Not only did the effects of war negatively influence Henry’s actions, the theme of tragedy and the horrors of war also influence the entire Italian Army. For example, in Moddelmog’s literary analysis, the author refers back to novel to discuss the temptations that are depicted by Hemingway to give an accurate representation of the daily lives of the soldiers and the author hints at a justification for their actions:
“It might sound sordid, but during war who can blame soldiers for seeking pleasurable diversions from the gritty horrors they encounter everyday? Certainly not the Italians or their military, for as Frederic points out, there were two ‘bawdy houses’ in the town where his unit was stationed, ‘One for troops and one for
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Furthermore, this excerpt suggests that Henry develops a type of thought process capable of repeating his tragic memories. Due to this, he is able to connect with greater tragedy to develop a deeper depression. This depression eventually worsens due to the prolonged use of alcohol to cover his internal wounds. All in all, the tragedies that Henry experiences directly result in alcoholism and other bad habits, causing an overall negative depiction of war and a tragic theme. Although these many horrors that Henry suffers through greatly contribute to the overall theme of tragedy, the most horrific scenes that Henry encounters include the deaths of his wife and child. For instance, the death of Henry’s child, after he has fled the horrors of war, majorly transitions back into the tragic theme of Hemingway’s novel. In Pozorski’s literary analysis, he points to the pattern and logic in Hemingway’s novel to depict the overall methods he uses to create a tragic theme, by saying, “It appears that there are no words to convey the choking death of a child. All Hemingway provides, instead, are fits and starts when Frederic recalls his reaction to the news of this son’s death” (90). To elaborate, this evidence suggests that these tragedies hold the capacity to make Henry think religiously, even though he lacks religion, and that the tragedies also are responsible for Henry’s loss of words and scattered thoughts. This evidence relates to the theme by showing the
Henry’s confidence does not last for a long time. The realities of the battle become a reality and cause his fear and doubt to reappear. Henry goes from being happy because he was able to fight the enemy in the first battle to being anxious at the beginning of a second
First, one should focus on the language and Henry's ethos. The soldiers are burdened with the thought of a
Looking at the plot of the story, one can see that the story deals with a psychological conflict. Before Henry had left for the Vietnam War he and Lyman had a close relationship and since coming back he changed significantly because of what he saw and experienced. Lyman explains, “Once I was in the room watching TV with Henry and I heard his teeth click at something. I looked over and he’d bitten through his lip. Blood was going down his chin” (Erdrich 129). This example shows how Henry is dealing with the post war stress and how he cannot get what he went through out of his head. As he sits and watches the replaying war videos, he is unable to get past that he can live again and go back to the way things were because psychologically he is still at war and fighting.
Ernest Hemingway graduated from high school in 1917 and moved to Chicago to take a position at the Kansas City Star. Shortly after that, he enlisted in the war and went to Italy as a Red Cross ambulance driver. During his stay at the Italian front, he was seriously wounded while assisting a soldier and spent several weeks in a Milan hospital (Mazzeno). One can argue that Hemingway used his time spent in war as a way to transfer his own feeling and personal experiences in writing “Soldier’s Home.”
After the Vietnam War, Henry was crazy and unstable. For instance, when Henry was watching television and he bit through his lip with blood pouring everywhere (977). The blood was getting on his bread every time he took a bite, but because of his lost ability to think straight Henry doesn’t even flinch as blood pours everywhere. Also, at the end of the story Henry snaps on his brother Lyman. He punches Lyman, which leads to a fight ended by the laughing of Henry (980). During the fight with Lyman, the extent of Henry’s mental changed, to turn on a family member and physically strike him. Henry illustrates how crazy he is when he jumps in to the river all of the sudden to “cool off”(981). This action by Henry ends his craziness and his life.
Henry being so consciously aware of the reoccurring violence and deaths of many soldiers causes him to constantly reminisce about the war in Vietnam and its horrific events. “PTSD” however, is very common amongst veterans. My father who had fought in the Vietnam War had “PTSD.” And even after many years of prior to the war, his past always seemed to have consumed his reality. The violent images and emotional feelings about the war in Vietnam have caused him to visualize the war in a form of a nightmare whenever he sleeps. This can explain his frequent sleep talks at night about the Vietnam War as he screams “giết tất cả” which translates to kill them all. Of course he had it coming that the cause of his children to become distant towards him was because of his unexplained actions. But nonetheless, it is the result of many pasts that is the responsibility of shaping ones fear and sensation towards life.
War brings the fall down and isolation into a person, no matter how much Henry wants to forget, the horrific memories will follow. Even if you do something terrible wrong like Jesse leaving the train you will always have to face
The Novel All Quiet On The Western Front illustrates the effects of war can be highly effective on most soldiers. In this particular novel these characters go through some many hardships and are tested to the maximum. In many ways, World War I demanded this depiction more than any war before it completely altered mankind’s conception of military conflict with its catastrophic levels of carnage and violence, its battles that lasted for months, and its gruesome new technological advancements that made killing easier and more impersonal than ever before.
Finally, Hemingway uses the isolation of the narrator to contribute to the mood of despair. He first enforces the grim mood through his depiction of the narrator as a foreigner to Italy. The narrator is an American while the other soldiers attending the hospital are Italian (455). Having the narrator live in a foreign country and converse with Italian soldiers using a foreign language adds to the sorrowful mood. Hemingway also uses the narrator’s medals to create the mood. When the narrator’s fellow soldiers learn that he receives his war medals because of his nationality instead of his performance, they treat him differently and he is “never really one of them” again (455). The change in the soldiers’ attitudes towards the narrator adds to
The brutality of war is a main theme in the story. First, during the war people die everywhere in the battles. Henry sees this when he is in or when he watches the battles. For example, “Men punched in bullets, fell in grotesque agonies” (110). People in Henry’s regiment die as they move forward showing the brutality of war.
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
In the Excerpt A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway, the author's use of imagery and varying sentence lengths help convey Frederick Henry's understanding of human life and the reality of death. During the death of Fredericks baby and wife, he reflects on the meaning of life and the significance of death. His thoughts and actions after this incident make it seem like he would rather be dead than have to deal with the death of his loved ones.
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 scene six, the audience sees Henry in his aggressive nature once again. Henry orders, “every soldier kill his prisoners” (Shakespeare IV, vi, 37), without reason. He has no real justification, at this moment, for this order except for hearing that two of his men have been killed. Surely, this would be devastating to hear, but this is not out of the ordinary of the nature of war. Henry's command to kill all the French prisoners might seem extremely cruel and savage, for current day readers, however, this is likely his attempt to scare away the French. At this point, Henry is unaware of whether he is losing or winning the battle, and hearing about the death of York and Suffolk likely makes Henry think that he is losing. Unless Henry wants
A Farewell to Arms is acclaimed author Ernest Hemingway’s second standalone novel, published in 1929. The novel is set on the battlefront of World War I and tells the tragic love story of Frederic Henry, an American ambulance driver in the Italian army, and Catherine Barkley, a grieving British nurse. Joel Armstrong’s article, “‘A Powerful Beacon’: Love Illuminating Human Attachment in Hemingway’s A Farewell to Arms”, provides an in-depth analysis of the use of love throughout the novel, supported by the views of philosophers as well as Hemingway himself. Armstrong uses these viewpoints to determine what type of love story A Farewell to Arms is. In the end, Armstrong states that the love between Henry and Barkley is so complex and impacted by other variables that it defies all other love stories and forces readers to “re-evaluate, head on, the question of love”(Armstrong 81). Armstrong’s position on A Farewell to Arms is supported by Henry’s change throughout the novel, the impact of war on Henry and Barkley’s relationship, and Catherine’s unexpected and sudden death.