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.