The Snows of Kilimanjaro and Other Stories characters

Appears from the start

A writer dying from an infected leg while stranded on safari. As rescue is delayed, he reviews the experiences he meant to turn into fiction and accuses himself of wasting his ability through comfort, drink, and dependence on wealthy women.

Appears from the start

Harry's wealthy wife and safari companion. She loves him, tends his worsening injury, and tries to sustain hope while he alternately depends on her and attacks her as a symbol of the comfortable life he believes has weakened his work.

First appears in chapter 2

A café waiter who understands why an elderly customer needs to remain in a clean, brightly lit place late at night. Older, sleepless, and without the younger waiter's confidence, he recognizes the refuge that dignity and order can provide against loneliness.

First appears in chapter 2

A café waiter impatient to close and return to his wife. He sees the late customer chiefly as an inconvenience and believes youth, work, and domestic life separate him from the despair the older waiter recognizes.

First appears in chapter 3

A nine-year-old boy confined to bed with influenza. Having learned a different temperature scale at school abroad, he silently concludes that his fever means certain death and tries to meet it with rigid self-control.

First appears in chapter 4

A writer recovering in a hospital while observing the other patients and listening to a radio in his room. Conversations about pain, belief, politics, and music lead him to compare the different forms of consolation people use to endure their lives.

First appears in chapter 4

A Mexican gambler brought to the hospital after being shot in a dispute. Stoic and unwilling to inform on his attacker, he regards suffering and risk through a code that does not fit the explanations offered by doctors, police, or clergy.

First appears in chapter 5

An adult writer driving with his son while memories of his own father and Michigan childhood return. He feels gratitude, resentment, shame, and loss together, and must decide how much of that unsettled inheritance to share with the next generation.

First appears in chapter 6

An Italian officer undergoing rehabilitation for a war injury alongside an American patient. Exacting and skeptical of easy talk about bravery, he maintains severe self-control until a personal bereavement exposes the limits of discipline.

First appears in chapter 7

A former heavyweight boxer living quietly in a rooming house. Two gunmen come to a lunchroom intending to kill him, but when he is warned he refuses to run, seek protection, or explain the history that has made him a target.

First appears in chapter 9

An aging boxer training for a difficult final match. He is tired, financially pressured, and realistic about his declining ability, relying on professional calculation and endurance rather than illusions about a triumphant comeback.

First appears in chapter 10

An American on safari with his wife, embarrassed by his panic when a wounded lion charges. Sensitive to contempt and desperate to recover his self-respect, he returns to the hunt with professional guide Robert Wilson.

Also known as Margot

First appears in chapter 10

Francis Macomber's poised and socially confident wife. Their marriage rests on money, beauty, mutual knowledge, and punishment, and her response to his failure during the lion hunt makes their hostility open.

First appears in chapter 10

The experienced professional hunter guiding the Macombers. He judges clients by their conduct under danger, follows his own harsh code, and sees clearly how fear, money, attraction, and resentment shape the couple's marriage.