A Short Lit Comparison of Hemingway's The Snows of Kilimanjaro and Anderson's Winesburg, Ohio

        There is something similar about Hemingway’s The Snows of Kilimanjaro and Sherwood Anderson’s Winesburg, Ohio’s section Mother in that both main characters are dying, and while dying they reflect on the life they have been apart of thus far. Also, both Harry and Elizabeth had, what seemed like awkward encounters, with their supporting characters Helen and George due impart to their impending deaths and their unusually lonesome personalities. “Don’t pay any attention to me.” (836) it wasn’t that Harry wanted Helen to truthfully leave him alone he just did not want to keep hurting her and be bothered with her steadfast attempts to stay positive. He did not want to hurt this woman who had been dealing and putting up with all of his pungent words that he flung at her and his neglect to care for himself, essentially putting them both in this unfortunate situation. He was dying and she was trying to hold on. It was like digging a knife of guilt into his soul and he retaliated and desired the comfort of solitude so he could continue on with his dying and internal pity party of self-reflection and regret.

        “I think you had better go out among the boys. You are too much indoors” (273) It was never that Elizabeth truly wanted her son, George, to leave her side but she was painfully aware of how awkward their meetings were and she did not want him to feel obligated to have to remain there while she sat lifelessly self-indulging in her own inevitable death. For as long as George sat there with her in silence it was like he was digging a knife of guilt into her soul so she encouraged his departure.

        There are also distinct and vast differences as well, including main character genders, cause of characters oncoming death, the characters who sit with each dying characters gender, setting, allusions within each stories context, and the fact that Harry dies at the end of Hemingway’s story but Elizabeth is still alive at the end of Anderson’s section titled “Mother”. All of these result in completely different stories however that underlying personality that Harry and Elizabeth posses that is psychologically known as guilt brought on by remorse is present in both stories. Both Harry and Elizabeth feel guilty for not having achieved certain goals in life and now knowing the chance will shortly be taken away for good upon their deaths and they now feel remorseful for time wasted.

“No, he had never written about Paris. Not the Paris that he cared about. But what about the rest that he had never written?” (838)

“Between Elizabeth and her one son George, there was a deep sympathy, based on a girlhood dream that had long ago died.” (269) 

       Each character seemed to represent a lost quality that each writer, Hemingway, and Anderson, had inside his soul. Harry and Elizabeth each had things that they never accomplished in their lives and it now created a void. Both Hemingway and Anderson express this void through these characters and their loner past that clouds their minds. Harry could not be understood by anyone, or so he thought, and his missed opportunities are now images that plague his sleep. Elizabeth could not be understood, even by the Theatrical group that she wanted so much to be apart of and she magnified their laughs that “It’s not like that” (272) when she ventured to speak her inner thoughts. Both Hemingway and Anderson used these characters as a metaphor for their own personal regrets.



                                                                       Works Cited:

• “The Snows of Kilamanjaro.” The Norton Anthology: American Literature, edited by Nina Baym. Norton, 2012, 836, 838. “Mother.” The Norton Anthology: American Literature, edited by Nina Baym. Norton, 2012, 269, 272, 273.