Term Paper on "Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway"

Term Paper 3 pages (1101 words) Sources: 1+

[EXCERPT] . . . .

Ernest Hemingway's Farewell to Arms is often called the best novel about WWII, because of the contrast between the horrors of war and the love shared between Catherine and Frederick. In addition, Hemingway is also considered to be one of the best writers in American literature, due to his vivid, detailed accounts and unique use of symbolism and irony. The title of the book, Farewell to Arms is a prime example of these literary devices.

The original "Farewell to Arms," comes from a poem by George Peele who lived in the 1500s in England. The poem, dedicated to Queen Elizabeth, relates to the great disappointment of a soldier who can no longer fight. "This helmet shall now make a hive for bees," he says forlornly.

If Hemingway is indeed basing his title on Peele's poem, he is using it with irony. Surely, the characters in Farewell to Arms do want to continue fighting in a war. Hemingway's book does not show anything positive about such vicious events. As West (1970, p. 26) notes, the readers of Hemingway need to always be cautious about taking him to the most obvious level of meaning. He normally has many layers of symbolism.

Some literary scholars say that the title may have other meanings. West (1970, p. 26), for example, explains that Hemingway always has a double implication or "the idea and the image; and the emotional force of the idea is intensified by the shock supplied by the image." West believes that the title should be seen as completely ironic. Frederick, an American second lieutenant in the Italian army, has tried to escape from his obligations to fight on behalf of his country and, not as desired, falls in love with Catherine Barkley, an English volunteer nurse.

Frederick anticipates a life after the war spent with Catherine in Switzerland that would be of total bliss without conflict. He thinks he has left unhappiness behind on the battlefields. The couple has said goodbye to a life of hardship, action and struggle. Yet, at the moment when they are about to achieve their successful break from the past, the dream abruptly comes to an end. "What the novel says," according to West, "is that you cannot escape the obligations of action -- you cannot say 'farewell to arms'; you cannot sign a separate peace. You can only learn to live with life, tolerate it as 'the initiated learn to tolerate it' (1990, p. 27).

Young (1966, p. 95) adds "as a final gloss on the novel, we may find a small substantiation in the title. A Farewell to Arms is beautifully ambiguous in two obvious realms: "the farewell to war in the separate peace, the farewell to the beloved in death." In addition, the title may also suggest a farewell to those arms that the younger Frederick Henry had opposed to the world: "a farewell to 'not-caringness' which gives a death-in-life to which no one can resign himself."

Lewis (1965, p. 40), instead, says that the irony in the title is equivalent to the saying "be careful of what you wish for." Frederick and Catherine are now alone with their love, but Frederick is still thinking of the war and his friends. He perhaps is even lonely and bored now that he is in a… READ MORE

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