Transcript Document 7135509

A Farewell to Arms
Ernest Hemingway
BOOK I
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Type of Work: Realistic novel
Setting: Mountainous battlefront of northern
Italy during World War I: Goriza, Isonzo
River, Bainsizza Plateau;
American hospital in Milan;
Hotel at Stresa, Italy;
Montreux and Lausanne, Switzerland
Time of Novel
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Three years: 1915-1918
Begins in August 1915;
Proceeds to spring of 1917 and Frederic’s
wounding;
Summer of 1917 in Milan;
October 1917 in the Caporetto retreat and
escape to Switzerland;
Winter of 1917-18 in Montreux.
Ends March 1918 in Lausanne
Book I
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Frederic meets Catherine
Frederic is wounded and sent to the hospital
Book I initiates a tragic note: the death of the
soldiers—gigantic and impersonal
Book I is a WAR STORY
Book II
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Romance with war in the background
Love develops between Catherine and Frederic
Book II is a LOVE
STORY.
Book II
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NOTES:
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Now that Frederic is as wounded and
vulnerable as Catherine, he falls in love with
her despite his decision to avoid such a
relationship. They are now TWO war victims.
Summer and early fall of 1917, Frederic slowly
recuperates in Milan. He and Catherine live a
carefree life.
They cannot marry because of war regulations.
Catherine would be forced to return to England
if she married. THE WAR HAS TURNED ALL
TRADITIONAL VALUES INSIDE OUT.
NOTES CONTINUED
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The few Italians victories have come at a great
cost of life.
Italian civilians have begun to resent the blood
and gore that appear endless.
Catherine discovers that she is pregnant.
October rain begins to fall.
They part at a train station while the rain pours
down.
Compare and Contrast
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Miss Van Campen –
 Superintendent of
nurses
 Obeys rules and
formulas
 No consideration
for people
 Strict
 Cold
 Unpleasant
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Miss Gage
 Friend of Frederic
and Catherine
 Ignores rules
 Responds directly to
the individual
person
 American nurse
 At ease
 Accepting
COMPARE and CONTRAST
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Dr. Valentini
 Italian surgeon
 Volatile
 Sure
 Strong
 Composed when
necessary
 Self-confident
 Self-disciplined
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House doctor and
associate
 Lack competence
 No selfconfidence
 Lacks selfdiscipline
LINKING LOVE AND WAR
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CHAPER 6
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A Farewell to Arms to Queen
Nick Adams is a recurring Elizabeth
protagonist
Nick is the HERO.
He has been wounded.
He withdraws from the
war.
He makes A SEPARATE
PEACE
He is said to be
Hemingway’s alter-ego.
Comes from In Our Time
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Peele (author) expresses regret
to Queen Elizabeth that he is
too old to bear arms for her.
Line 1 – silver indicated old age
Stanza 2 echoes the themes of
war and love – the same as A
Farewell to Arms
Stanza 3 – He is old now and
can’t go to war, but he will
teach his sons the importance of
war.
“A VERY SHORT STORY”
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The story is a perfect work in terms of the reality that
a war affects people very very terribly, and its losses
are not only deaths. The lives of people who engage in
the war drastically ruin.
“He” is a round character – complex real people.
“He” is the protagonist.
Story covers four seasons. (1918-1919)
Setting is World War I in Italy - Padua
External conflict – war; man vs. society – can’t get
married.
Atmosphere – dark, hopeless (The Lost Generation)
continued
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1st Paragraph – They are alone.
Paragraph 2 – “. . .they all knew about it.” - it refers
to the affair.
Paragraph 3 – They could not get married, but felt as
though they were married.
Paragraph 4 – Luz wrote letters; he was fighting.
Luz’s love was understood.
Paragraph 5 – notice that “they agreed. . .so that they
MIGHT be married.” Their relationship had
changed.
Paragraph 6 – CLIMAX – their roads diverge.
Disintegration begins.
Paragraph 7 – falling action
Symbols
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MOUNTAINS:
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Represent peace and purity
Snow symbolizes safety
Height of mountains – peace because they are
protected. They are above it all and removed
from the cares below
Snow (on the mountains) symbolizes purity
because it is clean and untouched from the
horrors of war.
Priest lived in snow (Abruzzi)
SYMBOLS
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PLAINS:
 Opposite of mountains
 Dangerous and scary
 Retreat takes place here
 Germans invade and the war is at its
peak in the plains area.
SYMBOLS
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RAIN
 Symbol of misery, unhappiness, and
disasters
 Symbol of terrible events and death
 Rains when Henry leaves Catherine at
Milan
 Rains throughout the retreat
 Rains the night Henry escapes up Lake
Maggiore
CODE HERO
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Character who has learned how to face
experiences with grace, courage, and dignity.
He meets them with a code of professionalism,
competence, skill, self-discipline, and stoic
acceptance of the worst life can dish out.
He does NOT win the game of life but loses on
his own terms and achieves as much victory as
is possible. He may be destroyed, but not
defeated.
Who is (are) the code hero(es) in this novel?
TRUE HERO
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He has comparable ancestry and home
experiences.
He has insomnia, nightmares, and
sometimes is nearly insane.
He tries to simplify his life and focused on
concrete sensory things.
He has unusual sensitivity which makes him
susceptible to life’s shocks.
Who is (are) the true hero(es) in the novel?
TRUE HEROES/CODE HEROES
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TRUE HERO
 PROTAGONIST
FREDERIC
HENRY
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CODE HEROES
 RINALDI
 CATHERINE
BARKLEY
 PRIEST
How are these characters “code heroes”
and a “true hero?
BOOK III
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Hemingway once stated:
 “All stories, if continued far enough,
end in death, and he is no true storyteller who would keep that from
you.”
 One of the dominant themes in A
Farewell to Arms is WAR and
DEATH.
BOOK III
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The theme of war, dominant in Book I and
Book III, is devoted exclusively to the
martial aspect and to the sights and sounds
of battle. Heightened descriptions of the
front, conditions in the lines, the equipment
and the field dressing stations are
accurately reported. Advances and retreats
are carefully analyzed and recreated.
Finally the results of war as it involves the
individual are detailed.
BOOK III
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Book III begins with a mood evoking
sentence, ‘how in the fall the trees were all
bare and the roads were muddy.” (The
IMAGES suggest sterility, bareness, and
destruction.) The toll war takes is evident
in the characters looking “older and
drier” (major) and “lined” (Rinaldi).
Despite the abundance of dialogue thre is
limited action in these chapters.
BOOK III
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The town of Caponetto is the scene of one of
the biggest retreats in the history of the war.
Chapters 27 and 28 deal with the gradual
chaos resulting in this retreat. Here,
another of Hemingway’s concepts, that of
“objective reality,” is observed. It is the act
itself which is more important than the
concept or idea of the act. Names of
villages, numbers of roads are important
because men can see and touch them.
BOOK III
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Chapter 29 builds to a crescendo
indicating the confusion, anarchy,
and loss of discipline. This defeat at
Caponetto represents a huge military
disaster for Italy and the allies. If the
code hero believes in order, respect,
and discipline, Frederic’s desertion
comes as no surprise.
BOOK III
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Frederic’s plunge into the river has
received much attention from the
critics. It could be a symbol of baptism
into a new world—a new beginning. It
certainly ends his association with war
and any active part in it. Here he is
making his first “farewell to arms.”
This is his decision to create a new life
(with Catherine) apart from the war.
TRENCHES
Civilians forced to
leave home
How Caporetto is Remembered
Endless Lines of Italian Prisoners
Caporetto: Namesake of the Battle
Not the Main Breakthrough Point, However
Italian Position on Monte Nero East
of Caporetto
Book IV
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Book IV is permeated with the idea of
ESCAPE.
In chapter 34 Frederic declares he “had
made a separate peace.”
John Knowles uses this for the title of his
novel with its setting in WWII. (A Separate
Peace)
The lovers are united and peace is regained
with a prospect of future happiness.
Book IV
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One of Hemingway’s best passages on love
of man and woman begins with “That night
at the hotel” (Chapter 34). “If people bring
so much courage to this world, the world
has to kill them. . .” (foreshadows death).
“The world breaks everyone and afterward
many are strong at the broken places”
(foreshadows stoic survival).
However, the rain is again with them as they
escape to Switzerland with the prospect of
their spending a happy life together.
Book V
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Book V begins in an ambiance of warmth
and pleasant views.
It is consonant with the happiness of the
couple. They drink beer in a café and talk
about getting married.
Hemingway foreshadows the approaching
tragedy in Catherine’s hopes about the
birth of her child. Both the opening and
ending sentences of Chapter 40 foreshadow
a tragic event.
Book V
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“We had a fine life” begins the chapter, and
“We knew the baby was very close now and
it gave us both a feeling as though
something were hurrying us and we could
not lose any time together.”
The blissful days in Switzerland are ended.
For Frederic the moment of illumination
has arrived.
The paragraph beginning “Poor, poor dear
Cat. And this was the price you paid for
sleeping together. This was the end of the
trap.”
Book V
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The short, pithy sentences in the form of
questions with no answers evolve into a long
paragraph of stream-of-consciousness.
The result is that Frederic is now sure that
all life is a trap and his “learning
experience” is complete as he voices
Hemingway’s own philosophy that life is
futile and defeat inevitable.
Catherine – a code hero
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Catherine is a code hero.
She remains true to her life’s philosophy
even in death. “I’m not a bit afraid.” “It’s
just a dirty trick,” she declares. She is true
to her disciplined beliefs. Because of her,
Frederic realizes that inner discipline is the
only way to live life and accept death.
Frederic
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One of the most revealing parts of the book
is reached when Frederic ruminates on the
incomprehensible natural forces: “Now
Catherine would die. That was what you
did, you died. You did not know what it was
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 gave yu syphilis like Rinaldi.
But they killed you in the end. You could
count on that. Stay around and they would
kill you.”
The End
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The last sentence is a flat depiction of emotion,
as the plot ends in the rain.
Thematic focus: both love and war lead to
losses for which there is no compensation.
The rain that now falls on Henry as he leaves
the hospital signals the same destructive forces
as Catherine felt in the rain—forces that render
one powerless, speechless, and hopeless.
By ending on this note, the novel seems to
suggest that any epiphany Henry might have
lent him solace would be false or impossible.
THEME
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The theme of the novel is Frederic Henry’s
“initiation” into a disciplined, stoic view of
life. Catherine Barkley, a more advanced
character, has already reached this view by
the beginning of the novel. Through his
relationship with Catherine and his war
experiences, Henry progresses slowly
toward a new life view and, with it, an
increased capacity for compassion and
survival.
ANALYSIS OF THEME--love
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LOVE:
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Love makes people more vulnerable (which is
bad for people fighting in a war).
Henry’s love for Catherine leaves him less selfreliant.
Rinaldi tells Henry that love is only a
satisfaction of fleshly appetite.
The Priest represents spiritual love and the
desire to serve and to sacrifice one’s self for
another.
Count Greffi says love is a “religious feeling.”
ANALYSIS OF THEME-war
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War”
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War was badly managed and unconcerned with
losses or impossible situations (cannot be
controlled).
War turns values “upside down” making it
right to kill and wrong to marry.
War undermines the surgeon’s spirit and the
Priest’s faith.
The soldier’s lose heart.
War continued to control Henry’s thoughts long
after his desertion even after his “separate
peace.”
ANALYSIS OF THEME-values
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A CODE OF VALUES (A STOIC VIEW OF
LIFE)
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Stoic – no matter how much life makes you suffer,
you must never show that suffering.
Stoic – Catherine’s dying in childbirth. She tells
Henry, “Don’t worry darling. I’m not afraid. It’s
just a dirty trick.”
Characters are efficient and professional even in
the worst circumstances. Rinaldi, Nurse Gage, and
Valentini endure war wounds so severe they will
never recover from them, yet in public they put on
brave faces.
A PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE
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Hemingway’s philosophy of life was a profound
pessimism about the human situation and a stoic
sense of tragedy that grew out of war. He states, “All
stories, if continued long enough, end in death, and he
is not true story-teller who would keep that from
you.”
The analogy of ants and humans and the relationship
of humans with God: humans like ants are caught in
a trap and born to die. God could send miraculous
help but does not. The burning log is covered with
ants trying to escape. Henry could have removed the
log; instead, he threw water on it and scalded the ants
to death.
TYPE OF CHARACTERS