Character History In Ernest Hemingway's A Farewell To Arms

Hemingway’s elimination of character history in the novel serves the purpose of adding more importance to what the characters say and do rather than their individual histories. Hemingway most likely wrote the characters without background in order for readers draw conclusions from character interactions. This differs from many other stories that generally give a brief description and background of the main characters in the beginning or shortly after introducing a character in the story.By doing it this way the author gives a brief notion of a characters personality and readers draw conclusions of a characters motivations for doing things based on that. In the novel, A Farewell to Arms, the authors uses the interactions Frederick Henry has

World War I or the Great War which what it was originally called was an unprecedented war that encompassed many of the biggest powers of the world. It pulled in the rich and the poor and many troops were sent to work with soldiers of other countries. Though at the beginning of the war I feel there may have been time to share one 's past with the other soldiers. This surely changed as the war winded down and soldiers were being sent one after the other. When this began one couldn’t ask about one 's history and had to rely on interactions with people to know if they would have your back during battles. This is exactly what he does and more throughout the story as Hemingway also gives the general feel for the war through his dialogue. This can be seen through Henry’s dialogue with the soldier with the hernia who he instructs on how to get out of service. This shows that Henry isn’t truly dedicated to the war and that while he may fight in it he doesn’t believe in dying for this war that in all honesty isn’t truly his war. Also in this same interaction we see that some soldiers also don’t truly believe in fighting a war that 's not of their own making. This along with the fact that in many of the cities he stayed locals were asking him questions or the higher classes were reading

Before she is introduced we infer that Henry is man thats just does things for the hell of it and isn’t looking for anything meaningful or even thinks that a relationship can have a meaning besides for sex which can be inferred from his talks with the priest. Though it seems this may change from his first meeting with Catherine when he describes her long blonde hair. At first when they interact Catherine seems a little off base and very submissive giving into Henry’ wants.Though it seems she truly may be this way her later interactions about this “being a game that Henry plays well” shows that she may not truly be this way and is using this experience as a possible distraction for something. It is learned in a later conversation that her fiance had been killed during the war. This adds depth to their relationship and gives both Henry and Catherine common ground as they both are using it to escape from aspects of the war. Their relationship and characters blossom from this as they spend more time together. In Catherine after their relationship has blossomed she is shown to be more than an emotionally damaged woman.She shows an independent streak such as in the race track setting and strength when she was willing to raise her and Henry’s child herself. Also her lines about the rain expand her character as it shows that she is a realist who