Final Post: Bringing it together

Reading A Farewell To Arms was an interesting challenge. I spent a lot of time thinking about the various events of the book, and trying to piece together what the theme of the book is. One thing I noticed is that the book has a fascination of rain. Catherine says she’s “always been afraid of the rain” (109) and it rains a lot in this book. One important thing I noted about rain is that it rained when they fled to Switzerland, as well as when Frederick left the hospital after Catherine dies. I originally thought that rain was a representation of death, due to it raining when Catherine, however many times it rains when no one dies, such as when they fled to Switzerland. Now, it has become clear to me that rain represents loss in general.

               When Frederick is fleeing the front on the train, for example, it rains as he hides under the canvas (198). The events leading up to this point are pivotal, he is accused of being a German spy by a group of desperate soldiers and only barely escapes death. When Frederick leaves the army, he lost his remaining desire for war, as I detailed in the first blogpost. He lost all desire for combat or Italy, and thus it rains when he leaves. It also rains almost continually as the Italians retreat and lose ground to the Germans. Considering all of these, especially when it rained after Catherine dies, I’m convinced that rain represents loss. However, I have noticed that the first mention of rain in the entire book doesn’t seem to correlate with any loss. It only describes how the rain caused “the leaves” to all fall from the trees and made the trunks black (4). Some could argue that this descriptions evokes feelings of loss, however this description of rain also correlates with dead vineyards and the failure to capture a mountain. This description seems to be more about death than loss; however I think my theory still stands.

               In my second blog post, I discussed the importance of Bonello’s character and how his attempts to appear hardened are only to gain approval by his peers. Combining the ideas of rain and Bonello, I think Hemingway is trying to set up a world of chaos. I believe he’s trying to tell the reader in this book about the nature of suffering. Loss, as symbolized by rain, pervades all throughout the book, and the behavior of Bonello is indicates a theme of personal suffering to me. Catherine, at the beginning of the book, is dealing with the loss of her finance due to the war, her worry that Frederick will follow her dead fiancé was a real worry of hers, and was a big point for the novel. Ultimately, Hemingway's novel isn’t simply a discussion of the destruction of war, after all the last fifth of the book has nothing to do with war, but a discussion of personal suffering in general.

               Moving on, my reading of Nabokov, Prose, and Foster drastically changed my methods of reading for this novel. With other books I’ve read, I’ve gone against Prose’s method of close reading, and Nabokov’s non bias approach. In the past, I would read a book, and then I would immediately forget many of the important details of the book. Even if I did remember, I wouldn’t be able to find what page the detail occurred, and it was impossible to use these details in my interpretation of the book. So, starting with this book, I’ve been typing up a list of important events and their corresponding page numbers. While I haven’t even used one percent of all the notes I’ve compiled, it was much easier to write these posts. It was looking at these notes that allowed me to get ideas of the symbolism of rain, Like Foster. Speaking of Foster, he actually gives a short interpretation of A Farewell To Arms’s use of Rain on page 72. It kind of makes sense that a cleansing force like rain used for moments of loss and death is Ironic. If this is the case, this actually strengthens my argument because what could be a bigger sign of personal loss than the irony of rain being used as a symbol of loss.

               Finally, I highly recommend this book to readers. Although it’s a difficult book, I did actually enjoy dissecting the book. For the first time, it was actually kind of joyous to dissect a book with the ideas of Foster, Nabokov, etc. Talking with a few people who’ve read the book, the main criticism seems to be the lack of a coherent plot. And I would have to agree, however I’d have to argue when did plot ever matter to our good friends Nabokov or Foster? Overall, I was impressed with the depth and complexity in this novel. I’d recommend it to any student of literature, but I doubt a reader of entertainment would find anything engaging.

Book Four-Five

            Hemmingway’s A Farewell To Arms ends on a very depressing note. Catherine’s pregnancy, which is a major development throughout the story, comes to an end as she goes into labor and then promptly dies. The death isn’t quick either. Catherine spends hours in labor, and uses so much anesthetic that she becomes tolerant to it. What’s most puzzling about the ending to this book, however, is that despite acting like complete dumbstruck star-crossed lovers, that Frederic would leave Catherine’s side so many times during this sequence and that he would be so willing to leave after her death. He doesn’t even break down in tears! I believe that this can best be explained with a tiny moment that occurred in the book a few pages before it ends.

            After Frederic takes Catherine to the hospital, his wife asks him to leave believing that it would take a while. After he finishes a glass of wine and coffee, he leaves the café and immediately comes across “a dog noising at one of the” trash cans (27). When he opens the trashcan for the dog, he finds it only has coffee-grounds, dust and some dead flowers. The dog wanders away when he realizes the can is empty. Now, the weirdness and peculiarity of this scene strikes me as Hemmingway trying to tell the reader something. The tittle of this book is taken from a poem by George Peele of the same name. The poem details a knight with golden hair who has become old, like a flower fading, and resolves to devote himself to his queen. The first time we see Catherine, Frederic notes that she has blonde “beautiful hair” (16). And as Catherine comes closer to the end, she talks about cutting away her hair, even though Frederick doesn’t want her too. Also, Catherine’s need to do everything out of devotion to Frederick comes from her need to be a fine wife. Throughout the book, and increasingly towards the end, she only uses this thinking more and more. This utter devotion parallels the knight of Peele’s poem, whom only wants to serve his queen any way he can.

            So, when all Frederick finds in the bin is some dead flowers, this represents the withering that Catherine undergoes. And so, when Frederick finally enters the room with his dead wife, and has no other response but to leave and walk away, he parallels the actions of the dog that walks away after finding nothing inside. The dog was desperate to get into the trashcan, screaming and yelling as Frederick tried all he could to save his wife, even ignoring his dead son. And when Frederick opens up his love, he finds only the remains of what his wife was, and not her former glory that he truly was in love with.

Book Three

In Ernest Hemingway's A farewell to Arms, Hemingway details the 'adventures' of Frederic Henry.  Henry is an officer among a group of ambulance drivers in the Italian army. After being injured and out of the action for a while, Henry returns to the front. However, he doesn’t stay there for long due to the Italian line breaking under an Austrian/German assault. He is ordered to drive his men and Ambulances away, however he finds that Bonello has actually invited along two engineer sergeants.  This sets up a pivotal moment in the novel.

When we first see the sergeants, they “were polite” and quite passive (170). Bonello took pity on them after they’re separated from their unit. These two sergeants don’t seem to be soldiers or brave man at all. One of them even tries to steal a clock from an abandoned house; they aren’t men of honor at all. And so, as the Austrian army looms ever closer, the Sergeants become more and more nervous. They constantly ask if they can leave, and thus, when the ambulance becomes stuck in the mud, it’s no wonder that the two of them want to leave. They are genuinely scared for their life, and believe the delay to rescue the ambulance would cause them to “be cut off” by enemy forces (177).  Because of the insubordination of these sergeants, Henry fires his pistol at the fleeing sergeants and hits one of them, while the other escapes. Bonello, despite inviting the sergeants in the first place, insist on finishing off the injured sergeant.

The purpose of this section of the text seems to be to flesh out Bonello’s character. Earlier, when Henry’s men are quartering in the abandoned hospital, Bonello cracks a joke about sleeping with the queen. Such a joke paints a picture of a hardened man’s man who doesn’t care about what he does or their consequences. However, instead of ignoring what anyone might think of him, he immediately “looked to [Henry] to see how [he] took the joke” (167).  Bonello wants the approval and praise of his fellow soldiers. So, when he has the opportunity to kill a sergeant, he jumps on the opportunity to show off. After all, he immediately asks if anyone saw him “shoot him” (177).  He loves the attention he gets from showing off like this. However, when things get hard and Aymo is killed by friendly fire, “Bonello said nothing” (185).  He realizes that his own mortality is worth more than showing off how tough he is. Because of this, Bonello slips away from the group as soon as he can. His façade of toughness and manliness wasn’t as sturdy as he may want others to believe.

Book One-Two

A Farewell to Arms by Hemingway is quite a slow book. The first two books, or sections, of his book deal with the experiences of Lieutenant Frederic Henry. The book starts in Late summer during world war one and takes places very near to the Italian front. Henry serves as an ambulance driver along with the rest of his men. He meets with a widow named Catherine Barkley, after his friend Rinaldi convinces him to, and slowly falls in love with her, and her to him. Although Henry pretends to love her for his own benefit, however Catherine sees through the charade and acknowledges it. During an enemy artillery barge, a few of his fellow drivers are killed and he is injured. He moves to an American hospital in Milan. He arrives to an empty hospital and Catherine is transferred to his hospital. He spends a few months there, and is eventually transferred back to the front. Catherine becomes pregnant during this time, and Henry promises to marry her. In this book, there seems to be this desire for adventure and risk in Henry. Firstly, being an American, Henry had no need to join the war in the first place. He traveled to an entire different continent to join this war after all. After he is injured, his desire for adventure doesn’t leave him. He wants to speed up his recovery because he is in “a hurry to get back to the front” even though the doctor tells him he should wait 6 months(86). Even with Ms.Barkley, he even makes an adventure out of her. He describes their relationship “was a game, like bridge”(26). This game is very exciting for Henry. He wants a new and better experience than “the girls” of the whorehouse(26). It's no wonder than that Ms.Barkley “feel[s] like a whore” because in fact Henry is treating her like one(133). His primary motivation seems to be the experience, even though he does seem to be very fond with her as they spend more time together. Henry’s desire for adventure seems to be very unique in this book. When Henry comes across another American, he finds that he “threw away” the truss “so it would get bed and” he wouldn’t be forced to get back to the line(30). Far from being brave, soldiers such as the one Henry found on the side of the road want none of the adventure that Henry was after. The only difference between Henry and the others seems to be his sense of mortality. While other soldiers mutinied in order to preserve their lives, Henry believes that he “would not be killed”(31). I’m willing to bet that Henry will learn something valuable about adventure and war in general as the story progresses since his thinking doesn’t appear to reflect the reality of the situation.