infection in his leg. As the story progresses, Harry reflects on his life, particularly with his lover Helen, whom he claims to despise.

The gangrenous infection, which causes his leg to stink and rot, can be seen as a decomposition of his dedication to his morality and his personal ideologies. Even more than that, the rotting of his leg is a symbol for the rotting of his own talent. The story reads,

He had destroyed his talent by not using it, by betrayals himself and what he believed in, by drinking to much that it blunted the edge of his perceptions, by laziness, by sloth, and by snobbery, by pride and by prejudice, by hook and by crook.

Reading this passage and comparing it to the character's slow death and the literal decomposition of his body, it becomes clear that Hemingway has crafted a tale about more than a man's physical death.

While it is never entirely safe to read works of fiction as autobiographical, "The Snows of Kilimanjaro" shares many characteristics with Hemingway himself. Hemingway held a certain contempt for the middle and upper classes, a trait shared by Harry, who finds himself morally compromised by loving the rich woman named Helen. Hemingway also loved African safaris, was a professional writer, and held traditionally masculine traits--like refraining from showing emotional affection to women--just like Harry. In this case, "The Snows of Kilimanjaro" acts as a perfect of the iceberg theory in several levels. There is, of course, the metaphorical aspects within the story, but there is also a psychological analysis of the author himself through his own work.

The iceberg theory is used to comment a lot upon the subconscious of humans. It is estimated that we only see about 20% of the icebergs floating on top of the water, and that the majority of the iceberg lurks unseen below the water. So it is with our consciousness. We display very little of who we are as humans.

We can relate this theory to this brilliant story by refering to the character of Harry and how his daydreams and flashbacks reveal more of him than his appearance and his comments and actions at the time of the story do. In particular, one of the most memorable hallucinations that could be argued to express his subconscious is his flight of fantasy at the end, when he imagines he has been saved in time and he describes flying above the peak of Kilimanjaro:

...and then they were out and Compie turned his head and grinned and pointed and there, ahead, all he could see, as wide as all the world, great, high, and unbelievably white in the sun, was the square top of Kilimanjaro. And then he knew that there was where he was going.

Throughout the story, Harry seems to be a character who is eaten up by the way he has betrayed his artistic talent and sold himself out. The symbol of the gangrene slowly eating up his leg is a powerful metaphor for the way that his perceived failures eat up his psyche, and he himself equates the two, saying, "Rot and poetry. Rotten poetry." Even though he could be said to squander his gifts in his life, as he dies he returns to the purity of artistic creation. The beautiful scene of the peak of Kilimanjaro is a sight that creates awe in him because of its purity. Ironically, it is only as he dies that his artistic ability is able to fully manifest itself in creating a transcendentent experience that emerges from his subconscious. The iceberg theory therefore shows Harry for who he really is, in spite of the way that he has lived his life.

A very fine discussion of the style of this story included in the eNotes study guide (see link below)  contends that in “The Snows of Kilimanjaro,” Hemingway does not use his “iceberg” theory of writing as much as he does in some of his other works.  The “iceberg” approach to writing asserts that good writing should imply much more than it openly states.  Effective writing suggests meaning rather than making meaning obvious, in much the same way that only the tip of an iceberg is visible, while the vast bulk of it lies beneath the surface of the water.  For a splendid example of the iceberg theory in practice, read Hemingway’s story “Hills Like White Elephants,” a very brief work that implies a great deal more than it ever openly says.

Yet even if “The Snows of Kilimanjaro” uses the iceberg method less extensively than it is used in other stories by Hemingway, its use is still evident.  Consider, for example, the story’s very first sentences:

“The marvelous thing is that it’s painless," he said. "That's how you know when it starts."
"Is it really?"
"Absolutely. I'm awfully sorry about the odor though. That must bother you."
"Don't! Please don't."

Who is the male speaker here?  What is painless? What is the double meaning of “marvelous” (in other words, how can that word be read both as serious and as possibly ironic)? What is the “it” of the second sentence? To whom is the male speaking? What is implied by the brief question spoken by the unidentified interlocutor? What is the tone of that question? In fact, what is the tone – or, rather, what are the tones – of all the sentences quoted here? In particular, what does the statement “That must bother you” imply about the relationship between the unidentified male and the unidentified person he is addressing? Is he genuinely concerned about bothering the other person?  Is he being sardonic? Is there a caustic edge to his statement? What does his statement imply about the other person? What does his statement imply about his attitude toward the other person? Why is a bad odor involved?

What, exactly, is the situation in which they find themselves?  Where are they?  Why does the second person respond so vehemently (“Don’t! Please don’t.”) to his statement about something bothering that person? What does the second person’s response imply about the nature of their relationship? What is/are the tone(s) of the second person’s reply? Is the person pained? Annoyed? Concerned? Angry? Vulnerable? Strong? Hemingway doesn’t explain, just as he doesn’t explain much of anything here. Instead, he merely reports speech, letting readers make their own assumptions and draw their own conclusions.  This is the “iceberg method” perfectly exemplified in less than thirty-five words.