The reflection, which takes place during Fredric Henry’s train ride to Milan in A Farewell to Arms, proves to show the impact the war has had on his psychological instability through the battle of love. In other words, the war has left him frightened with anxious thoughts constantly running through his mind. There is no escaping the war, or the feeling of having to run for the sake of one’s life. The battle is no longer physical, but rather an eternal battle to refrain from insanity. This novel takes on a chaotic style where the pieces of Frederic Henry’s mental standing slowly reveal themselves through his lover, Catherine Barley as the war deepens. Not caring about the way he is perceived, the narrator takes on a confessional and honest tone, by telling his journey through the war in all truth. While this passage shows Henry’s need for Catherine’s affection and escapism of his own mind it proves that Henry will forever be at war with himself. Abandoning and serving in the war has left Henry with an ongoing train of worry for the remainder of his life. The train he takes to Milan resembles his future struggle with posttraumatic stress disorder and the after affects of being exposed to such vivid war imagery. Italy is now a broken and corrupt landscape, which also resembles the personality change in the character’s lives, as they will attempt at leading normal lifestyles but will never again be the same. The train is a calm and peaceful setting, where a soldier may reflect on the journey thus far. There are only a few places considered to be safe for reflection or breakdown. Bars are for deep thoughts; hotels are for loneliness; hospitals are for escape through death, or illness, etc. This explains why Henry is constantly found ... ... middle of paper ... ...ne will too be taken out of consequence for his secret withdrawal. Unlike the floorwalker Henry does not have insurance, which can be extended to the insurance of pride, purpose, death, etc. that cannot be brought back. The repetition of emptily, and coldly in this passage resembles the war experience, foreshadow death, and the way Henry is left feeling at the end of the novel. There are many foreshadows of death present throughout the novel, but this passage particularly can explain the title. The word arms can be thought of as weapons or the limb of a human body. The title foreshadows the death of his loved ones, as must say goodbye to Catherine and his child. It also presents irony in that while on the train he is retiring himself from the war, saying “farewell,” yet there are weapons of the war beside him indicating that the war can never be entirely abandoned.
In The Red Badge of Courage, Henry Fleming was drawn to enlist by his boyhood dreams. His highly romanticized notion of war was eclectic, borrowing from various classical and medieval sources. Nevertheless, his exalted, almost deified, conception of the life of a soldier at rest and in combat began to deflate before the even the ink had dried on his enlistment signature. Soon the army ceased to possess any personal characteristics Henry had once envisioned, becoming an unthinking, dispas...
...s inner self. What is seen as a relationship amongst these two young men is now torn apart by the transformation of Henry caused from his witnesses during warfare.
Henry is somewhat naïve, he dreams of glory, but doesn't think much of the duty that follows. Rather than a sense of patriotism, it is clear to the reader that Henry goals seem a little different, he wants praise and adulation. "On the way to Washington, the regiment was fed and caressed for station after station until the youth beloved
In the early portion of the book, Crane offers his readers several chances to examine the protagonist’s personality. Henry seems to be largely narcissistic and self-centered, and appears deeply unconcerned with the concept of duty. Henry’s only concern is glory, and he has seemingly no drive to do what it takes to earn this glory. A good example of this is when he fears that he may be outed as a coward, but not because his lack of bravery is indicative of being a bad soldier, but because such exposure would ultimately deny him of the renown he longs for.
This idea Henry has gotten in his mind about war being so exciting and making heroes makes a lot of sense. War has always been something that is glamorized in the world. Whether it be a book about it or a movie, war always seems like something fascinating. They make it seem war is this fascinating adventure that changes you for the better and you are seen as a hero afterwards. Henry takes a lot from the Greek gods where a lot of them are war heroes. What people don't realize is that these stories and movies are not realistic. They show war in a prettier way. They romanticize it and make it something better than it really is.
Later on when they get into battle Henry still has fears of fleeing the battle field. When the time comes to face the enemy Henry ended up running into the woods like many others. After he finds his way back to the regiment he sees what the battle has done to the soldiers. Many of his friends, including the tall soldier, died. Others were wounded. He in a way felt jealous because he didn’t have that wound, “red badge of courage” that they had to show. Henry continued on in the woods and came across a soldier. He tried to help him but the soldiers wouldn’t let him. In the disagreement the other soldier struck Henry with his gun. Henry went back to his camp and all of the men thought he had been wounded in the battle. He went along with this and many thought of him as brave.
The reaction of one soldier to another is the basis of war, as camaraderie is the methodology by which wars are won. Henry gave witness to the horrors of war, the atrocities of battle, the deaths of his friends, and later a life of victory. The ultimate transformation in Henry's character leading to a mature temperament was found by finding himself in the confusion of war and companionship.
Henry and his comrades walked for three days, nonstop. On the second day, some of his fellow soldiers were complaining that their bags were too heavy and dropped them, leaving them only with their guns, bullets, and food. On the fourth day, Henry was barely awake when the army started into a run, not a march, and he was afraid. He then said that, “The government brought me here, and now I’m going to die.” He now had that confidence he had at the beginning disappeared. He was deathly afraid of the war and began to walk away from the battle. When Henry joined his regiment again, he began to worry once more. He did not have a clear answer on whether he will fight or run. He began to form some maturity when he came to think about death. He realized that if he died, he would be able to rest, and some of that confidence that he lost began to grow
Frederick Henry grew up in America and in his early twenties, he decided to go to Europe and fight in the Italian army. Henry’s decision in the first place, showed courage and bravery. Fighting for another country over making a living in your own goes above and beyond what is remotely asked for. Even in my wildest dreams, I would probably not even think about fighting for my own country, let alone a foreign country. Times were tough, especially when the start of the winter came. With that winter came “permanent rain and with the rain came the cholera. But it was checked and in the end and only seven thousand died of it in the army.” (4) In the army, people die, and it is not the nicest place. Frederick Henry chose to enter this world and this portrays bravery.
Francis’s self consciousness drives him to join the army and begin his journey. As a child, he has always felt left out and independent from everyone else. “I’m rotten at everything.’ I confessed. ‘I can’t sing. I can’t dance. I’m no good at baseball.” And I can’t even get up the nerve to hold a normal conversation with Nicole Renard, I added silently,”(Cormier 56). Francis has always been a little self conscious of himself, causing him to hide and seem different than everyone else. This drives him to join the army in an attempt to kill himself.
War affects a person’s relationships with people close to them and their relationships with themselves. Erdrich embodies those changes through the text in “The Red Convertible.” “‘My boots are filling,’ he says. He says this in a normal voice, like he just noticed and he doesn’t know what to think of it. Then he’s gone” (Erdrich 363) shows the reader the last moments between the brothers before Henry is gone forever.
A soldier’s journey, a trip back home from World War II and a collision with reality is described in the opening of Henry Green’s novel, “Back”. The opening deals with the soldier’s journey, his experience at the warfront, the death of his love, and finally a child who is his own son, the last thing he has of his love. Charley, the soldier is seen reminiscing the moments he had with Rose and his experiences at the battlefield while he walks through the graveyard towards the body of his love. The author conveys a lot more than just what the words say in the first few paragraphs, leaving the reader eager to turn the page as well as giving the reader the freedom to interpret what certain words and sentences mean.
...is story, Hemingway brings the readers back the war and see what it caused to human as well as shows that how the war can change a man's life forever. We think that just people who have been exposed to the war can deeply understand the unfortunates, tolls, and devastates of the war. He also shared and deeply sympathized sorrows of who took part in the war; the soldiers because they were not only put aside the combat, the war also keeps them away from community; people hated them as known they are officers and often shouted " down with officers" as they passing. We have found any blue and mournful tone in this story but we feel something bitter, a bitter sarcasm. As the war passing, the soldiers would not themselves any more, they became another ones; hunting hawks, emotionless. They lost everything that a normal man can have in the life. the war rob all they have.
Book II describes a slight transformation when Henry, wounded, spends time in hospital. He is suddenly more involved with the war, but, as a release from the war, he now acknowledges his great love for Catherine. The war is never far away, though. Protest riots take place in Rome and Turin and there are intimations that the war is becoming a stalemate, the army disillusioned; ”there was a great contrast between his world pessimism and personal cheeriness” (127), the prospects of victory evaporating; ”the war could not be much worse” (129).
The state of affairs and the grim reality of the war lead Henry towards an ardent desire for a peaceful life, and as a result Henry repudiates his fellow soldiers at the warfront. Henry’s desertion of the war is also related to his passionate love for Catherine. Henry’s love for Catherine is progressive and ironic. This love develops gradually in “stages”: Henry’s attempt at pretending love for Catherine towards the beginning of the novel, his gradually developing love for her, and finally, Henry’s impas... ...