A Farewell to Arms
In the beginning Frederic Henry, a young American ambulance driver with the Italian army in World War I, meets a beautiful English nurse named Catherine Barkley near the front between Italy and Austria-Hungary. At first Henry wants to seduce her, but when he is wounded and sent to the American hospital where Catherine works, he actually begins to love her. After his convalescence in the hospital, Henry returns to the war front. During a retreat, the Italians start to fall apart. Henry shoots an engineer sergeant under his command for dereliction, and later in confusion is arrested by the battle police for the crime of not being Italian. Disgusted with the army and facing death at the hands of the battle police, Henry decides he has had enough of war; he dives into the river to escape. After swimming to safety, Henry boards a train and reunites with Catherine--now pregnant with Henry's child--in Stresa. With the help of an Italian bartender, they escape to Switzerland, and attempt to put the war behind them forever. They spend a happy time together in Switzerland, and plan to marry after the baby is born. When Catherine goes into labor, however, things go terribly wrong. He attempts an unsuccessful Caesarian section, and Catheri
Henry is no dummy and he could easily tell that everything was not all-correct with Cat, which leads to the question of his love for her. When I finished Farewell to Arms I was of course stunned by the death of Catherine and the baby and Henry's sudden solitude. It is during the escape that Henry resolves that he is through with the war and decides that all he wants is to be with Catherine. The detail in this novel bring out different themes as you read along. Until the third Book Henry doesn't seem to be agonizingly concerned with matters of right or wrong in the war and it seems, in fact, separate from him. The third Book is the bridge between the two 'stories' and it is not surprising that it centers on the escape. In the first two Books we are in the war and the war is overwhelming. In the last two Books we are in love. It is also difficult to believe wholeheartedly in his love for her until much later in their relationship. Among the books' morals, violence is not necessarily wrong: Henry does not feel bad for shooting the engineer sergeant, and he tells Catherine he will kill the police if they come to arrest him. Unlike other books that glorify courage in battle and make everything come out ok for the brave individual, this book attempts a real portrayal of a different kind war, one fought with machine guns, in trenches, and with lots and lots of casualties.
Common topics in this essay:
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Austria-Hungary Henry,
Book Catherine,
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World War,
Henry American,
Catherine Barkley,
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engineer sergeant,
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