Essay on Ernest Hemingways A Farewell to Arms - No Happy...

No Happy Ending in A Farewell to Arms Hemingways A Farewell to Arms is a tragic story of love and war. There has been a great deal of controversy over the ending of the novel in which Catherine Barkley died from massive hemorrhaging following an unsuccessful Caesarean operation. While such a horrific event to end a novel may not be popular, it is the soundest ending that Hemingway could have written. A Farewell to Arms is a war novel and Catherines death brings a conclusion that is consistent with the theme and context of the novel. The novel was written with a war wrought cynicism that is reflected in the attitude of Lieutenant Frederick Henry as the war changes the way he looks at life. As the war continued at the end of the†¦show more content†¦One passage in particular captures much of the theme of the novel and greatly foreshadows Catherine death: If people bring so much courage to this world the world has to kill them to break them, so of course it kills them. The world breaks every one and afterward many are strong at the broken places. But those that will not break it kills. It kills the very good and the very gentle and the very brave impartially. If you are none of these you can be sure it will kill you too but there will be no special hurry (249). This passage reflects the cynicism that the death and destruction of the war evoked in Frederick. He saw no reason for the deaths he witnessed of good, gentle and brave individuals. Catherine is, in Fredericks eyes, the epitome of the very good, the very gentle, the very brave. Frederick even referred to Catherine as `a good brave girl (313). In the end she was indeed killed impartially, but not without the world trying to break her first. The world had tried to break Catherine even before the novel began with the death of her fiancà ©, but she remained strong. She was cheerful, optimistic and giving no matter what trouble she was faced with. Even while unmarried and pregnant, traveling in a rowboat during a storm with her on the run lover, Catherine remained cheerful and generous and even took over rowing toShow MoreRelatedA Farewell To Arms And The Lottery By Shirley Jackson1392 Words   |  6 PagesKelly Warner 29 September 2017 EN 234 – Introduction to Fiction Setting and Symbolism In the novel â€Å"A Farewell to Arms† by Ernest Hemingway and the short story â€Å"The Lottery† by Shirley Jackson, there are distinct similarities and differences in the setting and symbolism used throughout. In order to see what the authors are trying to say, from time to time, you have to look deeper into the facts in the writing and analyze. Both of these stories are extremely stimulating, while still being heartbreakingRead MoreA Farewell to Arms: Love Story1181 Words   |  5 PagesA Farewell to Arms, by Ernest Hemingway, is somewhat of a Romeo and Juliet love story, with a tragic ending. 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Hemingway also received the Nobel Prize for literature in 1954. Hemingway’s works are great examples of stories that displays the five stages of fiction. â€Å"Hills Like White Elephants† was published in 1927 in Hemingway’s secondRead MoreCoping with War: A Comparison Between Slaughterhouse Five and A Farewell to Arms1630 Words   |  7 Pagesthat war, no matter how necessary, nor how justified, is not a crime. (Ernest Hemingway: A Literary Reference) War is a gruesome and tragic thing and affects people differently. Both Vonnegut and Hemmingway discus this idea in their novels A Farewell to Arms and Slaughterhouse Five. Both of the novels deal not only with war stories but other genres, be it a science fiction story in Vonnegut’s case or a love story in Hemingway’s. Despite all the similarities there are also very big differences in theRead MoreAnalysis Of Ernest Hemingway After World War I1515 Words   |  7 Pagestruth of a story. Hemingway operates under this technique to let the concrete facts float above water while drowning the intense emotions of a character. Hemingway’s signature stripped-down technique is manifested in a notewor thy story that is set against the abhorrence of war; A Farewell To Arms is a semiautobiographical work composed by Ernest Hemingway after World War I. Hemingway uses the iceberg principle to create a lucid image with the sententious and terse elucidation about Frederic HenryRead MoreThe Sun Also Rises Critical Essay3893 Words   |  16 Pages who sees Jake Barnes as adopting a kind of desperate caution as his modus vivendi. Halliday concludes that the movement of the novel is a movement of progressive emotional insularity and that the novels theme is one of moral atrophy. [Hemingways Narrative Perspective, in Sewanee Review, 1952.] In his The Death of Love in The Sun Also Rises, Mark Spilka finds a similarly negative meaning in the novel. Thus Spilka arrives at the position that in naming the abiding earth as the hero of