A Farewell to Arms, by Ernest Hemingway, is somewhat of
a Romeo and Juliet love story, with a tragic ending. In this
novel, Romeo is Frederick Henry and Juliet is Catherine
Barkley. Their love affair must survive the everything that is
around them during World War I. The setting of this novel is
war-torn Italy. The love between Catherine and Frederick
must outlast long separations, life-threatening war situations,
and the uncertainty of each other's whereabouts or
condition. This is a love story of two people who need each
other in a period of chaos.
The book A Farewell to Arms is partly autobiographical.
Hemingway , like his hero, was a Red Cross ambulance
driver on the Italian Front in World War I. Not only was
Hemingway wounded in the war, but he also recuperated in
a hospital in Italy. During his recuperation, Hemingway had a
very romantic liaison with a nurse. The relationships between
the characters in the novel, including doctors, soldiers, etc.,
reflect the actual relationships Hemingway had during his
stay in Italy, and the plot of the story is historically as well as
geographically accurate. Before Ernest Hemingway wrote
the book A Farewell to Arms, he was already regarded as
a good literary writer, but after the publication of this book
he was considered a great one. A Farewell to Arms was
Hemingway’s first commercial success, selling over 80,000
copies in the first four months.
In this story there are only two main characters, Frederick
Henry and Catherine
Barkley. Frederick Henry acts as both the narrator and
central character in the novel. The reader is not told so much
about Catherine, only what is understood from Frederick’s
point of view. Catherine acts as a static character in the
novel. She has already known love and lost it so she
understands that she cannot build her whole life around
Frederick. Frederick, on the other hand, is a very dynamic
character, and he has to come to grips with many of the
principles of life and death that Catherine has already
learned. There are few other characters in the book of any
significance, but of some small importance are Rinaldi, who
is Frederick’s best friend on the fighting front, and also the
priest in Frederick’s company whom he befriends and with
whom he has long talks about life.
The plot structure of A Farewell to Arms starts out with an
intro...
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... in order and yet he
still seems discontented. He continuously has to convince
himself that he has "a fine life," and he has not yet reached
Catherine's emotional level that enables her to be perfectly
happy in their love and yet not dependent on it for all
comfort and support. He never reaches a place of internal
peace until the end of the book when Catherine dies and he
realizes that he can not be totally dependent on another for
happiness in this life.
A Farewell To Arms was a was a well written novel that
gives people a whole different perceptive about the people
and events of World War I in Italy. The book was not the
least bit confusing when it came to the text and was really an
enjoyable book to read. This book could be appreciated
both by the average high school student or an adult looking
for a great book. It had an interesting, moving plot that kept
the reader interested in the book, and has been appreciated
and read for many years by people of all ages. From reading
this book one learns much about Ernest Hemingway himself
plus the times and problems of World War I. This book was
a classic in 1929 and is still seems contemporary today.
As a famous author Ernest Hemingway has been credited for the creation of multiple critically acclaimed books. One in particular, A Farewell to Arms, while having received its fair share of approval, has also received multiple threats throughout the years to be banned by certain organizations and school systems. As respectful as I am on these groups’ opinions, I myself cannot help but disagree with their statements and viewpoints. In my point of view the book should not be banned because while it may contain some undesirable components, it is overall a moderate work of literature that has a deep foresight into heartfelt issues such as war, life, and love.
scattering of thin, high clouds. From a vantage point atop one of seven hills I
Earnest Hemmingway once said "Never think that 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 the depiction of war and the way the two characters cope with their shocking and different experiences. It is the way someone deals with these tragedies that is the true story. This essay will evaluate how the main characters in both novels deal with their experiences in different ways.
Greece is a country united by its name, but divided by its ways. Although Sparta and Athens were both Greek cities, their societies were different. Sparta was focused on having a perfect military, whereas Athenian daily life revolved learning and knowledge. When Spartan boys were being trained for an army, Athenian boys were being trained for life. Both of these societies revolved around different government, education from when kids to teenagers, the responsibilities each individual had to keep their spot, and how women played a role throughout each city state.
Bravery is the quality of a person who displays courage and fearlessness in the face of danger. Such qualities show splendor and magnificence in a person. Fear and terror sometimes hinder the determination someone can show. Overcoming this fear is what portrays bravery. In Ernest Hemingway’s A Farewell to Arms, Frederick Henry shows bravery by freely joining the Italian army, risking his life for some ambulance drivers and swimming to freedom, being shot at the whole way.
"Facing It," by Yusef Komunyakaa talks about a war which most, if not all Americans are familiar with. The ever so controversial Vietnam Conflict, also known as the Vietnam War. This poem was very well written, and I respect all that was said in the context of the poem. "Facing It," discusses his visit to the Vietnam Memorial in Washington D.C., and his emotions that he experienced while he was at the memorial. I can not imagine what the feelings would be like to see one of my friend's name etched in this wall, although Tomas Van Putten can. I had a personal phone interview with him on October 30th, 2002.
"After a while I went out and left the hospital and walked back to the hotel in the rain" (332). This last line of the novel gives an understanding of Ernest Hemingway's style and tone. The overall tone of the book is much different than that of The Sun Also Rises. The characters in the book are propelled by outside forces, in this case WWI, where the characters in The Sun Also Rises seemed to have no direction. Frederick's actions are determined by his position until he deserts the army. Floating down the river with barely a hold on a piece of wood his life, he abandons everything except Catherine and lets the river take him to a new life that becomes increasing difficult to understand. Nevertheless, Hemingway's style and tone make A Farewell to Arms one of the great American novels. Critics usually describe Hemingway's style as simple, spare, and journalistic. These are all good words they all apply. Perhaps because of his training as a newspaperman, Hemingway is a master of the declarative, subject-verb-object sentence. His writing has been likened to a boxer's punches--combinations of lefts and rights coming at us without pause. As illustrated on page 145 "She went down the hall. The porter carried the sack. He knew what was in it," one can see that Hemingway's style is to-the-point and easy to understand. The simplicity and the sensory richness flow directly from Hemingway's and his characters' beliefs. The punchy, vivid language has the immediacy of a news bulletin: these are facts, Hemingway is telling us, and they can't be ignored. And just as Frederic Henry comes to distrust abstractions like "patriotism," so does Hemingway distrust them. Instead he seeks the concrete and the tangible. A simple "good" becomes higher praise than another writer's string of decorative adjectives. Hemingway's style changes, too, when it reflects his characters' changing states of mind. Writing from Frederic Henry's point of view, he sometimes uses a modified stream-of-consciousness technique, a method for spilling out on paper the inner thoughts of a character. Usually Henry's thoughts are choppy, staccato, but when he becomes drunk the language does too, as in the passage on page 13, "I had gone to no such place but to the smoke of cafes and nights when the room whirled and you
August 29, 2005 was one of the darkest days for the residents of the State of Louisiana. Katrina, a category 3 hurricane, ripped through New Orleans and the surrounding areas causing catastrophic loss of life and property. The federal government’s disaster response team, which was formed in 1978, titled the Federal Emergency Management Agency, (commonly referred to as FEMA) responded to the needs of the survivors. Unfortunately the Bush administration through FEMA showed gross ineptitude in its response to the disaster. Pre-Katrina the lack of response resulted in a largely unsuccessful evacuation. After the storm, aid to the citizens of New Orleans was slow and inadequate. When we look back at the federal government’s response to Hurricane Katrina, it appears that Bush’s FEMA botched much of the handling of the crisis and that overall, our “administration” could have responded to the situation much better.
The book Armed & Dangerous: Memoirs of a Chicago Policewoman is a biography of Gina Gallo career as a police officer. She served as a police officer for Chicago P.D. from 1982-1998. Gallo addresses the infamous “Blue Wall of Silence” by recalling events in which it was used. She offers a unique perspective of her duty as a police officer, she not only tells of incidences and crimes she dealt with but also what goes through an officers mind afterwards.
Hamlet and Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead are very different in their views and purpose they were written and serve. Both of the pieces of writing have different values, character attitudes and each play off of the existence of the other and challenge understanding of the other. But they are still very similar, they both address similar issues, themes and concerns throughout the development of the plays. As a feed off of Hamlet, Stoppard challenges the values and attitudes of the renaissance era and Shakespearean Era while expanding our reading content and viewpoints of Hamlet by giving us a contrasting viewpoint and making the audience think about the assumptions made about them.
The interconnectedness of William Shakespeare’s Hamlet and Tom Stoppard’s play Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead extends the identities of the characters. While Hamlet gives a limited view of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, the opposite is true for Stoppard’s play. Hamlet and Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are dead contain similar themes, and Stoppard’s play presents a new perspective to the one-sided story. The common themes of fate and chance, and uncertainty and meaninglessness are compared between the two plays.
In conclusion Athens and Sparta were both very different Greek city-states, so different in fact that they could not get along. Trade, democracy, foreigners, individualism, thought, and the arts were all a part of Athens. Contrasting was Sparta whose focus was on the state, achieving power and independence, and their military. They were not able to ever unite, because of their sociological and cultural differences. Geographically they were so close that they could not ignore one another but fought for the top position among the Greek city-states. For in the end, it was their differences drove them apart.
The essay Rosencrantz and Guildensternare Dead: Theater of Criticism by Normand Berlin draws attention to the fact that Stoppard who was once a drama critic, writes from the critical perspective. When engaged in a non-reflexive play, we are too busy following the movement of time and events to really judge the play, but Berlin writes "In the act of seeing Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, however, our critical faculty is not subdued. We are always observing the characters and are not ourselves participating...we are forced to contemplate the frozen state, the status-quo, of the characters who carry their Shakespearean fates with them.". The grand illusion of theater is the acceptance of the on-stage fantasy as real and existing separate from the people who are actually performing it. Watching theater had classically been an experience separate from the experience of analyzing the piece. In Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, the author keeps us hovering between the two states, we are at once participating in the fantasy but ...
The novel also highlights the passionate relationship between Henry and Catherine Barkley, a British nurse in Italy. Henry’s insight into the war and his intense love for Catherine emphasize that love and war are the predominant themes in the novel and these themes contribute to bringing out the implicit and explicit meaning of the novel. Being a part of the Italian army, Henry is closely involved with the war and has developed an aversion to the war. Henry’s association with the war has also made him realise that war is inglorious and the sacrifices made in war are meaningless. Specifically, Henry wants the war to end because he is disillusioned by the war and knows that war is not as glorious as it is made up to be.
Ultimately, Nagel’s, Frankfurt’s, and my theory are just three of many possible theories regarding the meaning of life. Neither Nagel’s explanation of the contradiction between meaning within a life and meaning of life as a whole, Frankfurt’s idea that love functions to make lives meaningful, nor my argument that the search for the meaning of life is the meaning itself are universally accepted views. Open-ended problems such as this one about the meaning of life are rooted in the subject of philosophy, since there is often no right answer. Philosophy allows people to come up with a variety of theories and opinions that attempts to solve certain philosophical issues. Therefore, the debate on what the meaning of life really is will continue in the future as others take their turns in searching for the meaning of life.