STOICA (VUTA) ILEANA- MAGDALENA ENGLEZA- GERMANA ANUL III

Ernest Hemingway- A Farewell to Arms

.....the story
There is something so complete in Mr Hemingway's achievement in A Farewell to
Arms that one is left speculating as to whether another novel will follow in this manner, and
whether it does not complete both a period and a phase.
The story starts brilliantly with the love-making between the young American hero,
Henry, a volunteer in the Italian Ambulance Service, and Catherine Barkley, an English
nurse in the British hospital at Goritzia. There is subtle feminine charm in the
Englishwoman's response to the man, who, at first, is just amusing himself, but the affair
soon develops into real passion.
Henry, whose good relations with the Italian officers in his mess are drawn with
delightful freshness, is wounded, with a smashed knee in a night assault near Plava, and is
sent down from the field hospital to the American hospital at Milan, where he is the first
case, and here Miss Barkley gets a transfer to nurse him.
All the descriptions of life at the front and in the hospitals, the talk of the officers,
privates, and doctors, are crisply natural and make a convincing narrative, though the hero is
perhaps already a little too mature and experienced. Catherine is most skilfully modelled as
the eternal feminine in nursing dress.
In the scenes in the Milan hospital, where love laughs at matrons and maids, the
author increases his hold over us. And the story deepens in force when Henry, patched up,
returns to the Isonzo front. The year has been a serious one for the Italian army, and the
breakthrough of the Germans at Caporetto brings disaster.
The last 50 pages of book three describe the Italian army in retreat, the block of
transport on the main roads, the bogging and abandonment of Henry's cars on a side road,
the Italian privates' behaviour and their hatred of the war, and finally the shooting of the
elderly officers in retreat by the Italian battle police at the Tagliamento - these pages are
masterly.
The American hero escapes death by diving into the river and, later, arrest by
concealing himself in a gun truck till it reaches Milan. Thence in mufti he gets to Stiesa and
meets Catherine, and the lovers escape to Switzerland by a long night row up the lake. The
scenes on the Italian plains hold more atmospheric truth than those of the mountain roads,
but all are admirably wrought.

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The impartiality of the presentation of war is as remarkable as the sincerity of the

record of love passion. With remorseless artistic instinct Mr Hemingway proceeds to match
the horrors of human slaughter by his final chapter of Catherine's agony and death as, "a
maternity case".
Here he rises to his highest pitch, for Catherine's blotting-out is but complementary
to the massacre of the millions on the fronts. Henry's coolness of observation in its detailed
actuality is perhaps too stressed in the last pages, for in hours of great emotional strain
material fact seems to detach itself as a separate phenomenon, and Henry remains too set;
but the author's method prevails and triumphs in the last line.
Biography

Ernest Hemingway grew up in Oak Park, Illinois, one of six children. In1917, the
year President Wilson declared war on Germany, Hemingway graduated from high school.
Instead of going to college, he became a reporter for a small newspaper. As a journalist,
Hemingway learned to write concisely, using active verbs and brief, clear paragraphs. Many
young men were entering the military, but Hemingway's vision did not meet military
standards. So he applied to the Red Cross as an ambulance driver and, in 1918, found
himself in France and then in Italy. A Farewell to Arms, published in 1929, draws on the
details of his wartime injury, his friendships, and his love affairs.
Culture and History
During the war, artists, writers, poets, philosophers, and musicians gathered in Paris.
Hemingways Europe hosted American expatriates pursuing inventive forms of expression,
challenging traditions, and idealistically embracing a new century. Inevitably, these young
thinkers would influence one another through friendship, collaboration, or antagonism. The
American poet Ezra Pound, changed Irish writer James Joyces life by inviting him to come
to Paris. Pound, as well as the American writer Gertrude Stein, would also become a mentor
to Hemingway. Pounds work, like Hemingway, would be characterized by concise, clear
language that rejected ornament. Extending such minimalism, the Surrealist Movement
came to life in Paris. Visual artists such as Marcel Duchamp, Salvador Dali, and Rene
Magritte sought to free the human voice, by disposing with ideas crafted, revised, and
carefully shaped through reason. In 1924, "The Surrealist Manifesto" claimed that automatic
responses may hold more truth than statements filtered through layers of reason and
revision. A culture, or the collective unconscious, might be revealed, so they thought,
through "automatic responses."

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Narrative and Point of View

American volunteer Frederic Henry tells the story in A Farewell to Arms. While
Frederic narrates this account, he does not refer to himself until the second chapter of the
novel. First, he must orient us to the landscape, the changing seasons, and the shifting war.
Similarly, Hemingway waits to reveal Henrys name until Chapter V, when a nurse bids him
goodnight. Note also that this novel takes place before America enters the war. When Henry
says, "I believe we should get the war over", he is referring to his comrades and the Italian
forces.
Characters
We encounter the secondary characters through Henry's point of view. Hemingway
does not profile Henrys comrades in great detail. As Henrys lover, Miss Barkley provides
the foil for Henry's character, leading him in unexpected directions: "God knows I had not
wanted to fall in love with any one. But God knows I had and I lay on the bed in the room in
the hospital in Milan and all sorts of things went through my head but I felt wonderful...".
Figurative Language
While figurative language provides an essential tool for many writers, Hemingway
avoided figurative descriptions. Rather than describing through symbols, images, or
metaphors, he preferred to imply change of mood, meaning, or direction subdy. As his work
developed, dialogue came to serve as Hemingways principle tool for breaking open a
character, a scene, or a theme.
Symbols
Hemingway employs symbols deliberately and selectively. We can find an
explanation in Henrys comment that "abstract words. . .were obscene beside the concrete
names of villages...". Idealized heroic figures, symbols of victory or defeat, rarely appear in
this story. As implied in Henrys quote, in the face of this war, the symbols "were obscene."
Still the changing seasons may just reflect Henrys inner development, his developing
relationship with Miss Barkley, and the progress of the war. The novel begins in harvest
time, when the two lovers meet. They later enjoy a blissful summer in Milan. But the books
second half is filled with uncertainty and death, accompanied by a deluge of rain and snow
during the winter of 1917-18. Catherine says, "I'm afraid of the rain because sometimes I
see me dead in it".
Character Development
Early in the novel the priest tells us, "It is never hopeless. But sometimes I cannot
hope. I try always to hope, but sometimes I cannot". While the priest may have no hope at

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the moment, he does have faith that something will happen to resolve the war. In Book
Three, Henrys knee has recovered and he returns to the front. He notes changes in his
friends. As the priest says, "Many people have realized the war this summer. Officers whom
I thought could never realize it realize it now". Henry and the priest contemplate the
hopelessness of the war. Will the war end with no victors, or continue on with no obvious
victor? Henry explains to the priest, "It is in defeat that we are Christian. . .We are all
gender now because we are beaten".
The Plot Unfolds
Some turning points in the novel include Henrys first meeting with Catherine, the
serious wound he suffers at the front, Catherines unplanned pregnancy, Henrys escape from
execution, and Emilio's intercession that allows the couple to escape to Switzerland.