Ernest Hemingway emerged as one of America’s more colorful writers in the early to mid-1900s, presenting himself as the ultimate man’s man, worldly traveler, mighty hunter, and hard-drinking spinner of tales. Within a short span of time, 1925-1929, he had established himself as having produced some of the most important literary fiction in his century. His short stories focused on the virtues held by men a generation or two earlier than him as well as the effects and aftereffects of war. Yet each story contained a deeper message within the lines if the reader felt the desire to go searching for it. He believed in omitting extra details as a way of strengthening his stories. He compared this to an iceberg. With an iceberg, only the top 1/8th can be seen above the water. The rest remains below the surface, providing it with its momentum and dignity. Hemingway believed his stories should follow this same structure. Although some critics loved him, others said his stories were shallow. “He had no sympathy for women, they said, portraying them either as manhood-destroying bitches or as mere objects of sexual domination” (Lynn, 1987, p. 10). A close reading of his stories reveals not only the messages the author intended to send but also some insights as to the way he felt about things. Hemingway’s preoccupation with machismo can be seen woven throughout the story “The Snows of Kilimanjaro.”
Machismo is a term that requires some form of definition before one can have any serious discussion. The Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines the term as “a strong sense of masculine pride: an exaggerated masculinity” or as “an exaggerated or exhilarating sense of power or strength” (2009). The idea of a certain form of male identity or behavior is at the center of the concept, while how this male identity should be defined varies widely. Behaviors associated with the machismo attitude include an abusive, controlling, and violent approach toward women and children, but this is not necessarily the case. “Drunkenness, abusing women, raising hell … are some mistaken conceptions of what machismo means … And yet the uninformed often point to such behavior and call it machismo. In fact, much of this negative behavior is aped by a new generation, because as young men, they are not aware that they are being conditioned. Young men acting contrary to the good of their community have not yet learned the essence of maleness” (Anaya, 1996). Machismo is derived from the term ‘macho’, which originally was used to refer to the simple fact of physical gender and grew to include ideas of respect, honor, and responsibility (Rodriguez & Gonzales, 1997). The outward forms of respect given to men who had earned honor and proven responsibility were assumed to be the end goal, and the means of achieving it changed. However, for those who lived by the code, it was well-understood that “a nobleman … is a man of his word; should have a sense of responsibility for his own well-being and that of others in his circle; he rejects any form of abuse … physical, emotional, mental or spiritual … to himself or others; should take time to reflect, pray, and include a ceremony in life; should be sensitive to understanding; should be like a mirror, reflecting support and clarity to one another; lives these values honestly, and with love” (Rodriguez & Gonzales, 1997). These concepts, very closely associated with the Latin American community, would have been very familiar to Hemingway, who had shared these beliefs even before he became a part of the Key West community where he did much of his writing. This somewhat confused understanding of machismo as something that can be abusive and violent, but that is really about being honorable, responsible, and respected, is fully explained in “The Snows of Kilimanjaro.”
The negative elements of the machismo concept are brought out at the beginning of the story as the reader slowly begins to understand the scene. The idea that a ‘real man’ is someone who is abusive and violent toward women is seen early in the story as the main character, Harry, verbally abuses the woman who sits with him. He coldly informs her of the things that have led them to the point they are now as he slowly builds up to blaming her, telling her, “if we had hired a good mechanic instead of a half baked Kikuyu driver, he would have checked the oil and never burned out that bearing in the truck … If you hadn’t left your own people, your goddamned Old Westbury, Saratoga, Palm Beach people to take me” (Hemingway 55). When she protests against his accusations, he tells her he doesn’t love her and doesn’t think he ever had. Although he seems to be drifting in and out of consciousness, his next conversation with her again brings out this abusive, angry side of him. When she tells him he’s already hurt her, he gives in: “All right then. I’ll go on hurting you. It’s more amusing. The only thing I ever really liked to do with you I can’t do now” (Hemingway 58). In this statement, he is probably telling the absolute truth that he has only ever enjoyed her company as someone to have sex with, but at the same time, he realizes that she does not deserve to be treated so cruelly. This realization seems to come to him through another element of machismo often considered in a negative light – the element of bravado. In recognizing his current situation for what it is, Harry does what he can to take a casual attitude toward his death. He calmly watches the vultures gather around the tree he rests under, he considers the actions of the hyena as it makes its way around the camp, and this enables him to concentrate on what would be best for the woman at his side.
This consideration of the woman’s position opens the way for a consideration of the more positive elements of machismo, as it might have been understood by Hemingway himself as a form of masculine honor. After drifting back to another episode in his earlier life, Harry wakes up to discover that his wife has gone hunting to make sure that they have enough food to eat while they wait for the rescue plane to arrive. He considers how thoughtful this action is, particularly since she went to the other side of camp so as not to wake him with her shot, not to scare away the game she knows he’s enjoying watching from his coat, and so as not to bring death too close to his bed. With these thoughts, he enters into a period of self-reflection. “Why should he blame this woman because she kept him well? He had destroyed his talent by not using it, by betrayals of himself and what he believed in, by drinking so much that he blunted the edge of his perceptions, by laziness, by sloth, and by snobbery, by pride, and by prejudice, by hook and by crook” (Hemingway 60). Within this statement, he acknowledges that the animosity and anger he has harbored for his wife are, in reality, feelings he has for himself. In taking responsibility for his own disappointment, he expresses other elements of true machismo, such as rejecting abuse and showing concern for the well-being of others. This is an idea expressed at least superficially at the beginning of the story when he tells her, “There is no sense in moving now except to make it easier for you” (Hemingway 53). However, the sentiment seems much more sincere later in the story as he struggles to keep his last words with her pleasant. He treats her with gentleness by acquiescing to drink the broth from the ram she had shot even though all he really wants is a drink, and his words to her are deliberately tempered with his knowledge of death’s presence.
Whether considered and practiced from a negative or positive approach, machismo will undeniably have an effect on the type of interpersonal relationships one might form with others. Harry’s thoughts reveal that he had long stopped loving women before he ever met his wife after having been hurt in relationships too many times in the past. “With the women that he loved, he had quarreled so much they had finally, always, with the corrosion of the quarreling, killed what they had together. He had loved too much, demanded too much, and he wore it all out” (Hemingway 64). Considering why Hemingway might have placed his character in such a position, some scholars have suggested that it may, in some ways, reinforce his concepts of masculinity. “The subject needs to display himself in an exposed or helpless position before the beloved. Many masochists report fantasies of wishing for an audience to witness their disgrace. Ironically, this very humiliation reinforces the masochist’s sense of his masculine identity” (Fantina 19). However, Harry’s thoughts continue to drift to other times and events in his life as he consistently wishes he were the indifferent company for these final days of his life. The memories he lingers over are characterized primarily by relationships as they were defined by men. His happiest memories seem to center on times when he worked mostly with men, helping others, participating in outdoor sports, and winning girls from other men. In this final instance, there is a realization that he was never that interested in the women as much as he was interested in winning, as his memory focuses on the details of a fight he once had over a loose woman.
By tracing through Hemingway’s life in conjunction with his stories such as “The Snows of Kilimanjaro”, one can begin to trace some of the ideas that characterized Hemingway’s life and thinking. One of the defining principles of his life was the idea of machismo and living up to a man’s definition of the self. While most of Hemingway’s work can thus be seen to contain a great deal of biography within them, it is important not to miss the applicability of these stories to the universal human experience in the Western world of the early 1900s. Issues of alcohol as an escape mechanism, relationships based on convenience rather than love, and a changing society in which men were expected to be more feminine, and women were becoming more masculine threaten Harry’s own sense of identity and the identities of men throughout the country. Placed in slightly different terms, the use of substance abuse as a means of escape, relationships based upon mutual benefit rather than sentiment, and continuously changing social and gender roles around the world continue to be significant issues in today’s world as individuals struggle to discover how to identify themselves in relation to traditional ideals.
Works Cited
- Anaya, Rudolfo A. Muy Macho: Latin Men Confront Their Manhood. Ray Gonzales (Ed.). New York: Anchor Books, 1996.
- Fantina, Richard. Ernest Hemingway: Machismo and Masochism. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2005.
- Hemingway, Ernest. “The Snows of Kilimanjaro.” The Short Stories. New York: Macmillan Publishing Company, 1986: 52-77.
- “Machismo.” Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary. (2009). Web.
- Rodriguez, Roberto & Patrisia Gonzales. “Deconstructing Machismo.” Chronicle Features. San Francisco, (1997). Web.