Illuminating Human Attachment In Ernest Hemingway's A Farewell To Arms

    There are two major themes in A Farewell to Arms that Hemingway clearly conveys: war and love. The war theme is obvious because the book is set during the World War. The theme of love is less obvious, it begins faintly because of the uncertainty between Frederick Henry and Catherine Barkley. Neither desire love or commitment to anyone, but act upon their desires of passion. As the story progresses, so does their love. The strength of their love is enforced by various understandings and agreements. Love is the theme that closes the book, leaving a final allusion of what their love is about.

When people are in love they feel warmth or fondness. When people are in love they hear the wind sing a melody when their lover walks past. When people are in love the moon appears to them as a huge red jewel waiting to be taken and given to their lover. In Ernest Hemingway's A Farewell To Arms, this is not the case. In this fictional novel, Frederic Henry is a lieutenant in the Italian army in World War I. He falls in love with an English nurse Catherine Barkley. Together, they have an adventurous and hectic life. They claim to both love each other; however, it does not seem pure. It almost seems fake. The couple claims to be playing games with each other. They also have times of grief and sadness. To distance themselves from their pain, they stay with each other feeling consolation. The centering principle of A Farewell To Arms is not love, it is pretence of showing affection, playing a game, and masking pain with love.

Novels published after a major war are often the most deeply emotional, profound ruminations on human nature. The authors of these novels were once soldiers, living in fear and enduring sleepless nights. These authors channel their experiences and emotions into their work, often creating masterpieces of literature. A Farewell to Arms is one such novel. Its author, Ernest Hemingway, was in the Italian ambulance corps in World War I, much like the protagonist of A Farewell to Arms, Frederic Henry. The themes in A Farewell to Arms reflect his mentality and the typical soldier’s disillusionment in the institutions and values he had always held close. A Farewell to Arms explores the far-reaching disillusionment that seems to plague Frederic. The theme of Frederic Henry’s disillusionment of all that he believes in appears through his desertion of the war, the deterioration of his relationship with Catherine, and his thoughts on life.

1. I think that Hemingway was foreshadowing the outcome of the novel by saying that the right thing is not always the most popular thing to do. In this case, Henry was saying he wouldn’t do things unless he really wanted to. Henry never really wanted the baby with Catherine because their relationship would have another variable in it. It was then foreshadowed when the baby died and his relationship with Catherine is permanently damaged.

Ernest Hemingway’s novel A Farewell to Arms covers a romance that takes place during World War I. The novel itself came out shortly after the war, and was the first of Hemingway’s books to become a best-seller. Essentially, the novel contrasts the horrors of war with the romance of Henry and Catherine. Throughout the plot, Hemingway, a World War I veteran himself, uses the events of the book to make a statement about his thoughts on war. The core message of Hemingway’s A Farewell to Arms is that war damages the soldiers who fight in it both physically and emotionally, which is primarily illustrated by the number of deaths caused directly and indirectly by the war, the actions Henry is forced to take over the course of the book, and Henry’s growing cynicism towards war.

The very first time Henry begins to pursue a physical relationship, indeed, only the second time he has ever seen Miss Barkley, he admits to her that " 'Yes,' I said. 'And we have gotten away from the war,' " and the foundations of their very relationship, escape and pleasure are thus laid out (Hemingway, 26). They soon commence verbally lying and confessing undying love to each other, and Frederick even admits he "thought she was probably a little crazy...I knew I did not love Catherine Barkley nor had any idea of loving her. This was a game, like bridge, in which you said things instead of playing cards" (30). Nor does the pretending go unnoticed on her own part, " 'This is a rotten game we play, isn't it?'... 'You're a nice boy... And you play it as well as you know how. But it's a rotten game' " (31). Rotten because it never truly is expected to work, rotten because it is founded on the principle of falsehood.

Ernest Hemingway's WWI classic, A Farewell to Arms is a story of initiation in which the growth of the protagonist, Frederic Henry, is recounted. Frederic is initially a naïve and unreflective boy who cannot grasp the meaning of the war in which he is so dedicated, nor the significance of his lover's predictions about his future. He cannot place himself amidst the turmoil that surrounds him and therefore, is unable to fully justify a world of death and destruction. Ultimately, his distinction between his failed relationship with Catherine Barkley and the devastation of the war allows him to mature and arrive at the resolution that the only thing one can be sure of in the course of life is death

In the A Farewell to Arms, Ernest Hemingway incorporates a literary style known as Modernism. Literary Modernism, or Modernist literature, had its origin in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The horrors of World War I perceived, were taken into consideration by Modernists as the prevailing assumptions about society were reassessed. Thinkers such as Sigmund Freud began questioning the rationality of mankind. Hemingway includes perspectivism, impressionism, and common theme loss, isolation, and exile from society.

In A Farewell to Arms, Lieutenant Frederic Henry retells his gruesome encounters of World War I as a medic serving for the Italian army. In an unprecedented encounter, Henry met Miss.Barkley during a trip to the nurse stations. The two young lovers quickly developed a romantic relationship which revolved around their strength, dedication, and perseverance in times of struggle and discord. The novel provides an understanding of how the strength of love triumphs over arduous matters, and provides solace in times of distress. Joel Armstrong reinforced his idea of the main principle of love in A Farewell to Arms by stating, “the love presented in the novel is such that it illuminates all of life, attracting the characters with its

The book I chose to do my analysis on was A Farewell to Arms, written by Ernest Hemingway in 1929. It has a first person narrative and is told by American ambulance driver Frederic Henry who finds love in the form of a nurse named Catherine Barkley all while the first world war is happening in the background. The story almost serves as a biographical piece on Hemingway himself as many of the events and experiences in it are inspired by real life ones that affected him. He did fight in World War 1 and served as an ambulance driver where he also met and fell in love with a nurse. The war had a major impact on himself and also other notable writers of the time which included Gertrude Stein, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and T.S. Eliot who were together part of the “lost generation”. This was because of how destructive it was and the affects it had on people on the front and at home. In the end of it millions of people had died and it all seemed for nothing. Soldiers returned home and had to adjust back to civilian life and had a different outlook on themselves and the world around them. This gave rise to writers and poets which wrote stories that detailed the war and its impact on society.

Haunting yet passionate, A Farewell to Arms allows readers to perceive the story from a soldier’s point of view. Hemingway depicts the harsh war with sensory but blunt details. His expression of words has an emotional appeal on the reader, allowing his or her to put themselves in the shoes of any character. For example, on page 73 Hemingway writes, “There was sunlight coming through the shutters. I saw the big armoire, the bare walls, and two chairs. My legs in dirty bandages, stuck straight out of the bed.” Hemingway fully describes what is seen and this permits his audience to have a full picture in their mind.

In Ernest Hemingway’s A Farewell to Arms, Hemingway sets the story during World War I, which takes place on the Italian front. This, being one of many successful novels Hemingway wrote, earned him the Nobel Prize. Hemingway grew up in a very successful family, with his father, Clarence Edmonds Hemingway, being a Physician. Tragically, his father took his life on December 6, 1928. With an emotional scar after the incident, Hemingway wrote his first book The Doctor and the Doctor’s Wife. Then, he ran away from home and enlisted in the Red Cross Association on the Italian front. There he met a young nurse named Agnes von Kurowsky, who accepted his proposal, but left him for another man instead. This incident inspired the book A Farewell to Arms. After having his heart broken, he returned back to America and married Hadley Richardson. Hemingway Published the book The Sun Also Rises, based on the rekindling of his broken heart, but commits adultery with Pauline Pfeiffer. Pfeiffer then becomes his second wife after the divorce with Richardson was finalized. Predictably, after having his first child, Patrick Hemingway, the couple divorced and he married Martha Gellhorn. Hemingway served in D-Day where he met a war correspondent, Mary Welsh. Hemingway and Welsh married. Shortly after, he wrote The Old Man and the Sea, earning him the Pulitzer Prize in 1951 that he earnestly longed for. Solely, Hemingway wrote his books on heartbreak, war, and women. Hemingway published 28 books

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.

Ernest Hemingway was a Nobel prize winner, a Pulitzer prize winner, and an awarded Silver Medal of Military Valor. Hemingway began his life as a boy who was dressed as a girl until the age of six, who learned to truly despise his mother. He was an excellent student throughout his high school career, maintaining his athletic abilities in football and boxing, while also writing for his school newspaper and yearbook. He did, however, live a tragic life. His tragedies are reflected within his pieces of writings, with relations of his past experiences.

Ernest Hemingway wrote his romantic-tragedy novel A Farewell to Arms as a portrayal of love, between the two characters Frederic Henry and Catherine Berkley, that gave hope in a disappointing, trying war-time. Though, the particular kind of love that was portrayed by Hemingway has been questioned and criticized by many since the publishing of A Farewell to Arms, including Joel Armstrong in his literary criticism entitled “‘A Powerful Beacon’ Love Illuminating Human Attachment in Hemingway’s A Farewell to Arms.” In Armstrong’s criticism, he refers to Henry and Berkley’s love for each other as means to find human attachment while everyone else in the world was at war with each other. Joel Armstrong described the love in Ernest Hemingway’s A Farewell to Arms as a mechanism to find hope in a warring world because of the lack of love, the illumination of love, and the de facto marriage.