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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. When Harry begins dictating to his companion, he describes a log house on a hill above the lake. What kind of trees are described as running from the house to the dock?

2. What composer does Harry say to his companion “wrote the words and music. This knowledge that you’re going mad for me”?

3. What war was Harry fighting in when he was in Anatolia?

4. Of Harry’s friends, the narrator says, “The people he knew now were all much more comfortable when he did not” what?

5. The Dada movement began in approximately what year?

Short Essay Questions

1. What is the emotional state of Harry’s companion in the beginning of “The Snows of Kilimanjaro”?

2. Describe Harry’s memory of the officer named Williamson. What did Harry give Williamson?

3. What does the thorn in “The Snows of Kilimanjaro” represent symbolically?

4. How is the scene described when Harry awakens and sees Compton in the end of the story?

5. What does the gangrene in Harry’s leg represent symbolically in “The Snows of Kilimanjaro”?

6. How does the narrative style of the story differ between the italicized and non-italicized sections?

7. Discuss the historical context of the story. How is Harry’s story reflective of the global climate at this time?

8. How would you describe the narrator of the story? Is the narrator’s perspective limited or omniscient?

9. How does Harry’s female companion say she feels about Africa in the story?

10. What does Harry feel incapable of expressing in words when he dictates to the woman in the story?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Discuss the “Iceberg Theory” or “Theory of Omission” developed by author Ernest Hemingway. How did this technique of writing develop out of Hemingway’s past as a journalist? What is the central point of using the iceberg theory in literature? How is this style illustrated in “The Snows of Kilimanjaro”?

Essay Topic 2

Describe the symptoms, treatments, and history of gangrene. How common in gangrene today? What treatments would have been available to Harry during the time of the story? How much time would Harry have had to get medical treatment in order to have lived?

Essay Topic 3

Describe the setting of Gauertal, and discuss the imagery used by the author in depicting this setting. How does the imagery of the mountains compare with that of Kilimanjaro? How do the narrative descriptions in this section of the text differ from the main narrative’s prose? Why do you think they differ?

(see the answer keys)

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