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Snows Of Kilimanjaro

Decent Essays

Ernest Hemingway’s usage of the “iceberg theory” of omission was perfectly demonstrated in the “Snows of Kilimanjaro”. The story begins in media res in which Harry, the protagonist, and Helen suffered through a plethora of events that happened during their safari journey. From the beginning to the end of this story, Hemingway used omission from Harry’s past to make a story with different interpretations depending on the reader. In the “Snows of Kilimanjaro”, Hemingway demonstrates the “iceberg theory” to exemplify his omissions and interpretations that the reader may have. The omission of certain objects and events makes the reader to produce assumptions of causes that lead to his righteousness to be in the kingdom of God when he dies of gangrene. …show more content…

Harry is a writer who has been saving his impressions and experiences as raw story material to write when he felt ready. Harry feels that it is his duty to write about the events and social and cultural changes he has witnessed in a truthful, knowledgeable way. The information about the leopard mentioned in the beginning of the story is another example of omission in this short story. Hemingway did not placed the information that why the leopard was placed on the western summit nor its purpose there, but he left there intentionally for the variety of interpretations the readers may have to offer. His backscenes from the war when he was a soldier was very memorable, but Hemingway’s omission on his relationships between his people that he interacted with. His relationship with his wife were explained with unclarity. Hemingway did mentioned about their relationship, but it was vague because of his inclusion about untruth and it questioned whether or not he loved her. The final example of omission would be his hallucination of being saved just in time. The scene that was described meant purity since the plane was going towards the western summit. When the story ends when he died in the western summit, the readers also question whether he should be redeemed by the House of God mentioned before. Him dying creates a transcendent experience that emerges into reality, but his actions and his lies about his love and compassion towards his wife greatly affects the complete conclusion onto which how readers now compare him to the

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