"A Farewell to Arms": The Impact of Irony and the Irrational

Author(s): Fred H. Marcus

Source: The English Journal , Nov., 1962, Vol. 51, No. 8 (Nov., 1962), pp. 527-535
Published by: National Council of Teachers of English

Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/810417

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 The ENGLISH JOURNAL
Vol. LI November 1962 No. 8

TECHNIQUE OF THE NOVEL SERIES: II

A Farewell to Arm
Irony and the Ir
Fred H. Marcus

In this second article in the series, Dr. Marcus, professor of English at the Los
Angeles State College, traces the role of irony and the irrational in one of Heming-
way's major novels. The third article will deal with theme in the novel through
discussion of Alan Paton's Cry, the Beloved Country and Lillian Smith's Strange
Fruit.

with the three hospital doctors in Mi-

T HE NAME Hemingway conjures
up the novelist of the expatriates in lan. Frederic Henry states it bluntly:
Paris, a spokesman for the lost genera- I have noticed that doctors who fail
tion of the twenties, a virile hungering in the practice of medicine have a
for far-flung adventures-as man and tendency to seek one another's com-
myth merge. His lean prose paved the pany and aid in consultation. A doctor
way for a hard-boiled school of fiction who cannot take out your appendix
-realistic, disillusioned, weary of false properly will recommend to you a
doctor who will be unable to remove
idealism, unsentimental. Hemingway's
novels and stories are pessimistic; win- your tonsils with success.
ner takes nothing. But the pessimism is A desire for order in an irrational
not unalloyed; in A Farewell to Armsworld plus awareness that order rarely
disillusion and hopelessness are coupledexists help characterize Frederic Henry.
to values real to Hemingway, despite hisIn one rather inane conversation with
embarrassment by pompous, platitudi-Catherine Barkley at the very beginning
nous phrases. As Philip Young observes, of the novel she asks him why he joined
"Henry . . . distinguishes sharply be-the Italian army. His answer, "I don't
tween the disciplined and competentknow. . . . There isn't always an ex-
people he has to do with and the dis-planation for everything" hints at his
orderly and incompetent ones."' Rinaldi,passive acceptance of living; yet a con-
even at his most war-weary and dis-trast exists within him. He visualizes
illusioned, and Valentini contrast starklyhimself making love to Catherine and
concludes," . . . we would love each
other all night in the hot night in Milan.
'Philip Young, Ernest Hemingway (Minne-
apolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1959),That was how it ought to be." Frederic's
p. 13. feeling of "ought to be" recurs dra-
527

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528 THE ENGLISH JOURNAL

matically at the end

at of the
the wall novel.
to make His
it stop"; this was
infant son is dead and he thinks,
sensation "I that
". . . so exciting had you must
no religion but I knew heagain
resume ought to and
unknowing havenot caring
been baptized." The need
in the for
night, sure thatorder
this was all and
stems from a psychological
all and all and notneed
caring." for
meaning and security. Hemingway's
heroes, however, find
Thetheir
Irrational security
World not
in any search for meaning but a more
easily definable arena-male courage.
Uncaring culminates in unthinking.
They seek the courage to stand,
For Frederic un-is best
Henry the world
defeated, against the hammer blows
experienced, not subjectedof an
to analysis.
In an irrational
irrational world. Courage world of war
requires without
self-
discipline, a kind of individualism
victors, Italians shootingwhich
Italians, pom-
nevertheless recognizes an initiated
pous carabinieri interrogating brave
group. In "The Short Happy
men, and Life
a disorderly retreat,of
Frederic
Francis Macomber," responds
Wilson, the
directly: white
"I was not made to
hunter, quotes from Shakespeare:
think. "By
I was made to eat. My God, yes.
my troth, I care not;Eataand
mandrink can die
and sleep but
with Catherine.
once; we owe God a Tonight
deathmaybe."
and There
let itis a go
welcome
which way it will he oblivion
that in dies this
sensory year When
immediacy.
is quit for the next." Yet
reason Wilson,
is nonexistent, likeoffers
appetite
Hemingway himself, solace.
is Nor does an irrational world
embarrassed at
"having brought out affect
thisonly thing he Rinaldi,
Lt. Henry. had who has
lived by, but he had thrown
seen men himself come
into his work,
of whose
age before and it always moved
surgical skills him."
have improved vastly, de-
In A Farewell to ArmsscribesFrederic
himself, "I neverHenry
think. No, by
God, of
accepts the significance I don't think; I operate."
courage and And
the coexistent unreasonableness of the
Catherine, trapped in the same irrational
world. He thinks: world, seizes on a living for the moment
principle (not unmixed with morality)
If people bring so much courage to
to say, "Perhaps I was crazy. But now
this world the world has to kill them
we're happy and we do love each other.
to break them, so of course it kills them.
Do let's please just be happy." In a mad,
... It kills the very good and the very
gentle and the very brave impartially.
mad world "just" takes on urgency.
If you are none of these you can When
be love replaces sex, life becomes
sure it will kill you too but there infinitely
will more complicated. Love differs
be no special hurry.
from the lower order of neural pleasures.
In an unreasonable world where the There is a giving, a surrendering of one's
good, gentle, and brave are foredoomed absolute individuality. When Catherine
to destruction, sensory living for the lies
day suffering at the end of the novel,
-even for the moment-follows inevi- with only the gas for respite, Frederic
thinks of the price they must pay for
tably for the initiate. Thus we find Fred-
eric Henry committed to sex, drinking, loving each other, a price that includes
eating-all forms of sensory immediacy. involvement, dangers of loneliness, suf-
While the priest urged him to gofering,
to and losing. Catherine's baby is
Abruzzi, and he feels an "ought to perceived
go" by Frederic only as a "by-
product of the good nights in Milan."
pressure, he had not gone where it was
Before she dies Catherine voices the
cold and dry. Instead, he had savored
"the smoke of cafes and nights whenHemingway
the code, "I'm not a bit afraid.
room whirled and you needed to lookIt's just a dirty trick." WVith courage,

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 A FAREWELL TO ARMS 529

without fear, broken but

said things instead of gallant, sh
playing cards. Like
dies. It is impersonal,
bridge you had unsentimenta
to pretend you were
There is no reason,
playingno forone
money." to argue
It is only whenwit
the
And Hemingway war maintains a matter
intrudes more directly, and afterof
fact tone, unemotional,
Frederic has beenunheroic. "S
wounded, that he falls
was unconscious all
in love the time, and it di
with Catherine.
not take her veryWhen long order to
does notdie." Life re
exist Heming-
mains meaningless; only one's stance
way's world is permeated with nada, a in
the face of deathdebilitating
is revealing. In his
but real force. Compensa- in
troduction to A Farewell to Arms Rob- tion for lack of order takes the form of
ert Penn Warren asserts that Heming-
sensory appetites-food, drink, sex. Nada
way's is kept at bay. A Farewell to Arms opens
heroes are not defeated except upon with sensory gratification. The men eat
their own terms. They are not squeal- "quickly and seriously, lifting the spa-
ers, welchers, compromisers, or cowards, ghetti on the fork until the loose strands
and when they confront defeat they hung clear then lowering it into the
realize that the stance they take, the mouth, or else using a continuous lift
stoic endurance, the stiff upper lip mean and sucking into the mouth... ." To help
a kind of victory ... and certainly they
combat nada the troops have whore-
have maintained, even in the practical houses-a better one for the officers-
defeat, an ideal of themselves, some
definition of how a man should behave, available and an apparently unlimited
formulated or unformulated, by which supply of wines. For Frederic Henry,
they have lived . . . the code and the then, life remains uncomplicated; he
discipline are important because they stays detached. When love later replaces
can give meaning to life that otherwise sex, complications ensue. Together Cath-
seems to have no meaning or justifica- erine and Frederic form a "we," a two
tion. In other words, in a world without against the world. Catherine, responding
supernatural sanctions, in the God- to Frederic's statement that they won't
abandoned world of modernity, man ever fight, says, "We mustn't. Because
can realize an ideal meaning in so far as
he can define and maintain the code.2 there's only us two and in the world
there's all the rest of them. If anything
comes between us we're gone and then
As Warren indicates, the code operates
in a "God-abandoned" world but the they have us." Frederic agrees, "They
very hungering and need for order, won't get us." Both accept the imper-
sonal
ironically, is not unlike a search for but antagonistic world against
re-
ligious values. Frederic Henry and the
them. Frederic also notes that love brings
priest from Abruzzi seem to sharea ashift
feel-from individualism. He says, "My
ing of kinship-but Frederic does
lifenot
used to be full of everything ..
love or accept any God. The closest
Now heif you aren't with me I haven't a
comes is in his shift from sex tothing
love, in
a the world." Love serves almost
like religious exaltation, a protection
love that Count Greffi likens to religious
feelings. But Frederic had not intended
against nada, a new vulnerability, a grati-
to fall in love with Catherine. Hefication,
says, an order, a complexity where
"I knew I did not love Catherine Bark- simplicity had existed. Rinaldi senses
ley nor had any idea of loving her. the
Thisgreater complexity; he remarks that
was a game, like bridge, in whichhis
youmarried friends don't like him. He
describes himself as the "snake of rea-
'Ernest Hemingway, A Farewell to Arms,
son." Like Frederic he too must combat
Modern Standard Authors Edition (New
nada;
York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1929), pp. xi-he fights, using the weapons of
xiii. sex, drink, and work. They serve him

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 530 THE ENGLISH JOURNAL

security with Catherine.

less effectively than Frederic's Ironically, this
sex, drink,
and love. new stance does add the ingredients of
While Catherine becomes Frederic's complexity and involvement. Repeatedly
support, his disillusion with the war he stresses that he was not made for
thinking; repeatedly he represses nada
progresses. His friend, Gino, rejects "talk
in Catherine's arms. But he is no longer
about losing" the war, and adds, "What
has been done this summer cannot have alone. He and Catherine now share a
been done in vain." The words embarrass mutual vulnerability. They stand to-
Frederic. He has had too much of ab- gether against an impersonal society, a
stract words, of sacred subjects. It is"they"
in prepared to kill the brave and
the retreat from Caporetto that the break
war them first.
becomes most absurd. Here we en-
counter the lieutenant-colonel whose Simple versus Involved
courage contrasts with the cara-
In Hemingway and the Dead Gods
binieri judging him. He says, "If you
are going to shoot me, please shoot me Killinger links Ernest Hemingway
John
at once without further questioning.with
The existentialist philosophy, not in any
questioning is stupid." Ironically,formal
the way, but in a similarity of basic
Hemingway code of courage, of stoicvalues. One of the most revealing of
these is the concept of simple versus
endurance, does not occur in a "God-
abandoned" world for this man. "He complex. Simple means uninvolved and
made the sign of the cross." The Catherine
con- is "one of the most likely of
Hemingway's women to make a Hem-
trasting lack of courage in the carabinieri
is noted, "They made a point of being man happy and give him a maxi-
ingway
intent on questioning the next man mumwhile amount of freedom."' She is agree-
the man who had been questioned beforeto Frederic's wishes and constantly
able
anticipates his desires. She describes
was being shot." It is in the "landscape
of unreason" that herself as "a simple girl." When Frederic
says he thought her "a crazy girl," her
Lieutenant Henry loses all sense of per- response is quite significant. "I was a
sonal dedication to his fellow soldiers,
little crazy. But I wasn't crazy in any
abandons his feelings of responsibility complicated manner." For Frederic the
to the army, and breaks out of the trap
the war has laid for him. From then war had begun without complications:
"I knew I would not be killed. Not in
on he links his fate with only a few
this war. It did not have anything to do
persons-nurses, doctors, and bartenders
-and they serve his emotional needs with me." Frederic is detached. The war
and protect him from dangers.8 permits him to face his freedom in an
occupied way actually becoming in-
While the earlier phase of the war
volved. Even his enlisting occurs because
had really been no more meaningful to
he "was in Italy . . . and I spoke Italian."
Frederic Henry, he had succeeded in
Frederic acts almost like a spectator-
warding off its absurdity with peripheral
until he is wounded. At this point in-
activity, a series of noninvolving sen-
volvement is thrust upon him. The calm
sory substitutions. Now, with the war
and safety of his private isolation have
impinging upon him more directly, with
his unreasonable wound, he leaves the invaded forcefully, by unreasonable
been
and irrational events. Even the love he
war; he establishes a separate peace, his
had not sought now becomes an involv-
first farewell to arms, and finds a greater
'John Killinger, Hemingway and the Dead
aFrederick J. Hoffman, The Twenties (New
Gods (University of Kentucky Press, 1960),
York: The Viking Press, 1955), p. 71. p. 46.

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 A FAREWELL TO ARMS 531

ing force. Frederic admits

forces to Catherine
Frederic retreated from Capor-
etto. His is the greater
that he feels "biologically withdrawal; Yet
trapped." he
Catherine is indeedhas a fine
openly example
rejected of an
the world, a world
that will breakheroine;
unparalleled Hemingway him if it can, that will
unlike
Margot Macomber kill she
him when minimizes her-
it can. During the retreat
self. She says, "I he
just
was verywant what
nearly killed; you
wounded, in
want. There isn't any
danger mecomplexity,
of irrational any he more.
de-
Just what you want." And
serts. He returns to later
Catherine who is all- she
repeats, "There isn't any
accepting, me. minimal
who represents I'm in-
you.
volvement. Catherine
Don't make up a separate me." contrasts with the
Catherine
sounds like a later disorder
Hemingway
of a retreat that had heroine,
begun as
Maria, in For Whom the
an orderly Bell
withdrawal. Tolls.
In Catherine he Yet
Catherine necessarily adds
finds order, complication.
security, and simplicity.
Frederic feels constrained
Among her attributesto is thesuggest
ability to
marriage; he, ironically,
turn any room isintothe one
a "home." who
In Hem-
responds to convention.
ingcway, The Writer
Catherine
as Artist, Carlosde-
clares that they are Bakermarried; she doesn't
identifies a more complete sym-
find any formalism bolic "Home and Not-Home"
necessary. pattern
Catherine's
self-obliteration extends to her unborn in the novel.5 He argues that the home
child. As they are rowing to Switzer- concept tends to be associated with
land Frederic cautions her to watch outAbruzzi, dry-cold weather, mountains,
for the oar, so it won't "pop" her. "Iflove, happiness. Not-home is associated
it did"-Catherine said between strokes with plains, rain, disease, human indigni-
-"life might be much simpler." Cather- ties, death. At the beginning of the novel,
ine carries her self-negation to its logicalthe priest urges Frederic to visit Abruzzi
conclusion. She would like to be Fred-
while "the lowlander infantry captain"
eric literally, to cut her hair, to have suggests Naples with its beautiful young
gonorrhea, to become as one. Rinaldi, girls. Hemingway, says Baker, develops
who met Catherine first, indicates his
the Abruzzi homeland picture with
preference for a whorehouse where one idyllic details of "trout in the streams,"
pays his fees but remains uninvolved. "chestnut
He woods," and birds "fed on
grapes." The lowlands include "the
complains about the fact that the girls
have not changed in two weeks. "Itpriest-baiting
is captain, cheap cafes, one-
disgraceful. They aren't girls; they night
are prostitutes, drunkenness, destruc-
old war comrades." He chides Frederic tion, and the war." Catherine and Fred-
for being like an old married man.eric come closest to an idyllic home in
About Catherine he observes, "ThankSwitzerland, in the mountains.
God I did not become involved with the While the mountain-plain and home-
British."
not-home patterns add a dimension to the
After his plunge into the Tagliamentonovel, they cannot be too rigidly pur-
Frederic makes his separate peace, with-sued. In the beginning of the novel the
draws from the war, but feels like a"plain was rich with crops" while the
masquerader in civilian clothes. He even war was being fought in the mountains.
avoids news of the war: "I had the paperLater, Catherine and Frederic enjoy
but I did not read it because I did not their love in a hospital in Milan-in the
want to read about the war." Later, he
lowlands. Finally, Catherine's death oc-
ignores news of a breakthrough on thecurs in Lausanne, more properly associa-
British front. The earlier days of the
"Carlos Baker, Hemingway, The Writer as
war when he had been a spectator areArtist (Princeton: Princeton University Press,
no longer available; with the Italian
1956), p. 101 ff.

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532 THE ENGLISH JOURNAL

ted with highlands than

without lowlands,
meaning. But the even
earlier para-
graph connotes
though they have come down an active,
intomalevolent
the
city from a mountain "they" who would
retreat that break you if they
sounds
could, the
something like Abruzzi. same "they"
Indeed, who succeed
most of in
the novel tends to focus
breakingmost forcefully
Catherine. In the same chapter
on human defeats: the cholera,
she says to Frederic,soldiers
"I'm not brave any
who mutilate themselves, the I'm
more, darling. terrible
all broken.re-
They've
treat, the despair ofbroken
the me.priest,
I know it now."
the de-
generation of Rinaldi, and the death of
Catherine. Death is Two
the Basicgreat
Patterns and final
foe-inevitable and irrational. Significant
to Hemingway is the In A Farewell toof
manner Arms two patterns
facing
exist. One tends toward the unreasonable
impersonal, irrational, naturalistic forces.
Probably the most onslaught of death from impersonal na-
naturalistic-and ture. Another tends toward the un-
ironic-symbol in the novel is the anal-
reasonable
ogy of the ants in the onslaught of death
last chapter. Hem- from so-
ciety, from
ingway prepares for the analogy asan unnamed "they" or "it."
Againstthe
Frederic prepares for unreason, against death, man can
oncoming
death of Catherine: only assume a courageous, gallant stance
-the stance of the initiate, the aware.
Now Catherine would die. That was
Courage in the face of futility-whether
what you did. You died. You didof not
war or childbirth-is immeasurably
know what it was about. You never
more meaningful than some more messy
had time to learn. They threw you in
response.
and told you the rules and the first time It is this calm acceptance of
they caught you off base they death
killedby Ole Andersen that young Nick
Adams finds incomprehensible in "The
you. Or they killed you gratuitously
Killers." It is this acceptance of having
like Aymo. Or gave you the syphilis
like Rinaldo. But they killed you
onlyin
a life to lose that shifts Francis
Macomber
the end. You could count on that. Stay out of the ranks of the un-
around and they would kill you.initiated into the sudden joy of male
courage.
The ant analogy follows. Frederic re- (Ironically, it is this change in
Francis Macomber that makes him su-
members placing a log on the fire once
perior
and ants swarming out. He recalls theto his wife and kills him after a
very
"messiah" thought that occurred to short happy life.) It is the accept-
him.
ance
But instead of lifting the log off the of
fire, the "great death" by Henry
"I did not do anything but throwFleming
a tin in Crane's The Red Badge of
Courage
cup of water on the log, so that I would and finding that "after all, it
have the cup empty to put whiskeywasinbut
it the great death" that strikes a
before I added water to it. I think the similar note.

But Frederic Henry did desert. (As

cup of water on the burning log only
steamed the ants." did Henry Fleming.) Despite the unrea-
Compare the tone of these adjacent sonable circumstances, despite his aware-
ness
paragraphs. The latter underlines a nat- of the code, his plunge into the
uralistic element in the novel. The tin Tagliamento is also a withdrawal, a
separate peace made under duress.
of water serves neither a protective nor
destructive conscious purpose. It is onlyWhile critics, particularly contem-
adjunct to the whiskey. The "messiah" porary critics, have sought and found a
plethora of symbols in A Farewell to
thought is a passing one, not acted upon.
The forces of ant destruction, death Arms,
it- it seems probable that symbolic
meanings
self, come unreasonably, without malice, tend to be too absolute, too

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 A FAREWELL TO ARMS 533

fixed, too unfluid. diedAs simplicity

of it in flows
the army." At the beginning
into complexity, asof individualism
the next chapter (Chapterflows II) the
into involvement, Hemingway
word "only" again servescaptures
Hemingway's
the flux of a complex
purpose. TheandAustriansirrational
bombard Gorizia
reality with a characteristic irony.
but "they did not bombard With
it to destroy
adroit use of an ironic
it but onlytone,
a little inhe encom-
a military way."
passes the clarity Irony
of inheres
particular details
in many of Hemingway's
acute descriptions.
and the nonsimplicity of an overwhelm-He describes "the
sudden interiors of houses that had lost
ing reality that is unspeakable.
a wall through shelling," a "smashed
permanent bridge," steel helmets "in a
Details and Meaning
town where the civilian inhabitants had
A Farewell to Arms has an incredible not been evacuated," and Rinaldi's "hol-
number of details. Many appear to bester stuffed with toilet paper."
trivial; others apparently bear a heavier The irrational dominates the novel.
freight of meaning. For example, the Frederic receives his wound while
perpetual rain has been noted by almostmunching cheese; he may get a silver
every critic and reader of the novel. Itmedal because the action was successful.
is presumably a symbol of doom. Cath-During the retreat from Caporetto, he
erine makes allusion to her fear of the shoots at two deserters and wounds one;
rain; she dies in the rain. At the begin-Bonello kills the wounded man. Shortly
ning of the novel rain accompanies thethereafter, Bonello deserts; so does Fred-
eric. When the disorder of the retreat is
cholera. In the great retreat most of the
withdrawal takes place in the rain. Andat its worst we find Italians killing
yet the rain in Switzerland-where Cath- Italians while mouthing patriotic slogans.
erine will die-is described by Frederic
Frederic is in greater danger from Italians
as "cheerful rain." More interesting, rain
than from Germans; a little bridge is
is most often thought of as a regener-blown up but a bridge on the main road
ative symbol, a spring rain that pro- is untouched. The war is irrational. But
cuces the Italian plain's rich crops andwhat does a civilian world offer? Fred-
orchards. Even the winter rain bringing eric encounters crooked racing, a purple-
the cholera has its more optimistic side;dyed racehorse imported from France,
the winter rain in the mountains turns
American opera singers using Italian
to snow, a snow that ends killing andpseudonyms. He speaks to Meyers and
fighting and war until the following Count Greffi, two old men; they survive
the war almost as thought it did not
spring. Winter becomes a time of wait-
ing in the mountains while spring un-exist. But the young men die at an
leashes the dogs of war. For Fredericalarming rate. This world of unreason
and Catherine the winter in Switzer- flourishes too. At the front Rinaldi, a
land is a waiting period; Catherine dies fine surgeon, apparently has syphilis; the
in the spring. Hemingway has prepared priest becomes disillusioned; Rinaldi says,
us for the inevitable. Even in the first "... the war is killing me" but admits
chapter of the novel, we have met men his surgery has never been better.
who march toward their death, men who Ironies, bitter ironies, fill the novel.
"marched as though they were six months Catherine describes her reason for being
gone with child." Hemingway's ironic, in Italy: "I remember having a silly idea
sometimes bitter tone can be seen in his he might come to the hospital where I
word order and word juxtapositions. Re-was. With a sabre cut, I suppose, and
ferring to the cholera he notes that "it a bandage around his head. Or shot
was checked and only seven thousandthrough the shoulder. Something pic-

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534 THE ENGLISH JOURNAL

turesque." A few moments "Maybe he'll be a general."

later she
adds, "He didn't have a "If it's an hundred
sabre cut. years'
They war he'll
have time to
blew him all to bits." Again, the im- try both of the services."
personal "they." Catherine later
Frederic also wonders gives
about America
Frederic a Saint Anthony
and the war.which
"I wonderedsheif America
doesn't believe in. When he prepares to
really got into the war, if they would
return to the front, he says,
close down"Maybe
the major I'll
leagues." The
be back right away." Catherine
ironies continue.responds,
Both Frederic and
"Perhaps you'll be hurt justfear
Catherine a little in society, a
a destructive
the foot." Frederic adds, "Or the lobe of
"they." Yet both succeed in living out-
the ear." Catherine answers, "No I want
side of society quite successfully. When
your ears the way they deathare."
comes itIfisthis is
not society that is
trivia, the irony is not trivial.
responsible but an impersonal, irrational
Hemingway's irony nature extends to tiny
that kills Catherine and the baby.
details. Frederic approves of wine
Ironically, Frederic help-
and Catherine sur-
ing you "forget all the bad"
vive the and
destructive Cath-
war-a social irra-
erine agrees, "It's lovely. But it's given
tionality. In writing about Catherine in
my father gout very thebadly."
hospitalA in literary
Lausanne, Hemingway
echo is also used by Hemingway.
uses a powerful ironyFred-
to underline the
eric and Catherine have turned
hopelessness away
and unreason of living-or
from everything else toCatherine
dying. each other.is being wheeled into
Catherine observes, "I'm so very
the operating happy
room.
married to you." Against this context,
Frederic remembers the Andrew Mar- Two nurses were hurrying toward
vell lines: the entrance to the gallery.
"It's a Caesarian," one said. "They're
But at my back I always hear going to do a Caesarian."
Time's winged chariot hurrying near. The other one laughed. "We're just
in time. Aren't we lucky?" They went
In addition to the foreboding note
in the door that led to the gallery.
Hemingway has Catherine identify the
poem as being "about a girl whoThroughout the novel we see Frederic
wouldn't live with a man." Both Cath-
and Catherine turn to eating and drink-
erine and Frederic have accepted the ing, sensory stimuli that help to keep
basic argument used by the poet. The complexity at a distance. Even at the
irony is in the tone of the poem. The end of the novel, Hemingway's char-
poet is rather cynical; his call to arms
acters face defeat in familiar stances.
has no suggestion of marriage morality.Frederic is about to see Catherine for
Yet, Frederic recalls the lines in a con-
the last time. We find him in the rain at
text of more idealistic love than the
a cafe-talking food to the waiter. He
poem would suggest.
A more overt bitterness aimed at war finally orders.
occurs in an earlier conversation. Fred- I ate the ham and eggs and drank the
eric asks: beer. The ham and eggs were in a
round dish-the ham underneath and the
"Where will we live after the war?"
eggs on top. It was very hot and at
"In an old people's home probably," the first mouthful I had to take a drink
she said. "For three years I looked for-
ward very childishly to the war ending of beer to cool my mouth. I was
at Christmas. But now I look forward hungry and I asked the waiter for an-
till when our son will be a lieutenant other order. I drank several glasses of
commander." beer. I was not thinking at all ...

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 A FAREWELL TO ARMS 535

The Final Irony an obvious ambiguity in title. Frederic

has signed his separate peace; he has
Faced with the unspeakable, the
made his farewell to war. But theHem-
close
ingway hero assumes a familiar stance.
of the novel gives us another farewell,
The style permitsthis
the contrast,
time to a con-
Catherine. From novel's
trast between the unsayable and the
start to end a recurrent pattern becomes
ironic simplicity of clear direct prose.
clear. From the beginning Frederic finds
The final irony in the novel is Cath-
a way to handle disorder. On the fringes
erine's death. Frederic, escaping
of war he takes from
refuge in appetites that
the disorder of war and the intrusion of
keep him occupied and unthinking. He
an insane world upon his individualism,avoids involvement in an unreasonable
turned away from the war and fell inworld. When that world intrudes, when
love with Catherine. But what might we
it forces itself upon him, he escapes. But
project of their future? Would Fred-the real enemy of life is death, and na-
eric Henry accept a complex world ofture can be as destructive and irrational
wife, child, responsibilities? Catherineand disinterested as any societal "they."
had already feared the child coming be-Out of Catherine's death will come
tween them. With her death Frederic is
Frederic's real escape. He will refuse to
once again freed; this time her desertion
saves him. Catherine has been broken cringe. Aware of futility he will assume
the strong hero's stance: awareness, ac-
and killed; Frederic has only been
ceptance, and busying oneself with
broken and may afterwards be one of
simple sensory satisfaction. Nada will be
those who "are strong at the broken
fought in clean well-lighted places, with-
places." out false hopes, without despair, with-
A Farewell to Arms has, of course, out abstract words.

Indian Summer
Fall-discarded leaves,
Aimless from tree to ground,
Crisped and browned
By autumn makers,
Linger like lost notes
Of campfire songs,
Layering grass
And streets and walks
With memories.
-LEE RICHARD HAYMAN
Salinas, California

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