A Study of a Farewell to Arms “The brave dies perhaps two thousand deaths if he’s intelligent. He simply doesn’t mention them.” (Hemingway 140) Ernest Hemingway’s novel A Farewell to Arms was written as a fictionalized memoir of his experience as a soldier during WWI, and was greatly influenced by his life. His war experience, the people in his life, his education level and even the time period during which he lived put their spin on what was considered politically correct and what was immoral and unethical. A major influence on his characters was the real people in his life. As written by the Bio.com staff, “In 1918, Hemingway went overseas to serve in World War I as an ambulance driver in the Italian Army.” (bio.com). At this time he was …show more content…
This all parallels very closely the story line of the novel at hand, A Farewell to Arms. In the novel, an American lieutenant, as well as ambulance driver, in the Italian army named Frederic Henry becomes wounded when a trench mortar shell strikes the trench where he and several other ambulance drivers are resting. Henry goes to a hospital in Milan, where he officially falls in love with an English nurse named Catherine Barkley. This is yet another example of the parallelism of Hemingway. Hemingway meets a nurse in Milan named Agnes von Kurowsky, whom he falls in love with. He proposes to her, but she leaves him to be with another man. As he was recovering from the war and the brutal pain he gained from it, Hemingway met another woman, whom he married. His first wife, Hadley …show more content…
“The first experience was when Hemingway was struck by a mortar round which nearly killed him and he was sent to a hospital in Milan.”(BookCaps Staff, 6-7), earning him an Italian Silver Medal of Honor. Henry, in the novel, get hit by a trench mortar shell in the legs. He goes to the hospital, where he meets his new lover, Catherine, yet again. Hemingway also uses alcohol frequently throughout the book as a symbol of life, and ultimately sanity. “Readers of Hemingway’s books are sometimes incredulous about the quantities of liquor his character consume, but on the basis of Ross’s profile, can be sure that his fiction does not exaggerate far from the life.” (Donaldson 21-22) During his time in Italy, Hemingway landed himself back in the hospital bed from liver destruction, which is caused by alcohol destroying the cells in the liver. Henry, the main character also experienced this liver malfunction due to the alcohol-controlled life he tended to lead. All of this shows how difficult a time Hemingway had in Italy, which he transferred to his characters, especially Catherine and Frederic
One observation that can be made on Hemingway’s narrative technique as shown in his short stories is his clipped, spare style, which aims to produce a sense of objectivity through highly selected details. Hemingway refuses to romanticize his characters. Being “tough” people, such as boxers, bullfighters, gangsters, and soldiers, they are depicted as leading a life more or less without thought. The world is full of s...
World War I began in 1914 and lasted until the end of 1918. In that time young men had to go to the front and fight for their country. It is also the time when Ernest Hemingway’s novel A Farewell to Arms takes place. It talks about Frederic Henry, a young American who is an ambulance driver for the Italian army. He is also the novel’s narrative and protagonist. He falls in love with an English nurse, Catherine Barkley. She is the main woman character in the novel and it is noticeable how she is shown as a stereotypical female during World War I. Throughout the novel we can see how women are shown in a stereotypical way and how they were mistreated by men. The purpose of this essay is firstly to analyze how Hemingway describes women in his novel A Farewell to Arms and finally to discuss Catherine’s attitude towards Frederic.
In moving from the perspective of his early stories to that of his later stories, it becomes clear that Hemingway's deft ability to illuminate the nature of people's attitude toward potential is well complemented by the presence of alcohol. Trepidation and lamentation are marked by the presence of a drink and its quieting effects. On the few occasions where triumph over fear manifests itself, Hemingway seems to imply that the failure to fulfill one's potential is not inevitable, and that even if it does occur, it can be dealt with. Alcohol then becomes a sign of either celebration or, at the very least, endurance. Regardless of the individual case and outcome, Hemingway's use of alcohol is inextricably tied to despair and varied perspectives on the loss of hope.
The disillusionment of a great war set in this time period post World War I creates an unimaginable physical and mental conflict, which Hemingway showcases through his writing.
“Sometimes when I was starting a new story and I could not get it going, I would stand and look out over the roofs of Paris and think, ‘Do not worry. You have always written before and you will write now. All you have to do is write on true sentence. Write the truest sentence you know” (shmoop.com). Ernest Hemingway was an honest and noble man. His life was highlighted by his successful writing career that brought him fame, fortune, but ultimately loneliness. Ernest Hemingway fell into a hole of drinking and depression (lib.utexas.edu). It was odd for Hemingway to become so emotionally unstable after having a happy childhood, quality experiences, and a successful writing career.
... an Italian officer. They would never meet again. This made Hemingway very insecure, and would be detrimental to the way he would handle relationships in the future. He would go on to develop a habit of abandonment of his wives.
Hemingway’s characters exemplify the effects of combat because World War I had a negative impact on them; the veterans lead meaningless lives filled with masculine uncertainty. Jake and his friends (all veterans) wander aimlessly throughout the entire novel. Their only goal seems to be finding an exciting restaurant or club where they will spend their time. Every night consists of drinking and dancing, which serves as a distraction from their very empty lives. The alcohol helps the characters escape from their memories from the war, but in the end, it just causes more commotion and even evokes anger in the characters. Their years at war not only made their lives unfulfilling but also caused the men to have anxiety about their masculinity, especially the narrator Jake, who “gave more than his life” in the war (Hemingway). Jake feels that the war took away his manhood because he is unable to sleep with Brett as a result of an injury. Although he wants to have a relationship with Brett, and spends most of his time trying to pursue her, she rejects him because he cannot have a physical relationship with her. At several points in the novel, Brett and Jake imagine what their lives could have been like together, had he not been injured during the war. Thus, his physical injury gives him emotional distress because he cannot have a relationship with the woman he always wanted. The traditional American perception of...
"All fiction is autobiographical, no matter how obscure from the author's experience it may be, marks of their life can be detected in any of their tales"(Bell, 17). A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway is based largely on Hemingway's own personal experiences. The main character of the novel, Frederic Henry, experiences many of the same situations that Hemingway lived. Some of these similarities are exact, while some are less similar, and some events have a completely different outcome.
A Farewell to Arms has many similarities between Henry and Hemingway; the first noticeable one is that Henry, like Hemingway, was an American in the Italian army. Henry was an ambulance driver for the Red Cross, just like Hemingway was. Thomas Putnam stated in his article on Hemingway that "during the First World War, Ernest Hemingway volunteered to serve in Italy as an ambulance driver with the American Red Cross. In June 1918, while running a mobile canteen dispensing chocolate and cigarettes for soldiers, he was wounded by Austrian mortar fire." This is comparable to Henry’s experiences in A Farewell to Arms. Anders Hallengren drew the connection that both men, real and fictional, were one of the first Americans wounded in World War I. "There is a parallel in Hemingway's life, connected with the occasion when he was seriously wounded at midnight on July 8, 1918, at Fossalta di Piave in Italy and nearly died. He was the first American to be wounded in Italy during World War I." A...
On July 8, 1918, Hemingway, a volunteer for the Red Cross, was hit by a mortar shell while handing out chocolate bars in an Italian trench (“Ernest Hemingway wounded on the Italian front”). From there, he was admitted to a hospital where he fell in love with a reluctant nurse named Agnes von Kurowsky despite her doing nothing to encourage the “kid” (as she called him) (“Agnes von Kurowsky to Ernest Hemingway”). After recovering, Hemingway moved back to the United States, where he continued to write to Agnes, until she
Hemingway was a firm believer in men volunteering and supporting the war, claiming that it was “simply my [his] duty” to serve the country not only because he was fit to serve, but as an act of moral conduct (Piep). Hemingway’s acts of selflessness can be seen repeatedly through Henry’s actions, suggesting Hemingway supports and values the conscious decision making the Superego plays a role in.
... much to be learned about the deeply troubled and equally enthusiastic Ernest Hemingway. From thrill-seeking to several failed marriages nearly every aspect of his life shines through into his style, attitude, and life choices most clearly of all his writing both professional and informal. The straightforwardness and simplicity of his prose ushered in a new style drastically different from the flowery, embellished descriptions and drawn out stories from the previous century. Ultimately Ernest Miller Hemingway will forever be a timeless, classic American writer who succeeded despite his alcoholism, faltering health, intimacy issues, and presumed psychological disease which is most likely the perpetrator creating both his risky escapades and adulterous rendezvous in addition to his debilitating bouts of depression, bitterness, and eventually suicidal behaviors.
Hemingway's whole life, he seemed to be constantly depressed. His father was "a highly principled doctor", and both his parents were very "religious and strict" in his upbringing (Salter).He traveled to Europe and in 1918 where “Hemingway volunteered as a Red Cross ambulance driver to do service on the front lines of World war I” (Akers). When he assisted in the war in Italy, he had been severely injured aiding an injured man (Akers).According to Akers his experiences deeply impacted him and his work greatly. Another fact to keep in mind is his unsuccessful attempts at maintaining love, seen through his various marriages and divorces. “When he married Hadley Richardson in 1921 and the couple move... ... middle of paper ... ...
Love is a strong affection or warm attachment to someone; on the contrary, pain is a punishment or penalty or suffering of body or mind. These emotions carry a direct relationship; love leads to pain. However, everything that begins must eventually come to an end, and in the end one emotion is victorious. There is a constant struggle between the opposing emotions; henceforth, Ernest Hemingway combines both of these emotions into A Farewell to Arms. Through Fredric Henry and Catherine Barkley’s relationship, Hemingway combines these two emotions in a relentless power struggle. Where love leads, pain shortly follows proving that what comes from love can be dangerous. Ernest Hemingway’s A Farewell to Arms takes place during World War I and describes the relationship between a war doctor, Fredric Henry, and a nurse, Catherine Barkley; the couple follows the cycle of love and pain to prove Hemingway’s point that love is ultimately dangerous.
In A Farewell to Arms, Hemingway uses love and sex as the anchor for his anti-war message. Love and sex is the strongest element Hemingway uses. Love and sexual encounters were the biggest way Hemingway’s characters distract themselves. Although love is usually a special moment of life, Hemingway displays how war creates heart-breaking relationships throughout the novel. In the beginning, both Henry and Rinaldi visit numerous whorehouses. They spend their days flirting with meaningless women (aesundstrom 1). All of the men carry on many mindless relationships with women. Even the priest is teased about being with numerous women at one time. At dinner the men aggravate him on and on about his love for multiple women. Later on, Henry and Rinaldi begin a harmless flirtation with a few nurses. Catherine is one of the nur...