Ernest Hemingway’s classic novel, A Farewell to Arms, is one of the greatest love and war stories of all time. The success and authenticity of this tale is a direct result of Hemingway’s World War I involvement. The main character, Frederick Henry, encounters many of the same things as did Hemingway and creates a parallel between the author and character.
Bloom, Harold. Introduction. Ernest Hemingway's A Farewell to Arms. Ed. Harold Bloom. New York: Chelsea, 1987.
Ernest Hemingway is today known as one of the most influential American authors of the 20th century. This man, with immense repute in the worlds of not only literature, but also in sportsmanship, has cast a shadow of control and impact over the works and lifestyles of enumerable modern authors and journalists. To deny his clear mastery over the English language would be a malign comparable to that of discrediting Orwell or Faulkner. The influence of the enigma that is Ernest Hemingway will continue to be shown in works emulating his punctual, blunt writing style for years to come.
Ernest Hemingway, an American Novelist writes in ways which “uses a plain, forceful prose style characterized by simple sentences and few adjectives or adverbs. He writes crisp, accurate dialogue and exact descriptions of places and things” (Kramer), to reflect his thoughts and life lessons. Hemingway apart of what is considered the “lost generation” writes a vast amount on the society that exists during the time of the World Wars and how they (the lost generation) struggle in adjusting to the changes of society after the wars. Through this and his personal experiences, Hemingway reveals his own thoughts on women. After reading Hemingway’s short stories, “Hills like White Elephants”, “Cat in the Room”, “The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber”, and his Novel, “A Farewell to Arms”, It is clear that Hemingway combines his ability to tell a story, and the ironic situations which occur between a man and a woman to prove that men sacrifice their future personal growth because of the manipulation and critique involved with love.
Nagel, Gwen. “A Tessera For Frederic Henry: Imagery And Recurrence in A Farewell To Arms.” Ernest Hemingway Six Decades of Criticism. Ed. Michigan State Press : 1987. 187-193.
Ernest Hemingway was a great American author whom started his career humbly in a newspaper office in Kansas City at the ripe, young age of seventeen. Once the United States joined World War One, Hemingway deemed it fit to join a volunteer ambulance service. During this time Hemingway was wounded, and decorated by the Italian Government for his noble deeds. Once he completely recovered, he made his way back to the United States. Upon his arrival he became a reporter for the American and Canadian newspapers and was sent abroad to cover significant events. For example, he was sent to Europe to cover the Greek revolution. During his early adulthood, Hemingway became a member of the group of expatriate Americans in Paris. This is known as the time in his life in which he describes in two of his novels; A Farewell to Arms and The Sun Also Rises the latter of the two being his first work. Hemingway was able to use his experiences of serving in the front during the war and his experience of being with other expatriates after the war to shape both of these novels. He was able to successful write these novels due to his past experience with working for newspapers. His experience with the newspaper seemed to be far more beneficial than just supplying him with an income, with the reporting experience under his belt he also was able to construct another novel that allowed him to sufficiently describe his experiences reporting during the Civil War; For Whom the Bell Tolls. Arguably his most tremendous short novel was a about an old fisherman’s journey and the long, lonely struggle with a fish and the sea with his victory being in defeat.
Published in 1929, Ernest Hemingway finished A Farewell to Arms when he was barely 30 years old. Hemingway had been planning on writing about World War I for more than a decade, and chose A Farewell to Arms to be his attempt at a blockbuster, a novel which would sell very well.1 This view is supported by the fact that one of Hemingway's original works, presumably loss in the fiasco of Hadley's luggage, was also a war novel, emphasizing Hemingway's firm belief in the importance of war and love as a theme. By this time, of course, Hemingway was already fairly well known, having already published four short story collections and one successful novel in The Sun Also Rises. In this sense, Hemingway's timing in his quest for a big seller was perfect. Fortunately for Hemingway the book did sell, and although he was already close to being a bestseller at the time of A Farewell to Arms publishing, the novel went on to lead best-seller lists after only a few weeks in publication. In contrast to the lack of money-making power of Fitzgerald's novels, A Farewell to Arms sold 45,000 copies in only seven weeks; in fact, the interest in the book was so high Scribner's had to renegotiate Hemingway's contract following the unexpectedly large sales statistics.2
Ernest Hemingway was born on July 21, 1899, in Oak Park, Illinois. His mother, Grace Hall, was a trained opera singer and later on, a music teacher. His father, Clarence Hemingway, was a doctor and an avid naturalist ("Ernest Hemingway: An Inventory”). Just after graduating high school, at the age of eighteen, Hemingway enlisted in the army to fight in World War I ("The Big Read"). After being severely wounded in the war, he moved to Paris in 1921, and devoted himself to writing fiction (Baker). It is said that, “No American writer is more associated with writing about war in the early 20th century than Ernest Hemingway” (Putnam). Hemingway’s book A Farewell to Arms was published in 1929, and was based off of the events that happened to him in the war and what happened in his love life. Fredrick Henry, the protagonist, is an American ambulance driver fighting for the allies during World War I. He is introduced to a nurse named Catherine, who he later on falls in love with. Henry was hit by a trench mortar shell and was very badly injured. He is then sent to Milan, where Catherine later on comes to help nurse him to health. The two fall in love and Henry no longer is involved with the war, so they try and have a child, but both Catherine and the child die during labor, and Henry is left alone. Psychoanalytical approach views the psychological motivations of characters, which refer to the dynamics of personality development and behavior based on the unconscious motivations of a person ("Psychoanalytic Theory”). Hemingway’s writing was greatly impacted by his real life tragedies, which consist of witnessing the gruesomeness of war and his discovery and loss of love, this helps exhibi...
Ernest Hemingway used an abundant amount of imagery in his War World I novel, A Farewell to Arms. In the five books that the novel is composed of, the mind is a witness to the senses of sight, touch, smell, hearing, and taste. All of the these senses in a way connects to the themes that run through the novel. We get to view Hemingway’s writing style in a greater depth and almost feel, or mentally view World War I and the affects it generates through Lieutenant Henry’s eyes.
Hemingway
In one of the chapters in the book entitled “Hemingway” the author Leo Lania tries to explain Hemingway and his work. He explains that a key to understanding Hemingway can be found in the characters of his heroes and in their beliefs. The leading
character “appears in various guises in the different novels and short stories but basically he is always the same type”(Lania8).Whether ordinary soldier or general, smuggler or gambler, Negro or journalist he is a man scarred by experience. He has always been gravely wounded, physically or mentally, either during the war, in the sports arena, during childhood, in fight for existence. At some time or other something terrible has happened to him and the memory persecutes him.