Comparison of Similar Themes: Fahrenheit 451 V The Snows of Kilimanjaro - Book Report/Review Example

Comparison of Similar Themes: Fahrenheit 451 V. The Snows of Kilimanjaro Ernest Hemmingway presents three major themes in his novel, The Snows of Kilimanjaro. The themes are conflict, regret, and death. The story is one of those from The Complete Short Stories. The author presents the story in the third person falling into six sections. Ray Bradbury, on the other hand, posits that themes are primary and contain universal concepts explored in his literary work just like many other authors. His main themes in Fahrenheit 451 are censorship and knowledge against ignorance. Bradbury fails to offer one important explanation regarding his assertion that books are banned in the future in Fahrenheit 451. The novel takes the perspective of identifying various factors that combine and result in banning the books in the future. Analytically, the factors fall into two categories: those that make people rebel against reading books and those that generate low interests in reading the books. Instead of differentiating the two categories, the author presents an argument where the two categories support each other. In the first group, Bradbury includes the fame achieved by forms of entertainment competing each other. They include televisions and radio. It is the feeling of Bradbury that loud music, presence of cars that move fast, as well as promotional campaigns builds a lifestyle containing stimulation that requires attention that is not available in a modern society. Furthermore, authors publish huge mass of materials that do not draw reading interest among readers resulting in a society that prefers condensed literature. People shy away from reading the real thing. Factors that make people rebel against reading books constitute the second category. These features fall under envy. The society creates an environment where people who read more than others did appear superior and this creates envy. According to Fahrenheit 541, the objection of groups with special interests and those appearing inferior in reading are the most significant elements resulting to censorship. The author takes precaution against applying the terminology racial minorities. Bradbury does this by using phrases such as cat lovers and dog lovers as mentioned by Beatty. Generating the exact special-interest categories mentioned in Fahrenheit 451 requires inference and detailed analysis. The author is sensitive to the degree of limiting his freedom of speech. The afterword to Fahrenheit highlights this assertion. He hitherto rejects suggestions made to him to review the treatment of black and female characters in the story. He holds that these types of interventions are intolerant and hostile. The suggestion emanates from his allusion that certain forms of literature offend several minority groups. Beatty captures this in his conversation with Montag. Here, Beatty says that books about cats offend dog lovers while at the same time cat lovers do not like books talking about dogs. The duty of the reader is to infer the meaning as intended by Bradbury. Hemmingway uses five flashbacks in The Snows of Kilimanjaro. Other scholars refer to flashbacks as interior monologues. The theme of censorship discussed by Bradbury comes close to the theme of regret and both walk through conflict. Flashbacks help the reader to understand the chief protagonist fully in the Snows of Kilimanjaro. Living full life does not stop Harry, the protagonist from regretting not having documented any of his accounts in life. The story contains a tone that supplements the use of flashbacks to make the theme of regret more profound. Mainly, the story takes a regretful tone but hope appears at the tail end of the story when Harry believes that he flew the mountain. It is also possible to say the Harry accepts his position at this point. Animals in the story highlight the imminent death of Harry. It entails an application of foreshadowing tools that first comes in the realm of the story. The author writes, ‘Close to the western summit there is the dried and frozen carcass of a leopard (Hemingway, 1987, p. 39).’ The skeleton of the leopard symbolizes death. Similarly, the leopard does not reach it peak and this applies to Harry who never reached the apex of his writing. Remember Harry regrets not getting the opportunity to document all his experiences. Another incident of applying animals in foreshadowing is having the vultures sitting around the camp. It presents another symbol about the impending death of Harry. Initially, the vultures flew around the camp, but this change when they realize that Harry is coming close to death. They settle comfortably closer to Harry in the camp. They are preparing to feast on the carcass of Harry. The same explanation applies to the hyenas when they come near the camp. In the same way, Bradbury resists attempt to revise his reference of blacks and female characters, Harry reflects of what his life looks like when he is waiting to die. It is through flashbacks that the author gives audiences on the insights of the life of Harry. The reader manages to understand some of the events in the life of Harry that did not get the opportunity to write. Surprisingly, Harry chose not write his experiences in spite of the availability of the writing materials. Harry suffers from internal conflicts but, the reader understands this through the deliberate use of flashbacks by the Hemmingway. The biggest of his internal conflict is the way he wasted his entire life by avoiding documenting his experiences. The flashbacks drive the themes in the story (Hemingway, 1987, p. 53). The main one is regret through losses. The losses start with the loss of lives in the World War I. Other losses follow subsequently idling Herr losing money through gambling. The society creates an environment where people who read more than others did appear superior and this creates envy. According to Fahrenheit 541, the objection of groups with special interests and those appearing inferior in reading are the most significant elements resulting to censorship. Bradbury in Fahrenheit 451 also uses animal imagery, in fact, as a theme. The first paragraph of the novel compares the burning of books to the element of birds trying to fly away. Montag makes a comparison of the tool saving Millie when attempting suicide to a snake. Throughout the novel, the Mechanical Hound is profound. All these are applications of imagery the same way Hemmingway uses animals in foreshadowing in The Snow of Kilimanjaro. The audiences meet the image of the salamander. It is a symbol of the firefighter. The author uses animal imagery to stress on the relevance of the nature in the life of human beings. Attempts to manipulate nature or destroy it results into death. However, positivity in animal imagery comes when Montag meets the deer as he gets out water in the stream. The deer is beautiful, peaceful, and represents an expression of nature contrary to what Montag felt that it was a Hound. Works Cited Hemingway, Ernest. The Complete Short Stories of Ernest Hemingway. New York: Scribner's, 1987. Print. Read More