Frederic Henrys Resistance to Destiny in A Farewell to Arms

A Farewell to Arms is Hemingways novel that shows mans place in the Universe, referring to his relation
to his own destiny. The focus is maintained on mans ability to influence and/or change his own fate, and his free
will in modeling his own path no matter where destiny leads him. The text examines how a man is capable to create
his own path in contrast to the road that life leads him to. The question is whether man can be or not in control of his
own life, considering a predestined ending point, given by a god or random rules of the Universe.
Unlike The Old Man and the Sea, in A Farewell to Arms, the impact destiny plays in the protagonists life is
less obvious, the novel being centered on how the war develops. The characters trajectory before the war was
Henrys choice anyway.
Frederic Henry is the protagonist in A Farewell to Arms, a complex character who engages in the war and
finally realizes how cruel and discriminatory life can be. Because of the war, Henry notices the damaging effect that
it has on human life and how human destiny is empowered by the war background sometimes. He continuously tries
to change his own destiny, by analyzing his own experiences and, in the end, he manages to do it, but pays a huge
price for it. Frederic is at first an individual who lives his life by his own code of pragmatism. He is ironic and
detached when he mentions the deaths of thousands of soldiers: At the start of the winter came the permanent rain
and with the rain came the cholera. But it was checked and in the end only seven thousand died of it in the army
(Hemingway, A Farewell to Arms 4).
This is Frederics way of seeing life, insignificant, mostly in this new type of war with new weapons and
tactics, but with consequences that had been seen before. This is a kind of war where thousands of soldiers die
almost instantaneously by short bursts of fighting or slowly by epidemics, and the fact that Frederic is involved in it
creates the appearance of detachment in his mind between death and sacrifice. His reasons for entering this war were
never mentioned, but may be seen as Henrys need to prove his maturity and masculinity.
Paolini manages to give the readers a perfect description of the heros conflict with mans deadliest
enemies, Death and Destiny:
The leading character, Frederic Henry, at first participated in a common adventure, war; but then,
by deserting, he struck out on his own. His individual adventure ended with a bleak vision of man,
defeated by a supreme fate by which he was perhaps doomed. And so, as in the climax of a
Chaplin film, he shuffles off with sagging shoulders in the rain. (133)
Henry, as seen by Paolini, is a tragic individual caught in a never-ending battle versus his pre-set destiny,
trying to overcome the discrimination of life both on a moral and a physical level. Frederic is a true cynic, able to
see mans destiny as a long journey of unbreakable events that will eventually end in death. Even with this idea of
life, he does not stop from trying to get control of his own destiny and change his fate, an objective that he succeeds
in to a certain extent, no matter the odds and everything that has become a wall in his path, showing a mans power
to shape his own destiny. Paolini notes that the character is subdued to the workings of a supreme destiny, but one
may notice several ways in which Henry proves the contrary. Frederic Henry succeeds in surviving and escaping a
war where he was close to death more than once, even though morally, at the end of the text, his way of seeing life is
changed back to the one in the beginning because of Catherines death. Nonetheless, Henry is a victor against fate
because Death is the ending point in every mans life and he managed to escape it countless times.
Even Catherine Barkley, Henrys love interest, fights her own fate, being haunted by her past, where her
fiance died in the war one year before Henry met her, and the fact that she hesitates in marrying the protagonist
proves that she is cautious about loving someone else. Catherine would become Henrys catalyst in his fight against
destiny, when she engages in a relation with him, determining Henry to fight his way back to her after the armys
retreat turned to be nothing but chaos. During the novel, Catherine is Frederics object of affection that becomes
torture for him the moment she ends up a victim of destiny and dies. She is the most important thing for Henry, his
real love, the only thing he cares about after escaping the military police:
I was not made to think. I was made to eat. My God, yes. Eat and drink and sleep with Catherine.
To-night maybe. No that was impossible. But to-morrow night, and a good meal and sheets and
never going away again except together. (Hemingway, A Farewell to Arms 206)
Frederic shows his devotion for Catherine that is not just his center of affection, but the purpose for whom
he rejects war, the goal he sees as worth fighting for and, at the same time, a selfish aspiration for his own happiness.
She becomes the reason for Henry to stand up and reject destinys will and also gives him the strength to do it, but at
the price of giving away his responsibilities toward his soldiers. Henrys dedication for Barkley is well described by
Ferderick Hoffman as follows:
In the landscape of unreason of which this section of the novel gives a brilliant description,
Lieutenant Henry loses all sense of personal dedication to his fellow soldiers, abandons his feeling
of responsibility to the army, and breaks out of the trap that the war has laid for him.. From then
on he links his fate with only a few persons, and they serve his emotional needs and protect him
from dangers. (326)
Henry finds in his love for Catherine, his desire to be with her, the power to push on and to reject the idea
of being captured by the Austrians or dying either at the hands of the enemy or the Italian army. Due to a higher
objective, Frederic goes away from the ordinary soldiers who become victims of their own destiny, some of whom
die, as in the case of Aymo, killed by the Italian army, or Bonello, who let himself captured to avoid death.
Moreover, even when Henry knows that he is about to die, in the scene of the officers interrogation, he manages to
avoid death by jumping in the river, contrary to the other officers who resign themselves to their destiny. In his
struggle to get back to Catherine, Henry distances himself from the other soldiers and the exteriorization of this
detachment from his soldiers is empowered by the shooting of the detonation sergeant. When a man has a purpose
and an objective to meet, nobody will stop him from fulfilling it. Henrys determination does not stop even while he
is asleep:
Are you really there?
Of course Im here. I wouldnt go away. this doesnt make any difference between us.
Youre so lovely and sweet. You wouldnt go away in the night, would you?
Of course I wouldnt go away. Im always here. I come whenever you want me.
(Hemingway, A Farewell to Arms 176)
 Henrys dreaming conversation with Catherine shows his desire to be with her and at the same time his
powerful will, vowing to her that he will never let her go and he will never go away into the night and that not even
death will rip them apart. This illustrates how far Henry will go in order to get back to Catherine and relinquish his
responsibilities toward his fellow soldiers. Catherine represents for Henry a normal life of peace. Catherine is the
woman Henry feels safest with. He is sheltered from the war world when he is with Catherine, and he is determined
to overcome any obstacles to be with her, as Halliday notices: We find Catherine Barkleys nave simplicity and
warmth the right epitome for the idea and ideal of normal civilian life to which Frederic Henry deserts (41).
Frederic Henrys cynicism and pragmatism make him see life as a road that leads to nowhere. He starts
drinking, gambling and doing other such acts, pretending that one could never know what would happen to him the
next day and finds an ordinary life, of marriage and family as futile considering that he could die at any moment.
But when he meets Catherine, his beliefs regarding this kind of life change, and the monotony that he thought this
life brings seems to be gone. The destiny might not be as cruel as Henry thought it to be, and proof for this is the fact
that for a man who has never loved before he is now falling in love more and more with Catherine throughout the
novel. Miss Barkley is the reason for Henry standing up and doing whatever is possible so that any impediment that
comes up will be pushed away and his own fate will not be surrendered to others.
Catherine Barkley is the catalyst for Frederic Henry during wartime, but the way their relationship is
created is interesting. Catherine Barkley is called the prime mover (Hatten 76) in the story while posing as the
embodiment of male sexual fantasy (qtd. in Hatten 76), representing a kind of heroism, besides the already
established heroism of Henrys. Shes a hero because she is able to cope with the loss of her ex-lover and because
she can find the power to engage in another relationship with Frederic knowing that this might not end well since
hes involved in war and death awaits at every corner.
The relation between Catherine and Henry is built as a confrontation of two types of power. Henry
expresses his desire to affirm his masculinity and individuality as a male. Even if he got engaged in war in order to
assert this, he still feels a challenge when it comes to his relationship with Catherine.
The war has already been mentioned as a means of establishing masculinity for Hemingway and his
characters, but it is interesting to see the link between the increasing concentrations of social power and the
corresponding fragility of male identity (Hatten 81). The wartime authenticity is questioned by state-sponsored
propaganda (too many atrocity stories) (Hemingway, Soldiers Home qtd. in Hatten 82). Because of this
propaganda the masculine identity achievement through war is undermined. The way masculinity is undermined in
A Farewell to Arms is clearly shown when Henry has to desert the Italian army in order to save his life, to escape
from being shot by the police that he was serving at that moment. The situation is characterized by irony due to the
fact that Henry whos been trying so hard to prove his masculinity runs away from the danger represented by the
police, instead of actually finding a way to stand up against them.
Another quote from the story presents the fact that Henry entered the war for apparently no reason, but to
prove his masculinity he felt the need to talk he fell into the easy pose of the old solider (Hemingway,
Soldiers Home qtd. in Hatten 81). Such quotes reveal the fact that Henry had no other reasons to join the war but
only to prove his manhood via war, which was seen as a great way of establishing ones masculinity at that time- a
man who joins a war is considered to be brave, dedicated, and fearless. According to Hatten there are also other
signs to point that Henry was trying to assert his masculinity:
to go with Rinaldi to the brothel, another traditional rite of masculine initiation, and his frustration
on finding that his role in the war effort is not heroically vital: Evidently it did not matter whether
I was there or not (A Farewell to Arms 16). But both his refusal to acknowledge his motives for
enlisting and his friendship with the priest, whose celibacy and masculinity are derided by the
other officers, suggest the vulnerability of Henrys quest for masculinity. (83)
Going back to Henrys relationship with Barkley, he is trying to achieve the male authority he was not able
to during the war. By being in control of a womans body he asserts the masculinity he desires so much. Every
aspect of life seems to be a proof that Henry is trying to obtain this masculinity, and the reader is able to notice that
even sports and games are such indicators when it comes to the beginning of Henry-Barkley relationship. The two of
them consider their early relationship part as a game (A Farewell to Arms 30-31). The two characters are mostly
alike considering their attitudes towards their own relationship. They do not seem too get involved in this
relationship and they seem really detached from each other. This detachment can be noticed when Barkley says if
necessary Ill simply leave (A Farewell to Arms 137), this happening after her pregnancy. Ordinary people would
consider this attitude childish and careless, especially when there is a kid involved. Maybe Barkley felt insecure
having a kid in wartime, considering that she has already lost her previous boyfriend.
Even if both of them show lack of interest for what is actually important, the two characters differ when it
comes to their motives for creating this relationship. Barkley may have found a way of going past what happened
before and saw Henry as a means of doing it, of forgetting the trauma she has experienced, showing at the same time
a selfish attitude, but one that actually involves some feelings, because via basic sexual pleasures there is no
possibility of forgetting. On the other hand, Henrys motive, as already established, is his simple desire and effort to
secure his masculine authority.
One of the most important reasons for Barkley being the one engaged in a relationship with Henry is to
allow an aesthetic version of masculine identity, which stands as compensatory to the very fragility of the
masculine identity suggested through Henrys relationship with her (Hatten 98). As in any other relationship
someone has to be the head of that relationship, in other words someone has to be the man and point the flaws and
even try to move on and find a solution when problems appear. Considering that Henry was not able to assert his
masculine authority and that he is able to reject anything that tries to destroy him through Barkleys psychological
and even sexual help, it can be considered that Barkley represents the masculine embodiment.
The boundaries of gender are now redrawn and the man is no longer superior to the woman. The two of
them are on the same line of equality, even if it seems that Barkley is the one carrying all the burden. The fact that
Henry is able to reason and find refuge and resolves throughout the war via Barkleys persona, establishes the two
of them as equal and capable characters to maintain a relationship during a war time, a relationship that makes
Henrys character, at least for some time, to see the world as more than a cynical place to live in, and at the same
makes Barkley able to cope with the loss of the past and to move on, showing a great courage and dedication to
Henrys persona.
 The hero of A Farewell to Arms is not only a cynical individual, but also an emphatic one, a characteristic
that allows him to understand the world and the Universe better than anyone, according to Halliday:
There is from the beginning the curious disproportion between Frederic Henrys lot in the army
and his frame of mind. A noncombatant, he lives in comfortable houses, eats and drinks well,
makes frequent visits to a brothel maintained exclusively for officers, and has extensive leaves
urged on him by a sympathetic commanding officer. Despite such pleasure he is malcontent; and
the more this fact emerges the more it becomes evident that his mood is a reflection not of his
personal fortune, but of the whole dismal panorama of civilization disjointed by war. (49)
Even though Henry distanced himself from his soldiers he is still able to cope with the struggles that his
fellow soldiers have to endure and this fact gives him the ability to understand the relation between man and war and
man and destiny. Henrys still capable of understanding the cruel realities surrounding him, no matter his higher
status and the command chain. He does not consider himself above his soldiers and this fact is shown through his
actions, while on the battlefield he spends most of his time with his cadets.
Speaking of religion, Frederic sees himself as an atheist: Im an atheist (Hemingway, A Farewell to Arms
7), a view that is shared among his fellow officers. This trait can be seen by the reader as empowering the
characters beliefs and abilities to be the ruler of his own destiny, and not a deity or supernatural cause. Although, at
the end of the book when Henry has to face Catherines and his babys deaths, he says:
That was what you did. You died. You did not know what it was all about. You never had time to
learn. They threw you in and told you the rules and the first time they caught you off base they
killed you. Or they killed you gratuitously like Aymo. Or they gave you the syphilis like Rinaldi.
But they killed you in the end. You could count on that. Stay around and they killed you.
(Hemingway, A Farewell to Arms 289)
Henry states that the existing universe makes use of tools like Death and Destiny to limit a mans potential
to control and change his own fate. Destiny can be seen as following the protagonist from the beginning of the story.
Frederics thoughts about the Universe being involved in the destiny of its inhabitants emphasizes the sense of an
indifferent cosmos (Fuchs 102) trying to create obstacles in a mans desire to control his own path. The hero does
not stop here, but he creates an analogy between higher and lower entities, all coming from his own experience:
Once I put a log on the top of the fire and it was full of ants. As it commenced to burn, the ants
swarmed out and went first toward the centre where the fire was; then turned back and ran toward
the end. When there were enough on the end they fell into the fire. Some got out, their bodies
burnt and flattened, and went off not knowing where they were going. But most of them went
toward the fire and then back toward the end and swarmed on the cool end and finally fell off into
the fire. I remember thinking at the time that it was the end of the world and a splendid chance to
be a messiah and lift the log off the fire and throw it out where the ants could get off onto the
ground. But I did not do anything but throw a tin cup of water on the log, so that I would have the
cup empty to put whiskey in before I added water onto it. I think the cup of water on the burning
log only steamed the ants. (Hemingway, A Farewell to Arms 289)
 The ants are the insignificant human beings in the Universe, while he sees himself as a God-like entity
creating chaos in their world, while the fire is the war and death in which the world has succumbed. Exactly like ants
trying to survive, human beings are doing the same through war and life to escape death and a pre-set destiny. Even
if ones escape, they will be scarred and changed after it, and those who remained or went into the fire will face a
pointless death. The Universe is seen as a cold and emotionless deity; Henry refers himself as a messiah but he is
not using the capital letters, considering himself a less than God-like entity, more like a superpower ruling over the
world. In referring to Hemingways character, Marcus states that life remains meaningless; only ones stance in the
face of death is revealing (529), considering that a man cannot do much in order to change his own destiny until he
is faced with an imminent death. This is the moment when a man has to take action and to stand up, choosing if he
changes his own faith or resigns into it. The insignificance of human beings in the Universe is reinforced by
Halliday in connection to A Farewell to Arms:
We are part of a universe offering no assurance beyond the grave, and we make what we can of
life by a pragmatic spun bravely out of man himself and steady cognizance that the end is
darkness. (37)
Hemingway chooses to examine his characters behavior in this kind of situations as in A Farewell to Arms,
Frederic is involved in a harsh war that kills or transforms men, eventually having to fight his fears and death. The
only thing that remains for a man to do in a cruel Universe is not to resign to his fate, but to stand up and take
initiative, holding on to the hope that they will eventually succeed in defeating an imminent death and pre-set faith.
Marcus again mentions that death itself, comes unreasonably, without malice (532) and ones only choice is to
accept it or to fight it without any compromise. Henry shows that from the two variants, only the second one is the
honorable and manly one. If Marcuss statement was not enough, Robert Penn Warren states in his introduction to A
Farewell to Arms that:
[Hemingways] heroes are not defeated except upon their own terms. They are not squealers,
welchers, compromisers, or cowards, and when they confront defeat they realize that the stance
they take, the stoic endurance, the stiff upper lip mean a kind of victory (qtd. in Marcus 529)
Frederic will not give up and accept his destiny, but he finds the power to change it and gets in control of
his own life. The novel storys arc is circular, and by the end of the novel Frederic gets back to the beginning beliefs
and cynicism, but he feels that he has accomplished something, at least for the duration of his relationship with
Catherine, that he has defeated a pre-set destiny, that he has escaped a war that was meant for him. The reader will
see that throughout the novel Henry manages to confront and overcome his destiny.
Henry may so be seen as an undefeated winner, the definition coming from the fact that at the end of the
contest with the war he wins, but the prize will not last. He manages to get involved in a relationship with Catherine,
she gets pregnant, but both her and the
die. This proves to him that his cynical way of seeing life is right, that anything more than gambling,
drinking and having sex will end up with himself in pain.
 Henrys perspective of life remains unchanged by the end of the text, resembling a dreary vision of the
world. The terrible and cruel view of mans existence and faith is strengthened by the death scene in the end of the
novel:
The two deaths of that scene are an excruciating addition to the evidence of impersonal cruelty the
novel as a whole provides. The child is stillborn and the mother dies in her attempt to give him
life. Here is no priest to speak of God and love; there is only the death and the rain outside on the
walk back to the hotel. More important, Catherines death is another example of the unreasonable
wound, more pathetic really because it defeats a plan to which Lieutenant Henry has irrevocably
committed himself. (Hoffman 326)
If God existed then he is an ignorant deity who is not concerned with the fate of human beings. Man is then
insignificant and when he is at the mercy of his own faith, he is led eventually to an imminent death. There is no
reconciliation for Henry in the end of the novel, there is no one to teach him how to accept Catherines death. He is
seen as defeated by faith, wandering alone in the rain, while his only achievement being his will to reject the pre-set
destiny and to control it, being embodied by all the memories he has from the time spent with his lover. Henry
succeeded for a period of time in straying away from destiny and defy it. The end of the novel reinforces the idea
that life has to be lived at its fullest, as if the next day will be the last, that death awaits at any corner, and that the
way in which individuals confront their destiny is what differentiates them. One may attain at least a moral victory
over the face of a terrible Universe. Halliday says:
[Hemingway] never lets us quite forget that death awaits every man at some turn perhaps not far
along the way. And like nobody but Hemingway- that is, in his peculiar and distinguished manner
as an artist- he continually reminds us that it is our performance en route that counts for good
and bad. (38)
Death and Destiny are the tools of a terrible and discriminatory Universe that gives no importance to the
living beings existing within it. Hemingway considers that if death is the final point in ones life, then the only way
of showing that one is in control of his own faith is to stand up against this impending doom. One has to fight up
until the very moment, one has to struggle and do whatever he can do to deceive a pre-set destiny and obtain at least
a moral victory against a cruel destiny that ultimately tries to kill anyone. Henrys thoughts about life and death are
complex and manage to create an image detailing how these two tools operate under the Universe cruel hand:
If people bring so much courage to this world the world has to kill them to break them, so of
course it kills them. The world breaks everyone and afterward many are strong at the broken
places. But those that will not break it kills. It kills the very good and the very gentle and the very
brave impartially. If you are none of this you can be sure it will kill you too but there will be no
special hurry. (Hemingway, A Farewell to Arms 222)
Life will never stop from breaking the human will in changing his own fate. Life is an impartial and
humiliating antagonist meant to break humans will up until the point when a man is nothing more than a puppet
subdued to the will of the Universe. The anthropomorphic1trait of life is seen in its quality of prioritizing its victims

1 Personification/attribution of human form or other characteristics to anything other than a human being
and choosing who to kill; the ones who try to challenge and change it will be the first to be punished. Despite this,
Henry still believes that a chance is, that a man can break free from his own destiny, even if it is temporary. This
chance comes from the fact that life is prioritizing the ones that challenge it, and it might be a sign of precaution for
life itself, so that those who fight it may have a chance to overcome it eventually. Henry seems to know from the
very beginning that a mans capable of influencing his own faith, but he is concerned with why he should do it.
Henry states that the ones who show courage and will to change their own fate will be the first ones to die, but he is
not one of them, because life has not yet attempted to break him or his will. Of course, these words are just a sign of
humility, because during the novel, the character proves the contrary, not necessarily because he wants to prove to be
courageous but because he acts accordingly when the need arises and proves to be a hero. The most important scene
is the one when he is wounded by an artillery shell among other soldiers and despite having a shredded leg, he
crawls to another, more badly wounded soldier and helps him: I could pull backward along with my arms and
elbows. Passini was quiet now. I sat beside him, undid my tunic and tried to rip the tail of my shirt. It would not rip
and I bit the edge of the cloth to start it (Hemingway, A Farewell to Arms 52).
And that is not all; when other soldiers come to help him, he yells at them to help the other soldiers first: Passini
was dead. That left three. Someone took hold of me under the arms and somebody else lifted my legs. There are
three others, I said. One is dead (Hemingway, A Farewell to Arms 52). He proves his humility again when he is
proposed for a bronze medal for this act of bravery, and even though he appreciates the gesture, Henry tells them
that any other solider would have done the same and refuses it.
Frederics final proof of courage comes at the end of the novel, after Catherines death when he says that he
walked back to the hotel in the rain (Hemingway 293). Henry adopts an attitude of defeat against the Universe, but
he still has the courage to walk back to the hotel. Considering that God or the Universe always tries to break the
courageous ones, there is the assumption that Henry is a brave man that tried to influence and change his fate.
If during the first part of the novel Henry is stuck within the struggle with the loss of will, trying to
overcome and relinquish the idea that human life is insignificant, all this being instilled on him because of the war,
in the second part of the novel he is stuck in a duel with his own fate that continuously tries to break him apart.
Halliday says that healthy in body, the hero is afflicted by a paralysis of the will, a torpor brought on by too many
months of living to close to the war (49). The cruel war from the beginning of the novel attests Frederics tragic
view of mans relation to his own fate, making Hemingways hero better contour his not yet fully developed
cynicism.
Hemingways heros life is inseparable from death and is a fight at close quarters in which his heroes
overcome not only the fear and death but the fear of lifes intricacies and the disintegration threatening the
individual (Kashkeen 165). Frederic manages to obtain a moral victory, even though at the end of the novel he is
defeated by fate and by a cruel Universe. Frederic Henry proves that, even if a man is not able to change his fate
totally, he is able to fight it and influence it, postponing it for a limited amount of time, and this is a victory, even if
at a moral level, proving that man is not totally linked to his destiny. Hemingways Santiago affirms that a man can
be destroyed but not defeated (Hemingway, The Old Man and The Sea 114), and so does Henry show that a man
can be broken and killed by destiny, but not defeated, rejecting death as an option, considering it just a Universes
tool to silence man.
Hemingway manages to create complex novels that approach and examine the theme of mans relation to
his destiny, which is the discriminatory and impartial tool of a cruel Universe, and illustrates various visions of
mans struggle to influence his own faith and take control of his own destiny.