D >

-
80· EARLY TWENTIETH CENTURY AND MODERNISM - American fiction

A Farewell to Arms
by Ernest Hemingway

11am1m- -- - - -
The main character in A Farewell to Arms is an American volunteer in the Italian army who eventual! d
European countries have differing policies as regards the recruitment of personnel for their armed fore~ :~erts.
for example, does not have compulsory military service. Do a class survey on attitudes to military service. · ntain,
Choose one of the following options and discuss the results with your classmates.
1 Military service should be compulsory for men.
2 Military service should be compulsory for men and women.
3 Military or community service should be compulsory for men.
4 Military or community service should be compulsory for men and women .
5 There should be no form of compulsory military or community service.

INTRODUCTION Ernest Hemingway's clear, direct way of writing mirrors, to a certain extent, his own
approach to life. He was not a man who only observed, but who experienced things at first hand, be it
war or hunting or fishing . His novels and stories do not try to gloss over reality, but paint a vivid
picture of what he himself lived through.
A Farewell to Arms draws heavily on his time spent as an ambulance driver in northern Italy during the
First World Visual Links G7, G8, G9 and GlO) .

CHARACTERS THE STORY

• Frederic Henry, an
Lieutenant Frederic Henry, an American ambulance driver with the Italian army ~ghtingon
American fighting the Austrian front, falls in love with an English nurse, Catherine Berkeley. They are posted to
with the Italia11 different places but meet up again in Milan, where Frederic is convalescing a~er being
army
• Catherine wounded. Catherine gets pregnant but Frederic must go back to the front. Having almost been
Berkeley, his executed by the Carabinieri for abandoning the battlefront, he decides to Text
girlfriend
G18) and head for Switzerland with Catherine. They live happily together for a few months
but Catherine and her child die during Text G19).

I Was Through
Lieutenant Henry has retreated from the front with some of his men. He was stopped by
the Carabinieri and almost executed because they thought he should not have
abandoned his position. He managed to escape by swimming across a river and has
GLOSSA RY
decided to desert from the army. He has jumped a train and is lying on the fioor of a
J. flat-car: railway car carriage under a canvas surrounded by guns, hoping not to be detected.
used to carry goods
2. can vas: covering
made of strong rough
Chapter 32
cloth Lying on th e flo or of the flat-car 1 wi th the guns beside me under the
3. stiff: rigid
4. Va lentini: th e doctor canvas 2 I was wet, cold and very hungry. Finally I rolled over and lay flat
who had operated on on my stomach with my head on my arms. My knee was stiff3, but it had
his injured knee
5. retreat: move back
been very satisfactory, Valentini 4 had done a fine job. I had done half the
from th e battlefront retreat 5 on foot and swum part of the Tagliamento with his knee. It was
 A Farewell to Arms - Ernest Hemingwa y 81 all

6. clickingl y: making a
hiSknee all right. The oth er knee was mine · Doct ors d'd I thrngs
. to you and short sha rp sound
t!Jeil it was not your
. . . body any. more. The head was mme, . and the ms1de
. . of ('click. cl ick, click')
7. vaselined metal:
he belly. It was,
. ery hungry m there. I could feel 1·t t urn over on itself.
. The metal cove red in
t
head was 1111ne, but not to use, not to think with , on 1y to remember and protecti ve jell y
10 8. rain leaked through:
not too 111uch reme mber. rai n came through
could re111 ember Cath erine but I knew J would get crazy if I thought 9. you knew .. .
1 pretended there: you
about her when I was not sure yet I would see her, so I would not think kn ew you could not
about her'. only about her a l_ittle, only about her with the car going slowly even pretend she was
there
and clickingly6 and some hght through the canvas, and my lying with 10. floorwalker:
15
Catherine on th e fl oor of the car. Hard as the floor of the car to lie not department store
supervisor
thinking only feeling, having been away too long, the clothes wet and the 11. stock: goods ready to
floor moving only a little each time and lonesome inside and alone with be sold

wet clothing and hard floor for a wife.

y u did not Jove the floor of a flat-car nor guns with canvas jackets and
8
0 20
the smell of vas elined metal 7 or a canvas that rain leaked through ,
although it is very fine under a canvas and pleasant with guns; but you
Javed someone else whom now you knew was not even to be pretended
there 9; you seeing now very clearly and coldly - not so coldly as clearly
and emptily. You saw emptily, lying on your stomach, having been 25
present when one army moved back and another came forward. 11 You had
10
lost your cars and your men as a floorwalker loses the stock of his
department in a fire. There was, however, no insurance. You were out of it
now. You had no more obligation. If they shot floorwalkers after a fire in
the department store because they spoke with an accent they had always 30
had, then certainly the floorwalkers would not be expected to return

- -
..·
}
~
-.~
I
.,, .:- ~ ~,,.,,-,..
-
,
-
..

Trenches on the Italian front

during the First World War.
 EARLY TWENTIETH CENTURY AND MODERNISM - Am e r ican Fiction

when th e store open ed aga in for bu sin es s. Th ey mig ht see k other

employment; if there was any other employment and t he police did not
gctiliem. . ..
Anger was washed away in the river along with any obligation. Although
that ceased when the carabiniere put his hands on my collar. I would like
to have had the uniform off although I d id not care much about the 35

outward forms. I had taken off the stars, but that was fo r convenience. It
was no point of honour. I was not against them. I was through 12• I wished
them all the luck. There were the good ones, and the brave ones, and the
calm ones and the sensible ones, and they deserved it. But it was not my
40
show any more and I wished this bloody train would get to Mestre and I
would eat something and stop thinking. I would have to stop.
Piani would tell them they had shot me. They went through the pockets
and took the papers of the people they shot. They would not have my
papers. They might call me drowned 13 • I wondered what they would hear
45
in the States. Dead from wounds and other causes . Good Christ, I was
hungry. I wondered what had become of the priest at the mess 14. And
Rinaldi 15 . He was probably at Pordenone.
If they had not gone further back. Well, I would never see him now. That
life was over. I did not think he had syphilis 16 . It was not a serious disease
12. I was through: I had 50
finished with them
anyway if you took it in time, they said. But he would worry. I would
13. They might ca!I me worry too if I had it. Anyone would worry.
drowned: they migh t
say I had died in the
I was not made to think. I was made to eat. My God, yes. Eat and drink
river and sleep with Catherine. Tonight maybe. No, that was impossible. But
14.at the mess: at the
tomorrow night, and a good meal and sheets and never going away again
military canteen 55
15.Piani .. . Rinaldi: two except together. Probably have to go damned quickly. She would go. I
soldiers
knew she would go. When would we go? That was something to think
16. syphilis: venereal
disease about. It was getting dark. I lay and thought where we would go. There
were many places.

COMPREHENSION -
i-- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
1 ~ow did Frederic feel as he lay on the floor of the i
5
carnage? When did Frederic stop being angry? When did he
2 no D'd
longer feel. any obligation?
Why was he pleased with his knee?
6 1
3 Why did he not want to think about Catherine too front? Frederic resent the men who remained at the
much?
7
4 Freder',c compares Iosing his cars and men to a be How would
reported the news of Frederic's disappearance
officially?
fl?orwalker losing the stock of his departm ent in a fire
2
~lrne~ ~-2l) . What would the floorwalker (and, by What would Frederic and Catherine have to do
imphcat,on, Frederic) not be expected to do? s ortly after being reunited?
 A Farewell to Anns - Ernest Hemingway 83 .Jfll

ANALYSI S
The text is written as a stream of consciousness* which
follows Frederic's thoughts as he tries to escape from
the carabinieri. Follow the way his line of thought
progresses.
a. Frederic's first concern is for his physical safety.
Underline words that refer to parts of the body in
the first paragraph .
Why does Frederic seem to disown his knee (line
6)? Frederic's knee has passed a difficult endurance
test and is no longer a liability. The parts of his
body which may now create problems are his head
and his stomach. Why?
b. Frederic's thoughts turn to Catherine in the second
paragraph. The memory of Catherine seems to
become confused in Frederic's mind with thoughts
of:
- his immediate surroundings;
- his physical state;
- his emotional state.
Find examples of each.
Underline examples of repetition* in lines 11-18.
What does the use of repetition suggest about
Frederic's thought patterns? They are:
clear and logical.
confused and illogical.
c. In the third paragraph Frederic draws an analogy
between his situation and that of a floorwalker who
loses his stock in a fire. Focus on lines 28-33.
Although apparently referring to floorwalkers,
Frederic is clearly thinking about himself. Which
details directly refer to his recent experiences? How
would you define Frederic's comparison between
himself and the floorwalker?
Effective
Enlightening
Absurd
Confused
Why does he draw the analogy?
To help the reader to understand his
predicament.
To justify his actions to himself.
To show that his actions are not cowardly.
d. Which image in the fourth paragraph has strong
religious associations?
Although he has decided to desert, Frederic does
not wish to turn his back on his ex-comrades. Which
sentences underline his support and solidarity?
e. In the final paragraphs Frederic's stream of
thoughts move rapidly and fretfully from one
subject to another. Underline sentences where he
refers to:
- his ex-comrades in the army;
- his former life in the USA;
- his hunger;
- his future with Catherine.

mma- - - - - - - - - - ~
Frederic's desertion is illegal but he feels that he has done the right thing. In pairs, think of another situation where
someone breaks the law but feels they have done the right thing. Here are two examples:
1 You are in a quiet street when you see a car accident and the driver seems to be hurt. Your moped is parked nearby
but you do not have your helmet. You ride to the nearest phone to call for help. The police and an ambulance arrive
but you are charged with riding without a helmet.
2 An old man has collapsed on the pavement beside you, gasping for breath. He says that if he does not get a special
medicine within five minutes he risks falling into a coma. You rush to a nearby chemist, where the young assistant
says she has been told not to give out that particular medicine under any circumstances without a prescription. You
jump over the counter past the screaming assistant and throw medicines all over the place as you search for the one
you want. The man recovers but you are charged with robbery and causing £10,000 worth of damage.