The Snows of Kilimanjaro

Essay

The short stories "The Snows of Kilimanjaro" and "The Short Happy Life of Francis Mocomber" were both written by world renowned author Ernest Hemingway. The two stories are written completely unrelated to each other; however, both stories have vast similarities in the time and place in which they take place. Hemingway is a writer that is very methodical in his word choices. When reading these two stories a second time the reader finds considerable differences in the writing style the author uses in each story. To demonstrate, three sentences from each story will be compared and contrasted to show the differences in word usage, word connotation, and to find which story is written better. The initial pair of these sentences to be looked at are, "A fourth planned

down, to run quick-legged and then waddle slowly toward the others," from the short story "The Snows of Kilimanjaro," and "On the far bank of the stream Macomber could see, above the trees, vultures circling and plummeting down," from the story "The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber." The subsequent couple of sentences are "'You Bitch,' he said," from the "Snows of Kilimanjaro" and "'Why not let up on the bitchery just a little, Margot,' Macomber said, cutting the eland steak and putting some mashed potato, gravy and carrot on the down-turned fork that tined through the piece of meat." Finally, the third set of sentences are "She shot very well this good, rich bitch, this kindly destroyer of his talent," from the story "Snows of Kilimanjaro" and "'That was a good shot,' Wilson said," from the story, "A Short Happy Life."

The first sentence to be analyzed is, "A fourth planned

down, to run quick-legged and then waddle slowly toward the others," from the short story "The Snows of Kilimanjaro." In this sentence Hemingway is describing the actions of a vulture landing. When compared with its corresponding sentence from the short story "The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber," "On the far bank of the stream Macomber could see, above the trees, vultures circling and plummeting down," the reader can see similarities in the two sentences. Both sentences have to do with vultures flying and landing. However, there is a significant difference in the author's word usage in each. In the first sentence, the word "planned

" describes the vultures decent to the ground and in the second sentence the word "plummeted" is used. The word "planned

" as defined in the American Heritage Dictionary, is to soar or glide. The word "plummeted" as defined in the American Heritage Dictionary "is to fall straight down; plunge".

The two words are close in meaning; however, "plummeted" is a better word for the sheer reason that the reader can directly visualize the vultures dive toward earth. When the word "plummeted" is heard a person thinks of plunging to death or fall at in incredible rate. "Plummeted" is much more dramatic and defining then the word "planned

." The word "Planned" could have various images connected with it. "Planed" leaves the reader too many options when visualizing the vultures decent to the ground. For example the reader might visualize the vulture gliding down to the ground or zigzagging to the ground. The word 'Plummeted" is a better defined and more dramatic word. Making the sentence, "On the far bank of the stream Macomber could see, above the trees, vultures circling and plummeting down," the better sentence of the two.

The next two sentences, "'You Bitch,' he said," from the "Snows of Kilimanjaro" and "'Why not let up on the bitchery just a little, Margot,' Macomber said, cutting the eland steak and putting some mashed potato, gravy and carrot on the down-turned fork that tined through the piece of meat," again have similarities. For example, in each sentence the husband is calling his wife a bitch of sorts; however, it is the use of this word that makes these sentences different. In the first sentence the word "bitch" is used. The American Heritage Dictionary defines "bitch" as, "a woman considered to be spiteful or overbearing." Likewise