A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway
I began Hemingway’s 41-chapter novel on Monday, but could hardly put it down, and now I have completed the novel today. Having been in AP English for the last four years of my high school career, I have been accustomed to books of literary merit having unique and eloquent writing styles that brought them to fame. With A Farewell to Arms, I was expecting it to be well written, but it even exceeded my high expectations. That being said, I think I may have enjoyed the writing style more than the actual storyline
Summary:
It’s World War I, and the Italians are trying to fight off and defend against the Austrians, who will later be aided by the Germans. A young American man, Frederic Henry, studying architecture in Rome, joins the fight by becoming an ambulance man, going to the front lines, gathering up the sick and wounded, and bringing them back to the hospital. After going on “leave” for the winter break between fighting in the mountains, Henry, or Tenente, as he is often called in Italian for his Lieutenant rank, comes back to find women nurses in their military occupied town.
One particular British nurse, Catherine Barkley, he finds interest in, and they begin a “game” of sorts, pretending to love one another. Eventually, their “game” grows serious. Henry and Catherine talk about marriage, but both decide that because neither of them is religious and because their lifestyle does not bother them, they will not marry. After Henry is badly injured in the legs from an explosion, Catherine transfers to Milan where Henry is being treated. Milan is also the place where Catherine discovers she is pregnant with Henry’s child. Henry, however, must go back to the front, though he would like to be with Catherine and their soon to be born baby.
Henry finds the front a depressing place, with many of the soldiers having felt defeated. Not long after Henry returns, a report comes that the Germans are now helping the Austrians to fight, and terror runs through the front line. A retreat is called, and Henry is given orders to evacuate with ambulances and his team. The road to retreat is long and traffic-jammed by every little interruption. Henry decides to take his team and their ambulances and go along a side road, so that when the Germans and Austrians attack the main road, they will not be on it.
The main road is attacked by planes, as Henry had predicted, but the side road they are traveling on is muddy, and one of the ambulances gets stuck. Two sergeants refuse to help dig the ambulance out on Henry’s orders, so one is shot and killed, while the other runs out of range and deserts. Henry and his team eventually abandon the ambulance and the sergeant’s body and move on. Before reaching their lines, however, they lose all the rest of the ambulances and one of Henry’s men is shot and killed by who Henry believes to be scared Italians.
Things are no better for Henry when he does reach their lines, though, as he is suspected of deserting in a retreat. Seeing the other officers being shot, and waiting in line for his turn, Henry runs toward and dives into a lake, with shots at his back. He was done with the war. He only wanted to be with Catherine. So…Henry deserts and goes to Milan where he last left Catherine.
Henry discovers that Catherine has moved towns, and so he goes to the new town and finds her there. A barman and friend of Henry’s informs him that officers are planning to arrest him in the morning, but that if he crosses the lake, he can get to Switzerland about 35 kilometers away. Catherine and Henry leave at about 11 o’clock at night and do make it across the lake and into Switzerland, though they are arrested by the Swiss police soon after.
Henry and Catherine have their American and British passports, as well as a lot of money, and so they pass off as winter sports tourists. The Swiss police believe them, and the couple moves on to Montreux, where they settle down for a while and are happy and content with one another. When the rainy weather comes, and Catherine is soon to deliver her child, they move to Lausanne, where the hospital is. They also determine that they will marry after the baby is born and Catherine is “skinny” again.
**SPOILER ENDING!!** Catherine soon goes into intense labor, but problems occur and she must have a Cesarean. A boy is taken from her womb, and rushed to another room. Henry follows them, but does not feel fatherly affection for him since he almost killed Catherine. He returns to Catherine, who says she is in a lot of pain, but insists he go to dinner. After dinner, Henry meets a nurse going into the hospital who tells him that Catherine has been hemorrhaging. After many more hemorrhages, Catherine dies, and the baby, Henry learns, never even breathed its first out of the womb. Henry is numb, wanting nothing from no one. He only wants to see Catherine, but “it was like saying good-by to a statue,” and Henry walks out into the rain, back to the hotel.
My Concluding Thoughts:
Ernest Hemingway is–no doubt–an excellent author! His experience in the ambulance corps in World War I definitely gave A Farewell to Arms reality. I am sure that some “upper-level” English students will be required to read this book, but “just to read,” the plot is not necessarily a “moral” one. Although Hemingway does not express graphically at anytime about any thing, except perhaps scenery, the reader can definitely pick up the implications of what is “going on” in different scenes of the story. I enjoyed the book, and I absolutely loved the way he wrote it. (It flows together very nicely. Very coherent!) As for recommending it, however, I am not sure I can do for moral reasons. This is your call of whether or not you chose to read it or whether or not you would allow your sons or daughters to read it. I’m staying out of this controversial topic!
If you would like to buy A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway, you can buy it used at Amazon.com. Click here! (Or borrow it from your local library!)
If you would like to look at the other books I have on my book list for 2011, you can click here!
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Zealous Dedication 