Farewell To Arms

Lieutenant Frederic Henry is the main character and protagonist of A Farewell to Arms. He is an American ambulance driver in the Italian Army during World War I. Frederic is a unique character because he has mixed feelings towards the war. He doesn’t believe in honor, and doesn’t want any medals when he’s wounded. He’s fighting because it’s his duty, but he’s young and immature with no real purpose. Instead of like Paul Baumer in All Quiet on the Western Front, the war doesn’t really become Frederic’s purpose. They’re just co-existing, and Frederic is almost detached. Paul seems to accept the war as a part of his life, and tries to fight and work within it. When Frederic Henry meets Catherine Barkley, a nurse, he, in a sense, has to catch up

On page 184, Gino says, “What has been done this summer cannot have been done in vain.” To Gino, the soldiers’ deaths have been honorable and worth something, and this makes Frederic think. He doesn’t entirely agree with it. His response is a long paragraph of his thoughts, how he was “always embarrassed by the words sacred, glorious, and sacrifice and the expression in vain...I had seen nothing sacred, and the things that were glorious had no glory...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”. To Frederic, the words others use to describe the soldiers do nothing for him. It’s the facts and the true nature of war that matter, which really ties into the theme that war is a grim, destructive reality. When I read this part, it made me think of conversations we have had in class, discussing whether or not a soldier willing to die for his country is makes his death more or less meaningful. Especially when we read “Dulce et Decorum Est”, and that poem’s speaker said the idea of dying for your country was a lie. I noticed the parallel between the two men, and how different their situations--Frederic was still in war and we determined the speaker had probably fought years before--but how similar their views. Personally, I think it’s interesting

Gino, who supports the war, is described by Frederic Henry as naive, and Ettore Moretti is too boastful and proud. Instead, through Frederic’s eyes, we see war for what it is. It’s not pretty or full of robotic-like men, arranged in columns and rows. It’s a fight for survival at all costs, and I think too often I even forget that. When I read about the Italian retreat, and everything just turning to chaos, I understood what Hemingway’s intention was. It wasn’t to write a book condemning war, but to write one that helps other people see that war happens because the world is chaotic and problematic. This was another idea we explored and discussed reading All Quiet on the Western Front. Paul too often said that war was not decided by him, only fought. The real people behind the war--who only signed papers to start and end it--never had to fight a day, and if they did, then maybe it wouldn’t be so long and drawn out. By the end of the novel, Frederic thinks of war as too unjust, and he