Theme Of Heroism In A Farewell To Arms

In the past one hundred years, war has greatly influenced the dark themes that have emerged in storytelling, as well as how an author executes their story’s tone, style, structure. Ever since the world was first exposed to war on a large scale in the 20th century, it has impacted many, especially the soldiers involved. Some of these soldiers, like Kurt Vonnegut and Ernest Hemingway, went on to become war writers. Even though their view of war contrasts, it is also similar in some aspects. Hemingway and Vonnegut both agree that war is atrocious in all ways. An HBO Documentary called Alive Day Memories: Home From Iraq supports this belief as well, even though the time span of Hemingway and Vonnegut’s works are at most one hundred years before

In A Farewell to Arms not much heroism is shown regarding the protagonist. There was one instance, however, when the lieutenant was a hero. This occurred when he and his comrades were shelled while in a dugout. After the shelling was over, Henry was seriously wounded, but that did not stop him from checking on his comrades. "I unwound the puttee and while I was doing it I saw there was no need to try to and make a tourniquet because he was dead already. I made sure he was dead. There were three others to locate," (Hemingway 55). Regardless of his heroic actions, he refused to be recognized by the military for

Vonnegut depicts Pilgrim as not do anything to help in the battlefield, as well as pathetic and weak. “The third bullet was for the filthy flamingo [Billy], who stopped dead center in the road when the lethal bee buzzed past his ear. Billy stood there politely, giving the marksman another chance,” (Vonnegut 33). Billy’s mere presence in the battlefield is therefore used by Vonnegut to present a different, more realistic view of war, where being a soldier isn’t about glory. Even though heroism and patriotism go hand in hand in most cases, patriotism is shown comparably more in all three works as a theme. Hemingway’s novel and Alive Day share characteristics of patriotism as presented to their audiences. A Farewell to Arms specifically focuses on how America at the time of World War I believes that being a soldier is all about glory, honor, and courage. “Abstract words such as glory, honor, courage, or hallow were obscene beside the concrete names of villages, the numbers of roads, the names of rivers, the numbers of regiments and the dates,” (Hemingway