Friday, November 9, 2012

Ernest Hemmingway's "A Farewell to Arms"

She says to Frederic, "Say, I've come back to Catherine in the night" (30).

Up to this point in hydrogen's life, he has non had serious relationships with women; they were only a part of his drive to carry out his desire to have some excitement during the struggle. One of the low images of atomic number 1 is his going from one whorehouse to the next, engaged in intendless encounters, and finding no meaning in his bear life. It is not until he is wounded in battle, and gets to know and sleep together Catherine, that he matures into a person who is cap able of finding meaning in life. Henry's attitude toward Catherine mirrors his attitude toward the war he is in. Hemingway never states exactly why Henry joined the Italian phalanx; he had no particular hatred of the Austrians who the Italians were fighting, and no voiceless feelings of patriotism. War, like women, is just another exciting game for Henry until he is wounded and the idea of his death takes hold of him.

In conversations with Rinaldi and a priest, Henry comes to grips with the true nature of the war and of life. Rinaldi warns Henry that slam is an illusion that Henry should not pursue, insisting that he and Henry are the same and neither have every illusions about life. The priest, however, feels the opposite of Rinaldi. He is filled with disgust at the horrors of the war and realizes that Henry doesn't mind the war. "You do not show it. . .even wounded you do not see it, I brush aside tell" (


This point is reiterated by Jackson Benson who describes the Hemingway hero as a man who whitethorn get some help on his moral journey, and though he may form attachments that are worthy of his commitment, he is ultimately alone and ultimately8 responsible. Though he may try all his life with every fiber of his being to love or to make love possible, when love is in sight, it is snatched away from him. All things that are good are temporary; conclusion and death are permanent.
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Knowing these things, it is the Hemingway protagonist's lot to fight besides (Benson 46). Benson adds that Henry apparently does not see that war is a destroyer of love and the individual through its irrational force play (Benson 87).

Hemingway, Ernest. A Farewell to Arms. New York: Macmillan

Henry's loss of both the array and Catherine take away whatever meaning he undercoat in life. He had viewed war and love as games and as the forces that gave his life meaning. He feels meaningless without Catherine. Love had permitted him to be humanly alive for the first time in his life. Catherine's death does not invalidate the experience. Although it does illustrate that all good things are killed; war is cruel and so is life. The end of the refreshful indicates that Frederic Henry get out not return to his empty life as a sensualist with little concern for humanity. Frederic Henry has learned to care and is able to live with tragedy. His future is uncertain, but the open ending of the novel lends realism to the story.

Donaldson, Scott. By Force of Will: The Life and blind of


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