The Snows of Kilimanjaro

One thing in this story that really stood out to me was the dynamics between men and women, particularly between Hemingway’s ideal man and woman.  I think the following quotation from The Snows of Kilimanjaro illustrates these dynamics.  Harry tells his wife that he thought she loved Africa, and she says, “I did when you were all right.  But now I hate it.  I don’t see why that had to happen to your leg.  What have we done to have this happen to us?”  Hary replies, “I suppose what I did was to forget to iodine on it when I first scratched it.”  The dialogue makes his wife look emotional, slightly irrational, and kind of whiny, whereas Harry looks stoic, rational, and in control.  Harry’s wife seems to think she has married Harry for love, but in reality it appears that she has not.  Harry has married her for money and security, and she gets security from him as well – she doesn’t have to be alone and he keeps her entertained.  These reasons are the only place where they seem to be the same.  His wife, although she may be a good woman and wife to him, marries him for reasons that are just as frivolous as his own, yet he admits that he doesn’t love her, while she continues to fool herself and try to fool her husband as well.  Hemingway doesn’t depict Harry in a good light necessarily, but I think he believed that it was okay for a man to be bad, but not for a woman to be so.  Harry is somewhat a bad character, but he is rational and honest.  His wife, on the other hand, is more of a good character (although she seems to me to be just as bad) but is more guided by emotion, is less rational, and lies to herself.  These two characters fit the mold of the sterotypical man and woman in that sense.