Ernest Hemingway emerged as one of America’s more colorful writers in the early to mid-1900s, presenting himself as the ultimate man’s man, worldly traveler, mighty hunter, and hard-drinking spinner of tales. Within a short span of time, 1925-1929, he had established himself as having produced some of the most important literary fiction in his century. His short stories focused on the virtues held by men a generation or two earlier than him as well as the effects and aftereffects of war. Yet each story contained a deeper message within the lines if the reader felt the desire to go searching for it. He believed in omitting extra details as a way of strengthening his stories. He compared this to an iceberg. With an iceberg, only the top 1/8th can be seen above the water. The rest remains below the surface, providing it with its momentum and dignity. Hemingway believed his stories should follow this same structure. Although some critics loved him, others said his stories were shallow. “He had no sympathy for women, they said, portraying them either as manhood-destroying bitches or as mere objects of sexual domination” (Lynn, 1987, p. 10). A close reading of his stories reveals not only the messages the author intended to send but also some insights as to the way he felt about things. Hemingway’s preoccupation with machismo can be seen woven throughout the story “The Snows of Kilimanjaro.” Machismo is a term that requires some form of definition before one can have any serious discussion. The Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines the term as “a strong sense of masculine pride: an exaggerated masculinity” or as “an exaggerated or exhilarating sense of power or strength” (2009). The idea of a certain form of male identity or behavior is at the center of the concept, while how this male identity should be defined varies widely. Behaviors associated with the machismo attitude include an abusive, controlling, and violent approach toward women and children, but this is not necessarily the case. “Drunkenness, abusing women, raising hell … are some mistaken conceptions of what machismo means … And yet the uninformed often point to such behavior and call it machismo. In fact, much of this negative behavior is aped by a new generation, because as young men, they are not aware that they are being conditioned. Young men acting contrary to the good of their community have not yet learned the essence of maleness” (Anaya, 1996). Machismo is derived from the term ‘macho’, which originally was used to refer to the simple fact of physical gender and grew to include ideas of respect, honor, and responsibility (Rodriguez & Gonzales, 1997). The outward forms of respect given to men who had earned honor and proven responsibility were assumed to be the end goal, and the means of achieving it changed. However, for those who lived by the code, it was well-understood that “a nobleman … is a man of his word; should have a sense of responsibility for his own well-being and that of others in his circle; he rejects any form of abuse … physical, emotional, mental or spiritual … to himself or others; should take time to reflect, pray, and include a ceremony in life; should be sensitive to understanding; should be like a mirror, reflecting support and clarity to one another; lives these values honestly, and with love” (Rodriguez & Gonzales, 1997). These concepts, very closely associated with the Latin American community, would have been very familiar to Hemingway, who