Likewise, Vonnegut uses similes to describe the destructiveness of the bombing of Dresden and the trauma it brings with it, by showing the aftermath of the bombing. “Dresden was like the moon now, nothing but minerals. The stones were hot. Everybody else in the neighborhood was dead” (Vonnegut 178). This simile is comparing Dresden to the moon, barren and empty. The moon contains no human life and is “nothing but minerals” as Vonnegut describes, meaning that it is uninhabitable, just like Dresden is now, which shows how destructive the bombing of Dresden is. By using this simile Vonnegut is showing that the destructiveness of war can make a place as barren and empty as the moon. Billy is traumatized by seeing this once flourishing place …show more content…
“Bodies bleed in his novel, at times uncontrollably, and Frederic's narrative likewise suffers at times from troubling and uncontrollable outflow” (Dodman 98). These soldiers are bleeding uncontrollably, which shows the physical destructiveness of war, but these doctors are more greatly emotionally traumatized by witnessing these soldiers bleeding out and dying and knowing that there is not much they can do to save them. Just as the bullets and bombs have caused the soldier’s “uncontrollable outflow” of blood, Hemingway’s novel suffers from “uncontrollable outflow” because of the traumatizing events he witnesses. Hemingway uses similes in order to depict the reality of war by showing how the immense amount of blood that there is in war affects soldiers emotionally. “The drops fell very slowly, as they fall from an icicle after the sun has gone” (Hemingway 60). This is a simile because it is comparing the drops of blood falling slowly to water drops falling slowly from an icicle. The man, that is above Frederic in the ambulance, is bleeding out and his blood is continuously falling onto Frederic, showing the reality of the massive amounts of blood there is in war. This depicts the reality of war because people bleed out and die all the time during the course of a war. Frederic has the man’s blood falling slowly
The word "war" is always horrible to man especially with who has been exposed to. It is destruction, death, and horrible suffers that has been with all man's life. In the short story "In Another Country", Ernest Hemingway shows us the physical and emotional tolls of the war as well as its long-term consequences on man's life. He also portrays the damaging effects that the war has on the lives of the Italians and even of the Americans.
The author uses a pair of similes to help people have a picture in their head about the story. In the story he says ¨It was empty as a jungle glade at a hot high noon¨. This simple quote makes the story a whole lot more realistic. You can practically feel the hot sun pouring down on your back. It helps people form an illustration in their head about what is happening in the story. Another simile used is ¨The house lights followed her like a flock of fireflies.¨ This quote
The design of this novel was structured from Kurt Vonnegut’s own World War II experiences. The one experience that seemed to stand out the most in the novel was the Dresden air raids. Vonnegut saw the air raids as senseless, so every time Vonnegut is describing the raids in the novel we see a distinct pattern, Vonnegut uses his novel to depict to the reader a feel of senselessness every time the bombing is mentioned. As a witness to the destruction, Billy confronts fundamental questions about the meanings of life and death. Traumatized by the events in Dresden, Billy is still left lost with no answers. Although his life as a working family man is considerably satisfying, he is unable to find peace of mind because of the trauma he suffered in Dresden. (Vonnegut,
Ernest Hemingway, one of the most notable writers of the Lost Generation, encountered heinous acts of war which were seared into his mind, this assertion is evident with every page
Kurt Vonnegut’s novel Slaughterhouse Five shows the life of Billy Pilgrim through a twisted tunnel of reality. Pilgrim is raised in Ilium, New York and grows up to become an optometrist but shortly after is drafted into World War 2. This soldier’s life is not shown as a straight line where you’re born in the beginning and die at the end but rather as a scatter plot of time due to Billy’s time traveling ways. “ Billy Pilgrim has come unstuck in time. Billy has gone to sleep a senile widower and awakened on his wedding day” (Vonnegut 29). With Billy unstuck in time it leaves his body traveling back and forth through time. Kurt Vonnegut also uses elements of science fiction to highlight the ills of modern society and the perils of
Similes and metaphors can attract the attention of the reader and helps them understand the text better with the comparison, they also show the reader the seriousness of a situation, which is clearly portrayed throughout the book in multiple spots. On page 17 the deportation of the Jews begins, during this Elie uses a simile to describe this process; "It was like a page torn from a book, a historical novel, perhaps, dealing with the captivity in Babylon or the Spanish Inquisition." This quote relates the process to another time in Jewish history when Jews were held captive. On page 98 a further example is of when the Jews were laying in the cattle cars he uses a simile to describe what he saw when he awoke; "When at last a grayish light appeared
“So they were trying to re-invent themselves and their universe... Science fiction was a big help.” (Chapter 4)
Ernest Hemingway wrote A Farewell to Arms, a celebrated historical fiction, amidst a time of war and personal suffering. Hemingway believed at this time that “life is a tragedy that can only have one end” (Hemingway, VIII). He continues further, calling war a “constant, bullying, murderous, slovenly crime” (Hemingway, IX). Hemingway also suffered at home, in addition to his issues regarding the state of the world. His wife had just endured a difficult pregnancy and delivery, which contributed to the last bitter chapter of his story. Keeping in mind the tortured and surly mental state of Hemingway, it is difficult to swallow the idea that he would write a wholesome, well founded love story that attracts people. To some readers, A Farewell to Arms tells of a whirlwind romance between an ambulance driver and a nurse that is based on an unbreakable foundation of love, trust, magnetism, and compassion. Anxious modernists, like Trevor Dodman who are cited in Joel Armstrong’s nonfiction text, will come up with a remarkably different outlook on this tragedy. With aid from “‘A Powerful Beacon’ Love Illuminating Human Attachment in Hemingway’s A Farewell to Arms”, the loveless relationship between Frederic Henry and Catherine Barkley will be seen as rushed, meaningless, and mentally destructive to the parties involved.
This distortion of war may have been unintentional, but the more voluntary examples of the distortion of war can be seen in the results of war, and how people may react to it. Billy Pilgrim, the main protagonist of the story, survived an air raid by falling asleep in an underground meat locker and was one of the few survivors of the bombings of Dresden, the city that Slaughterhouse Five was located in. “The rest of the guards had, before the raid began, gone to the comforts of their own homes in Dresden. They were all being killed with their families. So it goes,” (Vonnegut, 83). The phrase, “so it goes” is a neutral statement that Billy Pilgrim uses to himself to cope with the deaths of human beings. Rather than treating death as a sorrowful event, Billy treats death as just another one of the many points in a person’s life, thus distorting how humans normally react to
To mirror the couple’s confusion of life verses death through abortion, Hemingway arranges words and phrases to establish the story indirectly. While most who visit Europe enjoy it, literature and movies
Having left the war behind, Frederic is finally ready for peace and quiet. Hemingway, however, has other plans for his character. Catherine dies during childbirth, as does the baby. Thus, Frederic is confronted again with death. This time, however, he is unable to detach himself emotionally as he did with the deaths he witnessed in war. His neat and happy world is collapsing and there is nothing that he can do about it.
In A Farewell to Arms, For Whom the Bell Tolls, and The Sun Also Rises, Ernest Hemingway uses damaged characters to show the unglamorous and futile nature of war and the effects it has on people. Hemingway wants readers to know that war is not what people make it out to be; it is unspectacular and not heroic. Hemingway also feels that war is futile by nature and that most goals in war have almost no point. He also shows readers that military conflict often causes people to have shallow values and to hide their pain for their own protection.
Hemingway's world is one in which things do not grow and bear fruit, but explode, break, decompose, or are eaten away. It is saved from total misery by visions of endurance, by what happiness the body can give when it does not hurt, by interludes of love which
Many of the passages of the novel reflect his life. Hemingway writes: “But man is not made for defeat," he said. "A man can be destroyed but not defeated.” This has been shown through his life, as Hemingway wrote the novella to prove he wasn’t finished as a writer. This is also reflected during his time in World War 1. Hemingway was wounded by Austrian Mortar fire, and yet despite his injuries or “defeat,” Hemingway carried a wounded italian soldier to safety. Hemingway wrote: "When you go to war as a boy you have a great illusion
Ernest Hemingway’s A Farewell to Arms tells the tale of two young, star-crossed lovers in the midst of World War I. A powerful romance and stirring history of the war, this semi autobiographical novel meshes the contrasting worlds of love and war, setting war as the backdrop of love. The novel’s portrayal of love is an issue that has attracted critical debate, prompting many academics to reflect on its existence, form, and role in the plot. Joel Armstrong is one such academic. His literary criticism entitled, “‘A Powerful Beacon’ Love Illuminating Human Attachment in Hemingway’s A Farewell to Arms,” asserts that love is the centering principle of the novel, and that the narrative’s world is one in which “love illuminates all of life” (Armstrong 79). As Armstrong asserts, love is the centering principle of A Farewell to Arms because it serves as an anchor for Frederic Henry and Catherine Barkley during the tumultuous events of war, motivates them to go through significant struggles, and works along with loss to lend more meaning to significant events in the plot.