《乞力马扎罗的雪》是海明威的一部短篇小说，是对于一个临死前的人的出色描述。故事主要讲述一个作家哈里去非洲狩猎，途中汽车抛锚，皮肤被刺划破，染上坏疽病。他和他的妻子在等待一架飞机来把他送到医院治疗。小说围绕“死亡”和“即将死亡”来写，但根本的主题是哈里回到过去，从过去走到现在的历程回顾。哈里热爱这个世界，他有很多经短篇小说历，跟不同女人的经历，以及自己所从事的不同职业的经历，他都想写下来但却没来得及写，他最终没有能达到心中的目标，死前，他悔恨至极。故事的结尾，他死于一个梦境：他乘着飞机，向非洲最高峰——乞力马扎罗的山顶飞去。海明威将简约的写作风格发展到尽善尽美，他只选取、提炼最富有意义的事件和细节，以简约、凝练的手法，客观精确地勾勒出一幅幅生活图画

《乞力马扎罗的雪》被称为海明威艺术上最优秀的作品之一，不成其为故事的故事通过睡梦中的和醒时的两股意识流，相互交叉，相互转化；充分地描写了“死”，反复地对“死”的描写采用象征手法。

海明威的创作态度十分严肃，一贯反复地修改自己的作品。他喜爱马克·吐温并深受其影响。文体清秀、流畅明亮，这也是他语言艺术的风格。然而，最突出反映他创作特色的，还是作品中大多数人物都有颇带孤独感的内心独白，即长篇的心理描写，实际上也就是后来发展称为“意识流”的手法。从思想意义上看，他的人物或多或少地存在着悲观主义色彩，反映了他的世界观的局限。

哈里，是写作生涯取得一定成就之后在奢靡中迷失自己的人。但作为一个作家的警觉，他意识到了自己的迷失。他企图回到非洲，那个曾经给过他历练的地方，找回自己。但其实他明白，过去的自己，再也找不回了。伤口生坏疽而死不是真正的原因，“哀大莫过于心死”，但好在，死的时候他已清醒认识了自己，认识了人生。

那只峰顶死去的雪豹已在那里百年，它俯卧在地上，两条后腿蜷伏着，两条短粗有力的前腿支撑起它那不屈而机敏的脑袋。蓄势待发。

它为什么而来？山顶五千米以上海拔区域。已不适宜植物和动物生长和生活了。山上除了皑皑白雪和嶙岣的怪石，已经没有什么草木和动物。甚至连一只飞鸟也没有，那么这只豹子为什么来到这乞力马扎罗的峰顶呢？

当登山队发现这只雪豹之后，曾在欧洲的动物学家和社会各界就这只豹子展开了激烈的争论，众说纷纭了将近一年。大家才一致同意了这种说法：那只乞力马扎罗的豹子是在挑战自己生命的极限。它是为了验证自己生命的征服力，所以才在终年积雪的乞力马扎罗山巅之上殉道了。。。

1海明威的简约风格 哈里面对死亡经历了惧怕到平静到愤恨的过程，以至于和海伦的轻松的谈话都会发展到吵嘴，他的话甚至让海伦都失去信心。如：

译文1：“假如你一定要走”，她说，“那是不是就非得把你带不走的一切斩尽杀绝不可？我的意思是，你一定要带走一切？你一定要斩马杀妻，还要毁鞍烧甲？”

译文2：“要是你一定得离开人间的话”，她说，“是不是你非得把你没法带走的都砍尽杀绝不可呢？我的意思是说，你是不是非得把什么东西都带走不可？你是不是一定要把你的马，你的妻子都杀死，把你的鞍子和你的盔甲都烧掉呢？”显然译文1比译文2简练一些，而且意思到位，更贴近海明威的简练的风格。

2第二人称的写作手法 这篇小说中海明威还运用了第二人称的写作手法。他用“你”来邀请读者走进他的世界，期望读者与他共同感受生活，与他进行交谈，从而拉进彼此的距离，让人感到他在真诚地为读者而创作 如：译文1：那时候赌博是常事。不下雪时赌，雪下得太多时又赌。

译文2：那时候总是赌博。天不下雪，你赌博，雪下得太多，你又是赌博。

从这里可以看出译文2在翻译时也用了第二人称，这样，译文读者读起来也能体会到海明威邀请读者走进他的世界，有近距离的体会。

就手法而言，书中把象征和意识流的手法运用到了极致，这与普鲁斯特那种脑残体版的《追忆逝水年华》最大的区别就是讲究情节的通畅和内容的可读性。当现代文青们开口闭口都是时髦的米兰·昆德拉、卡尔维诺，却忽略了小说不是代替哲思的题材，我们看小说的本质不是寻累，而是我们需要《麦琪的礼物》那种简单的感动，《项链》读后回味在苦涩中颖悟。

乞力马扎罗山位于坦桑尼亚乞力马扎罗东北部，邻近肯尼亚,所以海明威选择这座山也是深有含义的，正如一开篇引言的象征意义：“乞力马扎罗山终年积雪，银装素裹，海拔达一万九千七百一十英尺，据称为非洲的第一高山??在西峰之巅附近，有一具风干的豹尸。这只豹到

这样高的峰岭来寻找什么，谁也无法解释。”

海明威的小说意味深长的简洁，就由此神秘的引子而展开，让我们一开始就体会到海明威“冰山风格”的魅力，对于“冰山风格”海明威的体会是：如果一个作家对于他想写的东西心里有数，那么他可以省略他所知道的东西，而读者呢，只要作者写的真实，会强烈地感受到他省略的地方，好像作者已经写出来了似的．冰山在海面移动很庄严雄伟，这是因为它四分之三是在水面下”。

所以在《乞力马扎罗山上的雪》中乞力马扎罗山、豹子、海伦、鬣狗、坏疽、和雪，都具有鲜明的象征意义，故事的情节其实并不复杂，说的是一个灵感消逝的作家，带着一个爱慕者自己的女人来到非洲最高之山寻求自己根源， 文中重复使用“现实”来连接不同心理空间、空间置换手段的缺省,那些稍纵即逝的过去片断、那种转瞬即逝来不及记录的灵感，一个个蒙太奇般的旧日场景在现实中穿梭，来演示了生命与空间的螺旋。

书中的海伦是一个富有又美丽善良的女子，她费尽心思去爱着主人公，但主人公却一点不爱这个女子，他用自己的才能去追逐女人，一个比另一个更有钱的女人，一次比一次的沉沦。对于他而言海伦就是贪图安逸和堕落的象征，既离不开这种安逸的包围，却又要面对日复一日激情的衰逝，以至于想写的一直没有去动笔，就这样一边在安逸的追逐中，一边痛恨自己对才华的虚掷。 所以才有了乞力马扎罗山这个终极的目标，这目标是一种力量的源泉，也是一种终极的归宿。这不禁让人想起海明威自己的结局， 海明威晚年的饮弹自尽，情节是多么的与书中情节相同。就像是他早早地在《乞力马扎罗山上的雪》早已经把自己生命的极限给划定。 不仅仅海明威，是我们每一个喜爱文字的人，每一个喜欢写作的爱好者，乞力马扎罗山上的雪都是我们迈步过的坎，我们试图竭泽之鱼以挽回自己江郎才尽的缓缓滑落，面对着日落一日般的恐惧，我们渴望激情，渴望一生中能让自己振奋起来的激情，肉体的沉沦只会使我们更加沉沦，我们需要的不过是一份能充分唤起自己冲动的激情，无数生不如死的日头叠加，其实不若一朝极致的永恒。

每一个对生活心有欲求的人，每一个对感情尚心有不甘的，每一个对文学爱好历经沉沦而不悔的人，都要看这篇小说，来把自己所有的伤痛感集聚、把所有的不甘点燃，让自己内心在情感的挣扎中冲突，冲突并沉沦。世界上没有一种痛能遮盖住所有其他的痛，也没有一种麻木能麻醉所有的缺憾，更没有那种彻底的沉沦能让自己从此无欲无求。

我们可以轻易登临乞力马扎罗的山，我们却迈不过岭雪的那道坎。

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第二篇：乞力马扎罗的雪英语论文

Thesis, 2011, Tianjin University of Technology & Education I. Introduction

1.1 About the author

Ernest Miller Hemingway (July 21, 1899 – July 2, 1961) was an American novelist, short-story writer, and journalist. He was part of the 1920s expatriate community in Paris, as well as the veterans of World War One later known as “the Lost Generation”, as described in his posthumous memoir A Moveable Feast. He received the Pulitzer Prize in 1953 for The Old Man and the Sea and the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1954. Hemingway’s distinctive writing style is characterized by economy and understatement. It had a significant influence on the development of twentieth-century fiction writing. His protagonists are typically stoic men who exhibit an ideal described as “grace under pressure.” Many of his works are now considered canonical in American literature.

Hemingway incorporated the deep understanding of death into his own life consciousness with unique, grave and stern sight. First published in the August, 1936, issue of Esquire, The Snows of Kilimanjaro has been called Hemingway’s short story masterpiece. He wrote the story after his first safari to Africa and was so fascinated by the place that he told reporters he wanted to go back as soon as he had enough money. A wealthy woman read his remarks and offered to finance the trip for Hemingway, his wife Pauline, and herself. Hemingway turned her down, but he wondered what the trip would have been like if he had gone, and 1

Thesis, 2011, Tianjin University of Technology & Education the story was born from that notion.

1.2 About the fiction

The Snows of Kilimanjaro is a combination of fact and fiction. In the story, while facing his imminent death on an African safari, a writer goes in and out of consciousness. During his conscious moments, he argues with his wife and seems intent on destroying her. During unconscious or dream-like states, he remembers his life and has insights into why he made some of the choices he made. He has regrets, fears, and some wonderful memories of good times, as well. These memories are based on Hemingway’s own experiences and professional career.

The story centers on the memories of a writer named Harry who is on safari in Africa. He develops an infected wound from a thorn puncture, and lies awaiting his slow death. This loss of physical capability causes him to look inside himself – at his memories of the past years, and how little he has actually accomplished in his writing. He realizes that although he has seen and experienced many wonderful and astonishing things during his life, he had never made a record of the events. He also quarrels with the woman with him, blaming her for his living decadently and forgetting his failure to write of what really matters to him, namely his experiences among poor and interesting people, not the predictable upper class crowd he has fallen in with lately. Thus he dies, having lived through so much and yet having lived only for the moment, with no 2

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regard to the future. In a dream he sees a plane coming to get him and take him to the top of Mount Kilimanjaro.

Ⅱ. An analysis on stream of consciousness in the fiction

2.1 About the stream of consciousness

2.1.1 Presentation of stream of consciousness

Stream of consciousness is the continuous flow of sense-perceptions, thoughts, feelings, and memories in the human mind or a literary method of representing such a blending of mental processes in fictional characters, usually in an unpunctuated or disjointed form of interior monologue. An important device of modernist fiction and its later imitators, the techniques was pioneered by Dorothy Richardson in Pilgrimage (1915-35) and by James Joyce in Ulysses (1922), and further developed by Virginia Woolf in Mrs. Dalloway (1925) and William Faulkner in The sound and the Fury (1928). In literary criticism, stream of consciousness is a narrative mode that seeks to portray an individual’s point of view by giving the written equivalent of the character’s thought processes, either in a loose interior monologue, or in connection to his or her actions.

In the field of literary criticism, M.H. Abrams gives a definition of stream of consciousness: “Describe[s] the unbroken flow of perceptions, thoughts and feelings in the waking mind”. 1According to his definition in

A Glossary of Literary Terms, stream of consciousness is the name for a special mode of narration that undertakes to reproduce, without a 3

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narrator’s intervention, the full spectrum and the continuous flow of a character’s mental process, in which sense perceptions mingle with conscious and half-conscious thoughts, memories, expectations, feelings, and random associations. Stream of consciousness refers to the content or the subject-matter of a literary work; it refers to the specifically-described, theme-reflecting perceptual life and psychological phenomenon contained in a literary work.

2.1.2 The features of stream of consciousness

The first feature of stream of consciousness is interior monologue. Stream-of-consciousness writing is usually regarded as a special form of interior monologue and is characterized by associative leaps in syntax and punctuation that can make the prose difficult to follow. In stream of consciousness, the speaker’s thought processes are more often depicted as overheard in the mind (or addressed to oneself). Stream of consciousness emphasizes the origin of a narrative from inside the mind of a single character, rather than from an objective and distanced third party.

The second feature of stream of consciousness is free association. The narrator conveys a subject’s thoughts, impressions, and perceptions and without the logic and grammar of typical speech and writing. Rather than summarizing what the characters see, think and do, reporting from the outside, or tidying up a character’s thoughts into standard, clear sentences, author tries to give the reader an impression of what it is like 4

Thesis, 2011, Tianjin University of Technology & Education to be inside the characters’ heads.

The third feature of stream of consciousness is inversion of time and space. It’s a combination of thought, sensation, memory, description, action, and speech. The author is trying to give a more realistic picture of psychology than had ever before been presented in fiction. The lack of some punctuation in stream of consciousness narratives accentuates the rapidity of the thoughts and the means by which they flow into one another. It also gives a sense of real time – as though the author is having the thoughts at the sense speed at which we read them.

2.2 The application of stream of consciousness in the fiction

2.2.1 The expression of stream of consciousness in the fiction

While reading through literature works across culture, readers are always finding out that the fictions of the stream of consciousness are still inevitable confounded with a challenge or rather a specially contradiction between the readability and the sense of reality and the description of conscious activities, even through the writers have tried hard to solve this problem above, yet less successfully. Meanwhile another challenge, which comes from a great task for the stream-of-consciousness writers to accomplish, concerns the accurate verbal description of the non-verbal states of mind. And this is beyond the ability of an arties or a writer, for the mystery of consciousness including subconsciousness, of course, is still out of man’s intellectual reach. Nevertheless, Ernest Hemingway 5

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presents us in his outstanding style with his precious artistic exploration of the human consciousness and subconsciousness in his short story The Snows of Kilimanjaro.

The story begins with some bantering dialogue between the main character, Harry, and his wife, Helen, both sitting beneath a mimosa tree waiting for a rescue plane to arrive and take Harry back to civilization. Harry’s leg has been infected from a thorn, and the gangrene infection is slowly killing him as it spreads (painlessly) to the rest of his body. There is some foreshadowing of his death, even from the very beginning of the story – Harry mentions “the odor”, as the two of them observes several large birds nearby – presumably vultures or some other type of carrion bird. As he lies near death on a cot in the African wilds, his thoughts go back to his life experiences. Hemingway skillfully develops Harry’s character by use of his cutting words to his wife, his memories of other women and other times, his attitude towards death, and his ceaseless drinking even when he knows it is harmful. Since Hemingway based this character on himself, he made Harry very realistic, drawing on his own professional resume to establish a journalistic background for Harry.

When his imagination travels back to the reality, Harry can not help damning that love is a dunghill. He thinks himself only “a spy” in the rich world and unconsciously gives his last farewell to this life of pleasant surrender. Just at the moment he is disappointed at the hope for living 6

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anew subconsciously in the state of dreaming, Harry comes back to life again. His rich wife leaves to fetch him a whiskey-soda. He might have enjoyed his drink even a while, but too tired, he was going to sleep a little while. He lay still and death was not there. It must have gone around another street. It went in pairs, on bicycles, and moved absolutely on the pavements. And so Harry is quickly once more for fear of the approach of death. At a mercy of a desire of writing soundly and his careful selection of the signification incidents from the coming consciousness flashback consist of the core of the fourth back-bouncing section.

What is too late to repent is that Harry can not rise up against his present degradation. The synchronously painful feelings from his body and soul are so great that they have made him insensitive. Under the guide of the expectation to a new life, his soul is involuntarily flying to the snow-covered summit of Kilimanjaro. The stream of consciousness operates on different levels – that of waking and that of dreaming. All this constitutes is unique structure. That is relatively Hemingway’s contribution to the stream of consciousness technique. As we know, no one else but Hemingway accomplished such a structure, even if Joyce and Proust never.

In this way, Hemingway breaks through the limits of time ands space in his pithy style, almost entirely revealing everything both Harry’s waking and imagination as well. During the course of bounces between 7

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Harry’s waking and imagination, the author not simply describes Harry’s conscious variant current-from world-weariness to indignation, and then to a short of complicated minds, and meanwhile he also discovers the course of Harry’s constantly shifting thought – from simplicity to degradation, and then to awaking. Harry’s stream of consciousness occurs logically and soundly at the same time as the events happen around him, even those before. Just like many other heroes created by Hemingway, most of who face the threats of death or the tight corner usually with a solemn and stirring spirit appearing, Harry, when he comes to realize that he is destroyed by the rich’s luxurious and decadent way of life, feeling a deep tiredness, still does not lose his entire hope like the young of the Beat Generation of his time.

And we can found that the image of Harry is not created by means of the usual narrative but the stream of consciousness. That is very remarkable in Hemingway’s work. To the author, there is something specially indeed above many of the writers of his time, even if in the artistic field of the stream of consciousness. Just through it Hemingway in a way keeps himself in the foreground. If any artist so desires, he might as well follow the inspiring and excellent example established by Hemingway.

2.2.2 The function of stream of consciousness in the fiction

Stream of consciousness technique is an instrument finely tuned to the 8

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portrayal of his characters and his internal world. The Snows of Kilimanjaro is a typical example of the stream of consciousness narratives. With the technique, the plot moves smoothly forward, the theme is better presented and the work possesses more artistic charm when life is depicted more vividly and authentically.

The whole story is made up of the dialogues between Harry and Helen, and some scenic descriptions inform the reader of the background. However, a series of Harry’s ruminations occupy the main section of the text. As Harry’s psychological activities progress, the text also moves forward. In another sense, the text is a description of the psychological process of Harry’s recollection of the past and his introspection of the reality, in which the protagonist got apperception from death and later sought spiritual immorality. It would be difficult for the narrator to finish the story if he does not adopt the stream of consciousness technique. The story happened in a very short time: the afternoon and evening before Harry died. However, the story is not limited by such a short period and a narrow space. By using the stream of consciousness technique, which is characterized by its jumbled spatio-temporal structure, the narrator expresses Harry’s inner world and displays his past, present and future, expanding the protagonist's mental world in a boundless way.

The charm of stream of consciousness in The Snows of Kilimanjaro rests with its rendering of Harry consciousness and subconsciousness so 9

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that the reader can naturally experience a stream of flowing consciousness and reflect on various social phenomena. Instead of being restrained by logic, Harry’s free association is controlled by his imagination. As a result, the structure of stream of consciousness is abrupt or multilayered and the reader gets aesthetic enjoyment from it. Moreover, when we read The Snows of Kilimanjaro, we can sense that the narrator tries to reflect life, society and the world by describing the characters’ spiritual and psychological changes. We have rich associations during such reading process, as we are given a way for freethinking and are actually searching the essence of life.

Stream of consciousness technique is used successfully in the text. Harry’s rigorous and painful self-examination culminates in the famous dream vision at the end of the story: his body died, yet his consciousness flew on and in illusion, he arrived at the square top of Kilimanjaro, a place which was as wide as the entire world, great, high, and unbelievably white in the sun. It actually symbolizes Harry’s spiritual revival from degeneration. In short, by Harry’s flowing stream of consciousness the story truly reveals his mental activities before his death. He finished his introspection on his whole life and at the end, his soul became imperishable. In this short story, Harry’s stream of consciousness enables the reader to go deep into his life, his thoughts and his personality. It serves as a line to link the whole story together and constitutes its main 10

Thesis, 2011, Tianjin University of Technology & Education content.

Ⅲ. Symbolism and iceberg principle

3.1 The symbolic implications in the fiction

Symbolism is the systematic or creative use of arbitrary symbols as abstracted representations of concepts or objects and the distinct relationships in between, as they define both context and the narrower definition of terms. In a narrow context, “symbolism” is the applied use of any iconic representations which carry particular conventional meanings. In literature, symbolism may refer to the use of abstract concepts or to allow for the broader applicability of the prose to meanings beyond what may be literally described. In fact, most or all authors of fiction – make the symbolic use of concepts and objects as rhetorical devices central to the meaning of their works. Joseph Conrad and James Joyce, for example, used symbolism extensively, to represent themes which applied to greater contexts in their contemporary politics and society.

The creation of the novel has something to do with fiction, and symbolism makes the novel obtain the artistic lingering charm. If fiction shows the essence of life through the surface of life, symbolism can make the narration high concise, give the profound thought intention to ordinary life materials. This kind of intention is reflected by means of the implicative method. It hides between the lines to let readers understand, 11

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ponder and imagine. Symbolism deepens the artistic circumstances of the novel, which can be regarded as the highest state of novel’s artistry. The Snows of Kilimanjaro is also a typical example of symbolism.

The application of symbolism in The Snows of Kilimanjaro not only strengthens the authenticity, artistry and readability, but also makes the theme of the novel sublimate naturally. In the fiction, the narrator uses different symbols, including policemen, hyena etc. to describe Harry’s subtle feelings about death. Harry’s journey to Africa was an attempt to regain this ability of mind that he had lost, and ironically, what he found there was death. Death is expressed in symbols, such as the already mentioned carcass of the leopard, the vultures flying over the camp, the hyena appearing there several times.

As we look closely at the text, we can see from the free associations in the story that the character’s different psychological reactions are set off by relevant symbols. For instance, snow has symbolic implications in the story. Snow is here the sinister background of death, injury, blood, and it is described as something ominous and dangerous: snow was so bright it hurt your eyes. It was also snow that reminded Harry of frightful war experiences. And it is snow that Harry sees in his last dream. Harry’s recollections arise from snow; many of his experiences are linked with snow and his sublimation is realized at the top of a snowy mountain – Kilimanjaro. In the story, snow is the symbol of both clarity and death. It 12

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permeates the whole story and the snow land is the medium of Harry’s associations and feelings.

The figures of the frozen leopard and scavenging hyena contrast two attitudes to death: while the leopard’s preserved corpse suggests the possibility of permanence through fame, the hyena signifies the inevitability of death. Kilimanjaro itself offers a powerfully multifaceted symbol. The mountain represents the mystery of death, a mystery underlined by the double closure of The Snows of Kilimanjaro. The novel is contrasted with the symbolism of the plains. Harry is dying in the plains from gangrene, a stinking, putrid, and deadly infection, causing his body to rot and turn greenish black. Against Harry’s background of dark, smelly horror and hopelessness, Hemingway contrasts Harry’s memories of the good times that he had in the mountains. Good things happen in the mountains; bad things happen on the plains. Hemingway ends his story with Harry’s spirit triumphant, as when Harry dies, his spirit is released and travels to the summit of the mighty mountain where the square top of Kilimanjaro is “wide as all the world”; it is incredibly white as it shines dazzlingly in the sunlight. The mountain is brilliant, covered with pure white snow; it is incredibly clean – a clean, well-lighted place.

Just then, death had come and rested its head on the foot of the cot and he could smell its breath. In illusion, Harry saw the image of death: 13

Thesis, 2011, Tianjin University of Technology & Education

“It can be two bicycle policemen as easily, or be

a bird. Or it can have a wide snout like a

hyena.” Harry felt the contact with death too:

“It had moved up on him now, but it had no

shape any more. It simply occupied space...it did

not go away but moved a little closer... It moved

up closer to him still and now he could not

speak to it, and when it saw he could not speak

it came a little closer, and now he tried to send it

away without speaking, but it moved in on him

so its weight was all upon his chest, and while it

crouched there and he could not move or

speak.”2

Besides symbolic implications, by intuitional art, the above passages describe the senses of various sense organs such as seeing, smelling, hearing and feeling, telling the reader precisely how Harry’s psychology and physiology change when death is approaching. The intuitional art enables the reader to feel that death is a concrete object that can be clearly sensed. More importantly, the narrator uses three symbols – the bicycle policemen, the hyena and the white square top of the mountain instead of directly describing the death process of the protagonist to imply that death is gradually approaching. The white square top of Kilimanjaro symbolizes death and indicates that death is an unavoidable ending for all men. The hyena appears three times from the beginning to the end in the story. Every time it appears, it implies that Harry is coming closer and closer to death. At last, Harry’s death is intimated by the animal’s strange noise and abnormal behavior.

The Snows of Kilimanjaro is a short story rich in symbolism. 14

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Hemingway endows his ordinary people and things with symbolic meanings such as a leopard, a hyena, gangrene, the snow-covered mountain and the plain and thus brings to sharp contrast between two sets of values: a real life and a living death. All the symbols serve the work so well that the theme is well deepened and the work achieves great significance both in literary terms and social terms. Through the function of symbol, we can see the author’s attitude and comprehension towards life.

3.2 Iceberg principle in the fiction

In Hemingway’s novel The Snows of Kilimanjaro, we can see his iceberg principle being applied. That is, he presented the story with simple sentences and dialogues and left a large space for readers to explore, to reflect. It was just like the iceberg, which had only one-eighth part on the water and seven-eighths part under the water. When talking about Hemingway’s writing techniques, some famous Chinese and foreigner critics point out two cartelistic of his novels are spare, laconic, terse, clear, telegraph-like, yet intense prose with short sentences and very specific details and “Hemingway’s dialogue”.

“In the morning at breakfast, looking out the

window and seeing snow on the mountains in

Bulgaria and Nansen’s Secretary asking the

old man if it were snow and the old man looking

at it and saying, No, that’s not snow. It’s too

early for snow. And the Secretary repeating to

the other girls, No, you see. It’s not snow and

them all saying, It’s not snow we were mistaken.

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But it was the snow all right and he sent them

on into it when he evolved exchange of

populations. And it was snow they tramped

along in until they died that winter.” 3

The entire sentence before are short sentence and declarative sentence. Often use the words conjunction is “and” “but”. However such terse and plain and words compose the worlds full of meanings. Hemingway exhibited a very distinct writing style, which he outlined in what is referred to as his “Iceberg Theory”. In his stories, Hemingway strips away many descriptive elements, especially from the third-person point of view, leaving mostly raw dialog and observations from the characters’ perspectives. What he tried to achieve was “the vivid picture obtained through the direct communications between the eyes and the reference and that between the reference and the readers” 4. He believed that a writer knew what he was writing about, he could omit some details, and, if the writing was good enough, the readers could figure out what the writer had omitted in his writing.

In this story, conversation is the most important element and the most important source for the readers’ imagination. Most dialogues in this novel happen between Harry and his wife Helen mainly use direct quotation’s way. Although their conversation is briefness, it represents the subtle feelings of character vividly. Sometimes even a few words, it has implications except literal meanings. Since author takes advantage of brief dialogues skillfully, his work gains success. First of all, the use of 16

Thesis, 2011, Tianjin University of Technology & Education

dialogues makes him far away from the position of narrator to a large extent, which is good for him to write down the events objectively and fairly. Secondly, brief dialogues are more effective than complex description as far as exaggerate atmosphere is concerned. When evaluating Hemingway, every critic researches his writing style carefully. His practical and realistic style wins consistent high praise and respect. What makes up his writing style is brevity.

We can see the author’s attitude and comprehension towards life in The Snows of Kilimanjaro. Through it, we can also see the author’s concise and implicit characteristics which form the author’s style of Iceberg. Hemingway believed that a writer’s style should be direct and personal, his imagery rich and earthy, and his words simple and vigorous. Just like the writing techniques has used in this fiction – simple, straight forward and modest. Hemingway’s prose is unadorned as a result of his abstaining from using adjectives as much as possible. He relates a story in the form of straight journalism, but because he is a master of transmitting emotion with out embellishing it, the product is even more enjoyable. IV.Conclusion

Being distinguished from other famous American writers, Hemingway, who was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1954 for his mastery of the art of modern narration, helps to accomplish a reformation in the literary circles. Many of Hemingway’s stories and novels are regarded as 17

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classics; they are taught in schools and have wide appeal to various ages. Hemingway’s unique style that makes him win a high reputation in the literary circles that has accomplished a reformation on the traditional literature.

The theme of facing death with courage and “grace under pressure,” Hemingway’s code of living, is dealt with from the beginning of the story when Harry admits that death is painless. He has lived in fear of death all his life, even been obsessed with it, and now that he is faced with it. He finds he is too tired to fight it. He accepts it. Still, he wished he had written about the things that had affected his life: the joy of skiing, the emotional upheaval of the first true love, the unquestionable loyalty to an old soldier. He has learned too late that every day counts and that tomorrow might not come; every day should be lived to the fullest.

At the same time, we can get some enlightenment from the fiction The Snows of Kilimanjaro from two aspects. One is about the warnings taken from the experience and tragedy of the protagonist, Harry; the other aspect involves the incompletely pessimistic theme of death, and a deeper understanding of a tough guy attitude towards death. The achievements of the enlightenments are attained through an appreciation of Hemingway’s unique and polished writing skills and art.

As we know, The Snows of Kilimanjaro is one of Hemingway’s short stories and it best shows stream of consciousness technique in narratives. 18

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The whole story is almost made up of stream of consciousness narration to reveal the character’s psychology. We can say that stream of consciousness technique is used successfully in the text, but we may have discovered that it contains some weakness: the narratives are all unclear, vague, and obscure that makes the reader hard to understand. Maybe every reader has such a feeling when he read it for the first time or even the second time that he still doesn’t know what the author was talking about, and he may find that it is a hard job to read Hemingway’s excessive use of dialogues.

Comments on Hemingway’s style have seemed to agree on the simplicity and apparent naturalness of his prose, and its effect of profundity. In The Snows of Kilimanjaro, the dead image was be analyzed from Symbolism. Symbol is a way of using something integral to the work to reach beyond the work and engage the world of value outside the work. The relationship between the symbol and its referent is not often one of simple equivalence. Symbolists tend to avoid any direct statement of meaning. Instead, they work through emotionally powerful symbols that suggest meaning and mood.

Moreover, through the function of symbolism in Hemingway’s The Snows of Kilimanjaro, we can see the author’s attitude and comprehension toward life. Trough it, we can also see the author’s concise and implicit characteristics which form the author’s style of 19

Thesis, 2011, Tianjin University of Technology & Education

“Iceberg”. Hemingway avoids any direct statement of meaning. Instead, he works through emotionally powerful symbols that suggest meaning and mood. The principle of iceberg was the main reason attracting readers and critics. The whole art of the principle is concision and profundity.

In summary, Hemingway’s style is simple, direct and somewhat plain. He developed a forceful prose style characterized by simple sentences and few adverbs or adjectives. He wrote concise, vivid dialogue and exact description of places and things. Undoubtedly, his language is beautiful, his dialogue is marvellous, and his style of conciseness and implicitness is of high artistic appeal. And, as one of the best short stories The Snows of Kilimanjaro displays all these perfectly. Whenever we talk about Hemingway’s style we’ll surely talk of his highly skilled use of narration and dialogue, and The Snows of Kilimanjaro will surely be the first example and the best as well.

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Notes:

1Leary, Lewis. Criticism: Some Major American Writers (Holt, Rinehart and Winston, Inc., 1971.) 324

2Ernest Hemingway. The Snows of Kilimanjaro. An Anthology of Twentieth Century American Fiction, (East China Normal University Press, 1981.) 125-288

3Ernest Hemingway. The Snows of Kilimanjaro. An Anthology of Twentieth Century American Fiction, (East China Normal University Press, 1981.) 68

4Santangelo, Gennaro. “The Dark Snows of Kilimanjaro” The Short Stories of Ernest Hemingway: Critical Essays (Durham: Duke University Press, 1975.) 423

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