Hemingway Goes to Kilimanjaro Trivia Quiz

Answer: Short story

"The Snows of Kilimanjaro" is a short story, about 22 pages, written after Hemingway's safari to Africa. It was first published in 1936 in "Esquire" magazine.

Answer: Tanzania

Mount Kilimanjaro is in Tanzania. The highest mountain in Africa, the origin of the name is undetermined, though Hemingway seemed to favor the interpretation of "kilelema" as "defeats" or "impossible", and "jaro" or "leopard"--a mountain that defeats the leopard. Early in his story, Hemingway writes: "Close to the western summit there is the dried and frozen carcass of a leopard". What the leopard symbolizes has been much debated by literary critics.

Answer: Writer

Harry Street is a professional writer who feels he abandoned his writing talent in trade for moral decay and decadence. Though the stories are still in him, he resents friends and lovers for leading him away from his true self, and feels he may never do his "duty" and get that writing done.

Answer: He was pricked by a thorn

A thorn pricked Harry's right leg, and untreated, it progressed to gangrene. He's isolated with a few others in the desert of Africa, and convinced no help will come in time:
"You ought to take some broth to keep your strength up."
"I'm going to die tonight," he said. "I don't need my strength up".

Answer: His wife Helen

Harry's wife Helen is with him, as well as his "personal boy" Molo and other unnamed servants. Street lies on a cot while Helen attempts to comfort him. They quarrel because he is angry with the very wealthy people he's associated with in his life, including her.

He had come to Africa to "work the fat off his soul", but now he believes he may die, instead. Harry watches Helen, noting her caretaking and kindness, but denies he loves her. He thinks to himself that he has only lied to and used his "dull" rich lovers and friends.

Answer: Harry's past memories

Hemingway takes the reader into the mind of Harry Street to experience his past, at war, gambling, in a blizzard, in Turkey, in the Black Forest, to events and places he had long intended to write about. Hemingway put these ruminations in italics, while the current-day reality of Street's wife, and Harry's medical condition, are in regular type.

The current-day tone is quarrelsome and abrupt, but the ruminations have a haunting beauty: "He thought of all the time in his life he had spent gambling.

But he had never written a line of that, nor of that cold, bright Christmas day..."

Answer: No

No, Harry dies. Harry's wife Helen, wakened by the "strange noise" and whimpering of a hyena, discovers Harry died in the night. Much to Hemingway's disappointment, in the 1952 Hollywood film adaptation of "The Snows of Kilimanjaro" Harry Street (Gregory Peck) spends the night reviewing his life, but he lives, and wakes with a new attitude about his wife (Susan Hayward), and his life.

Hemingway refused to see Hollywood's movie with its "silly" happy ending.

Answer: Tomorrow never comes

Live each day fully and be true to your talents and goals, because tomorrow may never come, is the powerful message in Hemingway's story. This is said to echo a fear Hemingway had for himself--that drinking too much, choosing comfort over work, and choosing lazy or indulgently wealthy friends and lovers might result in his death before he had written all he had to say.

Answer: As revolutionary in fiction

"The Snows of Kilimanjaro", while simple and short compared to Hemingway's novels, is considered among his greatest works. In 1952 the terse, direct form was revolutionary, and brought to the world of fiction a new American style very different from the ornate British works such as Shakespeare which dominated literature. Decades later Hemingway still reads as powerful and vivid, though his themes and propensities may be criticized.

Answer: To the top of Mount Kilimanjaro

Just as Harry Street is dying he hears a plane circling, in which a man named Compton has come to the rescue. Compton points out there is only room for one, so Harry must leave his wife Helen behind. They circle high over zebra and wildebeeste, forest and rain. "...there, ahead, all he could see, as wide as all the world, great, high, and unbelievably white in the sun, was the square top of Kilimanjaro".

It is interesting that throughout this story Harry Street feels neither pain nor fear of death.

His entire focus on his deathbed is distress and fury that he failed to fully utilize his talent before this untimely death, caused by the mere prick of a thorn.