Revisiting the Snow

Anna Britt

Mannon

English 205

7 April 2016

Revisiting the Snow

        At first when reading Hemingway’s, The Snows of Kilimanjaro, and Fitzgerald’s, Babylon Revisited, you might think that these two men have nothing in common. Hemingway, was your typical macho man, and Fitzgerald, who was more of a party animal than Hemingway, but if you dig a little deeper they’re actually almost the same person. They both wanted to enjoy life to its fullest. They both had their issues with women, Hemingway having four marriages and still having endless mistresses, and Fitzgerald being rejected by his wife when they first met. They both did like to drink also, it often would interfere with Fitzgerald’s work, in Babylon Revisited, Charlie says, “No, no more. I’m going slow these days.” (Fitzgerald 1026) then Alix congratulated him and said, “You were going pretty strong a couple of years ago. (Fitzgerald 1026), which this is around the time that he’s work started slowing down because of his partying and Hemingway basically just really loved his liquor. As for the work that they have done, they both have a wonderful, insightful side that would come out when they started writing.

        A lot of Hemingway’s character’s seemed to have a lot in common with him himself. In the story, “The Snows of Kilimanjaro” Harry says,

“There was so much to write. He had seen the world change; not just the events; alright he had seen many of them and had watched the people, but he had seen the subtler change and he could remember how the people were at different times. He had been in it and he had watched it and it was his duty to write of it; but now he never would.” (Hemingway 1076)

This has to be how Hemingway felt when he was writing this, the only difference is that he actually wrote it, unlike Harry. Hemingway liked to adventure, and when you adventure you usually see new things, meet new people, and learn new things that you didn’t know before, and that can defiantly change someone’s perspective on the world and what’s going on in it.

If you’ve ever read the “Great Gatsby”, then you know that the story is being told in first person, and it’s doesn’t feel like it’s just being told, it really feels like this person experienced these things first hand and that they aren’t just some made up story. The way that he describes everything that happens in the book from the people we meet, to the places he takes us and to the amazing parties he describes, again makes the reader feel as though Fitzgerald his experienced these things for himself, which he did, he was known for being a party boy. Fitzgerald also puts himself into his stories. Fitzgerald was kind of living the Gatsby life until it all came to a sketching halt, as did Charlie’s in Babylon Revisited. This next quote seems to really sum up the life experience for both of them.