The Snows of Kilimanjaro is the story of agony.

The Snows of Kilimanjaro is the story of agony. A hunter wounded by accident, dying in the African countryside, not far from Kilimanjaro, the vast snow-covered mountain. Reality and hallucination are mixed in the dying brain and create a confusing atmosphere, revealing the total failure of his existence. Memories, failed hopes come to test memory that precedes death, and this reaches the hero in halfway between despair and indifference.

Death is an important theme in the story of Ernest Hemingway's "The Snows of Kilimanjaro" and comes in several different ways directly and indirectly. The most obvious reference of death, it is the injury of protagonist Harry and how he realizes that he has little time to live. In addition, other aspects of the theme of death, like vultures, hunting of an animal and the breakdown of the truck.  On the other hand the symbolic death of the career of writer protagonist who begins to realize during his final hours.

The story revolves around death, even before it begins, in the short prologue, Hemingway briefly tells the story of the corpse of a leopard is said to be found at high altitude on the slopes of Mount Kilimanjaro and nobody understands how it got there. In this way, the reader decides how to relate this prologue to the rest of the story, but it is obvious at this point that death will play an important role in history. The death of a writer before his work is done, and the description of how he feels when dying is probably the most original feature of "The Snows of Kilimanjaro". This subject is approached from the beginning of the story when Harry admits that death is painless. He has lived in fear of death throughout his life, even has become obsessed with it and when to confront it, he discovers that he is too tired to fight.

The story is an insight that Harry makes his past life, finding dying due to gangrene caused by a wound caused "when a thorn will hurt the knee, as he approached a herd of antelope with the aim of taking a picture", perhaps all people on deathbed want to face everything they did but especially what they did not do, trying to find a reason or justification, so as Harry, we must learn that every day counts and that tomorrow might not come; every day should be lived to the fullest.

The theme of facing death with courage and “grace under pressure,” Hemingway’s code of living, is dealt with from the beginning of the story when Harry admits that death is painless. He has lived in fear of death all his life, even been obsessed with it, and now that he is faced with it, he finds he is too tired to fight it. He accepts it. Still, he wished he had written about the things that had affected his life: the joy of skiing, the emotional upheaval of the first true love, the unquestionable loyalty to an old soldier. He has learned too late that every day counts and that tomorrow might not come; every day should be lived to the fullest.

La historia gira entorno a la muerte, incluso antes de que comience, en el corto prólogo, Hemingway narra brevemente la historia del cadáver de un leopardo que se dice que se encuentran a gran altura en la ladera del monte Kilimanjaro y nadie comprende cómo llegó allí. De esta forma, el lector decide cómo relacionar este prologo con el resto de la historia, pero es obvio en este punto que la muerte va a jugar un papel importante en la historia.

 La muerte de un escritor antes de que su trabajo esté hecho, y la descripción de cómo se siente al morir es probablemente la característica más original de "Las nieves del Kilimanjaro". Este tema se aborda desde el comienzo de la historia cuando Harry admite que la muerte es indolora. Él ha vivido en el miedo a la muerte durante toda su vida, incluso se ha obsesionado con ella, y cuándo tiene que enfrentarse con ella, descubre que está demasiado cansado para luchar.

. Él lo acepta. Aún así, él deseaba que él había escrito sobre las cosas que habían afectado a su vida: la alegría de esquí, la agitación emocional del primer amor verdadero, la incuestionable lealtad a un viejo soldado. Ha aprendido demasiado tarde de que cada día cuenta y que mañana podrían no venir; todos los días debe ser vivida al máximo.

Al igual que Hemingway, Harry, el escritor de la historia, se ha obsesionado durante años con la curiosidad acerca de la idea de la muerte. Ahora que está cerca de él ha perdido toda curiosidad sobre él, sintiendo sólo una "gran cansancio y la ira" sobre su enfoque inexorable. "Por esto que ahora está llegando, que tenía muy poco de curiosidad Durante años se le había obsesionado;. Pero ahora no significaba nada en sí mismo." (P. 54)

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