A Farewell to Arms

Hemingway describes war as it appears in the eyes of one participant. All the confusion and formlessness of battle as it is experienced by the individual soldier comes through to the reader. Hemingway offers no panoramic view of the battleground or historical perspective of war (Shaw 55).

The story centers on Frederick Henry, a young American ambulance driver serving in the Italian Army, and Catherine Barkley, an English nurse. The time is World War I when young men have become disillusioned with life and the concepts of honor and bravery. They are learning a hard lesson; a lesson which teaches them the futility of fighting a war where many men can be destroyed with a single blast, and the lives of innocent people can be terminated by an impersonal bomb. All this can happen without your ever honorably facing your opponent. This sets the mood for Hemingway's interpretations of war and how it had forced the "lost generation" to turn to physical pleasures for immed

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estruction is so complete. There is no glamour in the united effort of bravery and valor. There are only dead and broken individuals who must face life alone. The other character we should be concerned with is Catherine herself. She is from the very beginning a product of existential thinking, realizing that she must live with the choices she makes and accept the results of those choices. She does not force Frederick Henry to marry her when she becomes pregnant, but approves of the relationship as it is. Accepting as home wherever they live, she never asks for a permanent house or apartment of their own. She deserts with Henry and never makes a negative comment because she has learned that we are all responsible for our own lives and the decisions we make. Catherine's character goes further than that, though. She is capable of total unselfishness. Delbert E. Wylder notes, "although Frederick Henry is able to realize at times the force of love, he is never able, like Catherine, to sacrifice himself for someone else" (Wylder 81). This too, though, is her conscious choice. She wants to please Frederick and even be so close to him as to become him. In Book Five Catherine tells him she would like to cut her hair. "It mi
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Approximate Word count = 2659
Approximate Pages = 11 (250 words per page)

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