Critical Thinking Blog #6

I noticed many similarities with Hemingway's "The Snows of Kilimanjaro" and Faulkner's "Barn Burning." The main issue I noticed was the main male characters who seemed like incredibly bitter and selfish men. In Kilimanjaro, Harry is constantly belitting his wife, drinking when she asks him not to and flat out saying he doesn't love her, "I don't think so. I never have" (1985). I never felt anything for Harry except his regret about never writing about the things he should have and his impending death. In "Barn Burning" Colonel Snope's father has bitterness against the upper class and torches their wealth whenever he's taken advantage of. Colonel could also be seen as the wife in Kilimanjaro because they both try to help their significant other and end up being the worse for wear. The wife in Hemingway's story is no wilting flower, capable of hunting and such, but is in a loveless one-sided marriage. Colonel in Burn Burning loves his father and wants to help but is constantly torn between familial duty and doing the right thing. Both of the characters have this sense of regret and hatred, more expressly stated in Kilimanjaro than in Faulkner's story. Both stories focus on fear and also that the men are in powerless positions, the father is lower class and Harry is dying. Both are unable to do anything about their situation, yet have family trying to support and reassure them.

My critical thinking question is what do you think Hemingway and Faulkner were trying to say with their main characters? How does regret and loss come into the plot of both characters and create their actions?