. He decides to fortify himself with an indifference towards death: “He could beat anything, he thought, because no thing could hurt him if he did not care. Now he would not care for death…there was nothing to worry about” (13-14). He even muses that he is getting as bored with dying as with everything else. As night falls, Harry senses the approach of death again, just like he has each time a hyena has passed by or vultures have sailed overhead. The following morning, the rescue plane arrives, and Harry is seemingly airlifted to safety. As the plane rises into the clouds though, he realizes that he is headed not for the hospital but the blindingly white summit of Kilimanjaro. The story cuts to his wife’s sobs as she discovers Harry’s corpse. The plane trip to the blinding light was, in a sense, the final flight of Harry’s