Free Essays on Earnest Hemingway

Harry, a writer, and his wife, Helen, are stranded while on safari in Africa. A bearing burned out on their truck, and Harry is talking about the gangrene that has infected his leg when he did not apply iodine after he scratched it. As they wait for a rescue plane from Nairobi that he knows won’t arrive on time, Harry spends his time drinking and insulting Helen. Harry reviews his life, realizing that he wasted his talent through procrastination and luxury from a marriage to a wealthy woman that he doesn’t love. In a series of flashbacks, Harry recalls the mountains of Bulgariaand Constantinople, as well as the suddenly hollow, sick feeling of being alone in Paris. Later, there were Turks, and an American poet talking nonsense about the Dada movement, and headaches and quarrels, and watching people whom he would later write about. Uneasily, he recalls a boy who’d been frozen, his body half-eaten by dogs, and a wounded officer so entangled in a wire fence that his bowels spilled over it. As Harry lies on his cot, he is aware that vultures are walking around his makeshift camp, and a hyena lurks in the shadows. Knowing that he will die before he wakes, Harry goes to sleep and dreams that the rescue plane is taking him to a snow covered summit of Kilimanjaro, the highest mountain in Africa. Its Western summit is called the Masai â€Å"Ngje Ngi,† the House of God, where he sees the legendary leopard. Helen wakes, and taking a flashlight, walks toward Harry’s cot. Seeing that his leg is dangling alongside the cot and that the dressings are pulled down, she calls his name repeatedly. She listens for his breathing and can hear nothing. Outside the tent, the hyena whines- a cry that is strangely human. Hemingway opens his story with an epigraph, a short, pithy observation about a lone leopard who sought the tip of Kilimanjaro (literally, â€Å"The House of God†). The African safari was Harry’s attempt to put his life back ... Free Essays on Earnest Hemingway Free Essays on Earnest Hemingway In â€Å"A Clean Well-Lighted Place†, Earnest Hemingway focuses on the pain of old age suffered by a man that we meet in a cafà © late one night. Through the use of dialogue, Hemingway creates three characters that symbolize the stages of life: birth, living, and death. Additionally, the tone of the story is created in three ways. First, he contrasts light and dark to show the difference between the difference between this man and the young people around him. Secondly, he uses the old man’s deafness as an image of his separation from the rest of the world. Lastly, Hemingway uses the image of â€Å"nada† or nothing. Hemingway’s tone and choice of language leaves the reader feeling that they too cannot escape from the doldrums of the â€Å"dead† years of their own life. Through the language of dialogue, three characters emerge creating a symbolic illustration of the progression of life. The young waiter states, â€Å" I have confidence, I am all con fidence†(258). He displays his eagerness to conquer the world. When we are young, we live for today, for ourselves, without regard for what the future may hold. Tomorrow is a dream; tomorrow is something left to the old. However, in all his confidence he lacks patience and understanding, which can only come with the experience of life. Because of this lack of experience, he is not capable of compassion for the old man â€Å"You have youth confidence and a job† the older waiter replies (258). The older waiter symbolizes the â€Å"living† stage of life. He is filled with despair, but not yet completely devoid of hope. He is uncertain of what the rest of his life may bring, but a modicum of hope still exists. The old waiter has the omniscient view of the three progressions of life. He has lived beyond his â€Å"birth† stage, is teetering in the â€Å"living† stage, and through the unfolding life of the old man, is painfully aware of the future. Is it f ear of growing old, the loneliness, or despair, whi... Free Essays on Earnest Hemingway Harry, a writer, and his wife, Helen, are stranded while on safari in Africa. A bearing burned out on their truck, and Harry is talking about the gangrene that has infected his leg when he did not apply iodine after he scratched it. As they wait for a rescue plane from Nairobi that he knows won’t arrive on time, Harry spends his time drinking and insulting Helen. Harry reviews his life, realizing that he wasted his talent through procrastination and luxury from a marriage to a wealthy woman that he doesn’t love. In a series of flashbacks, Harry recalls the mountains of Bulgariaand Constantinople, as well as the suddenly hollow, sick feeling of being alone in Paris. Later, there were Turks, and an American poet talking nonsense about the Dada movement, and headaches and quarrels, and watching people whom he would later write about. Uneasily, he recalls a boy who’d been frozen, his body half-eaten by dogs, and a wounded officer so entangled in a wire fence that his bowels spilled over it. As Harry lies on his cot, he is aware that vultures are walking around his makeshift camp, and a hyena lurks in the shadows. Knowing that he will die before he wakes, Harry goes to sleep and dreams that the rescue plane is taking him to a snow covered summit of Kilimanjaro, the highest mountain in Africa. Its Western summit is called the Masai â€Å"Ngje Ngi,† the House of God, where he sees the legendary leopard. Helen wakes, and taking a flashlight, walks toward Harry’s cot. Seeing that his leg is dangling alongside the cot and that the dressings are pulled down, she calls his name repeatedly. She listens for his breathing and can hear nothing. Outside the tent, the hyena whines- a cry that is strangely human. Hemingway opens his story with an epigraph, a short, pithy observation about a lone leopard who sought the tip of Kilimanjaro (literally, â€Å"The House of God†). The African safari was Harry’s attempt to put his life back ...