A Special Course in American Literature

Prof. Dr. LIGIA DOINA CONSTANTINESCU

A Feminist Approach to Ernest Hemingways The
Snows of Kilimanjaro
Student: TUDOR CRISTINA
French- English, 4th year ! study, "#4$
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A Feminist Approach to Ernest Hemingways
The Snows of Kilimanjaro
When referring to what we call literature norms, the famous
feminist critic, Elaine Showalter remarks, and with good reason too, that
in most of what we call good literature: too many literary abstractions
which claim to be universal have in fact described only male perceptions,
experiences, and options... (Toward A Feminist Poetics, p.124), the result
being the unfair treatment of woman as the Marginal, the secondary sex
not allowed to speak and express its own perceptions and personality.
Ernest Hemingways well-known short-story The Snows of
Kilimanjaro is one literary product which refects best the womans
marginal position in a great American writers work. A representative
work for its creator, The Snows of Kilimanjaro has a rather simple plot:
Harry, a journalist aspiring to be a writer, and his wife, Helen,
participate in safari hunting on Kilimanjaro Mountains, where Harry gets
a gangrened leg. The story is focused on Harry last hours of life and on
his discussions with Helen.
When talking about this short-story, it is quite impossible to
overlook the distinctive roles detained by the two characters, and the
continuous confict between them. Seen from a Feminist perspective,
these characters are clearly, if not dangerously, representing an
patriarchal way of conceiving sexes roles: the man - a typically
dominant, aggressive male, frustrated by the wasting of his talent, always
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not only disregarding but also insulting his wife: You bitch, you rich
bitch!; the woman - a not named, totally submissive character,
emotionally dependent on her husband.
A Feminist critic could not help observing the fact that this short-
story shows many hints of a patriarchal conception and of a marginal
position of the female character. From the very beginning, there are two
distinct perspectives of her: Harrys and the narrators, all converging to
an inferior position comparing to her man. Harrys subjective perception
shows her as the kindly caretaker and destroyer of his talent- ftting
perfectly Hlne Cisouxs considerations on the woman inferior status in
a phallocentric society which blames her for being frigid, for being too
hot, for being both at once; for being too motherly and not enough... (The
Laugh of the Medusa, p.312). Furthermore, Helens rare, short answers
also construct an image of the woman as an obedient being, not allowed
to criticize her man but only to take care of him.
Nevertheless, there are some elements presenting this character in
a diferent view as a rich emancipated woman, having few love-afairs,
etc., as the provider for food, as the only active character in the story.
Willingly or not, Hemingway gives also an objective perspective of this
character, letting his reader guess that there is something more behind
the mask imposed by the patriarchal perception of women. This
correlated with the last scene of the story showing the woman fnding
Harrys body and her incapacity to hear the hyenas noise for the beat of
her heart - thus indicating the authors focus on the character at the end
- leads to a probable change in Hemingways perspective of the female
status, from a phallocentric one to a modern one.
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To sum up, a Feminist critic always fnds something to reproach to
Hemingway when analysing his female characters, as they are
undoubtedly marginalized, somehow associated with the death of man, of
virility, of lucid control against emotions- all favourite themes of the
phallocentric society and culture. And, still, this disregard of the other
sex can possibly determine a critic to neglect a great writers literary
value?! Obviously, it cannot.
Bibliography:
Showalter, Elaine Toward a Feminist Poetics,
1979
Cisoux, Hlne The Laugh of the Medusa,1975
Hemingway, Ernest The Snows of Kilimanjaro
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