Looking at his rich wife, Harry gives us his view of the rich and of the very rich. Harry recalls talking about this subject with Julian. Actually, this same conversation occurred between Hemingway and F. Scott Fitzgerald. Some biographers have placed the conversation in a cafe in Paris, when Fitzgerald told Hemingway, “The very rich are different from you and me.” And Hemingway replied, “Yes, they have more money.”
Harry is also fighting intense, prolonged pain and is trying to overcome it by not caring about it. Just when he thinks he can’t bear it, it goes away.
Flashback 5
Harry remembers the death of a soldier named Williamson, who had been hit by a bomb and, while he was trying to move, realized that he was snagged and caught in a wire fence with his bowels spilling out onto the wire. He begged Harry to kill him. This is the only flashback in this short story where Harry doesn’t mention that he failed to write about a certain memory or memories.
This particular flashback was one Harry probably didn’t want to write about, as it deals with a man who “couldn’t stand things.” Readers aren’t told whether Williamson could’ve survived. However, the fact that he was brought from the battlefield alive and conscious for some time even after being given a fatal dose of morphine pills that Harry saved for himself indicated to Harry that Williamson was a very strong man. Despite his strength, he didn’t wait to find out whether the Lord gave him more than he could bear. He simply didn’t try to beat the pain.
This is the first deed of the three in Harry’s life that facilitates his flight to Kilimanjaro. Because Harry sacrifices the morphine pills to ease Williamson’s pain, this episode is parallel to the one in Part 2 where Harry sacrifices himself to his wife and stays loyal to her as opposed to absolving himself and admitting that he never loved her.
