Metaphor-in-The-Snows-of-Kilimanjaro《乞力马扎罗的雪》中暗喻分析.doc

Ernest Hemingway American literary genius writer is the twentieth century, with its concise language, concise narrative and Iceberg principle with deep implications, varieties of implied meanings and symbol colors. Ernest Hemingway’s “iceberg theory”, presented by the metaphor, suggests that the writer include in the text only a small portion of what he knows, leaving about ninety percent of the content a mystery that grows beneath the surface of the writing. Especially in his famous short story The Snows of Kilimanjaro, a lot of use of metaphor makes the novel its artistic creation of the classic.
The title of the novel The Snows of Kilimanjaro contains two metaphors. “Kilimanjaro is a snow covered mountain 19,710 feet high, and it is said to be the highest mountain in Africa. Its western summit is called the Masai "Ngàje Ngài," the House of God.” In the sentence, Hemingway used the mountain to metaphor lofty and immortal. At the same time, the “dried and frozen carcass of a leopard” which close to the western summit refers to the pursuit of lofty spirit.
In addition to the high mountain, the title of the novel and article has mentioned "snow" for many times. In instance, the snow, in “a snow covered mountain” and “the snow was so bright”, metaphor the purity and truth which embodies metaphorical concept that “white is purity”. In western culture, white is the symbol of human life in the Garden of Eden naivety, also a symbol of human's pursuit of goals, the purification of the soul. In Christianity, the bride wears a white wedding dress, the angels in heaven also wearing a white gown, so white snow refers to mental state of high purity.
Death is a common theme in Hemingway's works. As novel describing a writer who was dying, Hemingway used lots of metaphor to describe the Harry died before state of mind and feelings. For examples, “there were three of the big birds squatted obscenely, while in the sky a dozen more sailed, making quick-moving shadows as they passed.” “He looked over to where the huge, filthy birds sat, their naked heads sunk in the hunched feathers. A fourth planed down, to run quick-legged and then waddle slowly toward the others. ” “'Never believe any of that about a scythe and a skull,' he told her. 'It can be two bicycle policemen as easily or be a bird. Or it can have a wide snout like a hyena.' ” The breeze, sickle, skeletons, two policemen, a bird and hyenas are metaphors death. Metaphor of death the breeze could always blows out the candle of the people's fragile life, sickle and skeleton is the sign of the god of death, the quiet police represents the inevitable of death is coming, while the bird and hyenas metaphor body was bite pecking tore at after death.