A Feminist Alternative to Fetterley's Criticism of A Farewell to Arms
After finishing A Farewell to Arms, I found it difficult to reconcile Judith Fetterley's feminist attack of the novel with my own personal opinions. I agree that Hemingway does kick women to the curb in his portrayal of Catherine, but my reasons for pinning this crime on Hemingway are different from hers'. Although she means well, Fetterley makes the ridiculous claim that by portraying Catherine as an angelic, selflessly loving "woman to end all women," Hemingway disguises misogynistic attitudes and a deep-seeded hatred towards the XX chromosome. This claim is not supported by the text. If we look at Hemingway through the lens of his own words, we find that his misogyny does not spring from a "too good to be true" portrait of Catherine, but rather in his tendency to cast her down into the dirt-Catherine is a dependent, baby-manufacturing trap that stifles Lieutenant Henry: "Poor, poor dear Cat. And this was the price you paid for sleeping together. This was the end of the trap" (320). It is his penchant for sex and his need for womanly comfort that keeps Henry coming back to Catherine, not some notion of "love" or true connection. This is Hemingway's misogyny, however unintentional, unmasked.
But to get a true sense of this "anti-Fetterley" feminist view of the novel, it is important too look at the specifics of Hemingway's construction of Catherine-facts that stand in direct opposition to Fetterley's stated attacks.
First of all, Catherine is not Fetterley's unique and unattainable goddess-she is an object in Henry's universe, a feast of sensations but nothing more. She is akin to good food and good drink: "'I was made to eat. My God, yes. Eat and drink and sleep with Catherine'" (233). Indeed, Henry's thoughts about Catherine, both when he is at the front or by her side, mingle with longings for good wine and reflections on sumptuous meals. In Henry's world, a good Capri would be nice, a nice hunk of cheese would be grand, and sleeping with Catherine would be sublime. These things all equate to the satisfaction of basic human needs. Every now and then, Henry feels a grumbling in his loins-a periodic hunger for the "cheese" between Catherine's legs. Hemingway dissolves Catherine into the least common denominator-the object, devoid of meaning or real importance (when Henry isn't hungry).
First, the beginning stanza includes lines one through eight and mentions that Heaven is looking at the people of America. Phillis Wheatley writes of "Columbia's scenes of glorious toils" (Wheatley 2). This describes the toils, or situation that the people are trapped in. During the Revolution, the American people are troubled by "freedom's cause," which refers to the war and that America is fighting for freedom (Wheatley 3). Wheatley personifies
The research question that will be evaluated is, to what extent was the Catholic Church the leading establishment to alter production policies in Hollywood during the great depression? While the Great Depression was a time of grief, it was additionally an era of new opportunities. The institution of Hollywood and the Catholic Church were two separate entities during the Great Depression. The two institutions disagreed on how society should conduct itself, through the means of entertainment. However, arguably, the Catholic Church wasn’t the only organization that altered the ethics of Hollywood. The time period that will be evaluated will be from the late 1920s to the late 1930s, seeing how Hollywood was reformed during that time period. The research question should be sufficiently answered by finding in depth information through articles and studies on the two separate entities, and other possible influences during this particular era. Also, by analyzing the effects of the institution’s individual contributions on society itself, there will be added evidence to the research question.
Assadnassab, Sara. "Hemingway´s Depiction of Women in A Farewell to Arms.”. http://epubl.ltu.se/1402-1773/2005/117/LTU-CUPP-05117-SE.pdf (accessed April 17, 2013).
Above all, Hemingway wants to make the reader understand how one person’s selfishness and needs can manage to manipulate another one by pretending to care. He also proves how women at times can be easily influenced by the people they love. They are tricked into believing they are everything to them. He shows a couple’s different point of views and their inability to understand and listen one another. For the most part, Hemingway send the message that everything is possible. A woman does not need a man’s approval for anything. Women are successful, strong and can overcome the biggest things in life.
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Religion is an institution that can provide stability for societies through various religious concepts, and is substantial for the support of social cohesion and order. Many functionalist theories of religion, for example, claim that religion functions in such a way as to integrate societies (McCauley, 1984). There are many types of religion that people practice world-wide such as Christianity, Catholi...
Over the years, society has come to evolve and progressively become more efficient as society’s viewpoints and perspectives on various aspects of life have also changed. However, the one aspect of life that has stayed constant has been religion. The impact of a constant religious opinion on a changing society has detrimental and benign effects on the populace of such a society.
Religion can only be understood in relation to other social systems and the economic structures of society. In fact, religion is only dependent upon economics, nothing else — so much so that the actual religious doctrines are almost irrelevant. This is a functionalist interpretation of religion: understanding religion is dependent upon what social purpose religion itself serves, not the content of its beliefs.
The first, most obvious trait of Catherine’s heroism is that she values human relationships above materialism. Nothing is more important to Catherine than her lover, Henry, and as the novel goes on, her baby. When Henry is injured and sent to Milan, she has no trouble transferring to the new hospital there. Catherine loves Henry and would drop anything to be with him. Nothing material holds her back from being with him. Even when they live in Switzerland, they don’t have many material possessions. They live very simple lives because all the couple really needs is each other. In chapter forty, Henry describes their time together with this quote, "When there was a good day we had a splendid time and we never had a bad time. We knew the baby was very close now and it gave us both a feeling as though something were hurrying us and we could not lose any time together." Catherine obviously values her time with Henry more than anyone else, but it isn’t the physical aspect of getting out and doing things that satisfies her. What satisfies Catherine is the extra time she gets to spend with the love of her life b...
The novel, The Sun Also Rises, by Ernest Hemingway is an example of how an entire generation redefined gender roles after being affected by the war. The Lost Generation of the 1920’s underwent a great significance of change that not only affected their behaviors and appearances but also how they perceived gender identity. Lady Brett Ashley and Jake Barnes are two of the many characters in the novel that experience shattered gender roles because of the post war era. The characters in the novel live a lifestyle in which drugs and alcohol are used to shadow emotions and ideals of romanticism. Brett’s lack of emotional connection to her various lovers oppose Jake’s true love for her which reveals role reversal in gender and the redefinition of masculinity and femininity. The man is usually the one that is more emotionally detached but in this case Lady Brett Ashley has a masculine quality where as Jake has a feminine quality. Both men and female characters in the novel do not necessarily fit their gender roles in society due to the post war time period and their constant partying and drinking. By analyzing Brett, Jake, and the affects the war had on gender the reader obtains a more axiomatic understanding of how gender functions in the story by examining gender role reversal and homosexuality.
The Golden age of Hollywood marked a time in American films history in which films were produced and distributed at rate never seen before or since. During this period, the film market in America was basically entirely run by 8 major companies. This period would also be known as the American studio years. Within these 8 companies there were two categories of power that each major studio system fell into. The big 5 consisted of studios that functioned as vertical integrated which meant that they produce film, distribute films, and they own theater chains. The 5 studios in this category were Paramount, MGM, 20th Century Fox, Warner Bros, and RKO. Then we have the big little 3, which was composed of Columbia, Universal, and United Artist. They were called the big little 3 because these companies either distributed or made films but they did not on movie theaters, so they had a lot less power. The studio era was not only largely controlled big studio companies, but also by various amounts of expectations and assumptions about hoe movies should be made, what kinds of stars should be on different kinds of films, and a need to acknowledge the ordinary conventions of society
Some of Gargano's other premises were not as insightful for me. For example, I had trouble with what Gargano called Catherine's "transcendentalizing imagination" that causes her to create "beautiful figments" of Townsend that possess her and become the "paramount value of her life, and other attachments, no matter how strong, must somehow accommodate themselves to it." (132). This contention tends to belittle Catherine's intelligence as well as her grasp of reality.
The state of affairs and the grim reality of the war lead Henry towards an ardent desire for a peaceful life, and as a result Henry repudiates his fellow soldiers at the warfront. Henry’s desertion of the war is also related to his passionate love for Catherine. Henry’s love for Catherine is progressive and ironic. This love develops gradually in “stages”: Henry’s attempt at pretending love for Catherine towards the beginning of the novel, his gradually developing love for her, and finally, Henry’s impas... ...
In a functionalistic view religion provides focus and purpose to a society and assists its leadership in controlling the society. In other words it helps society stay on course with the path that its leadership has deems important or suitable. Practicing, praying or preaching a religious belief contributes to the norms of a society, possibly mostly a societies’ mores (Schaefer, 2009). Since religion in itself usually instructs its followers to practice the ideologies of peace and to be submissive to their god and leaders, this helps society be passive on a global level. Many religions that are practiced today are embedded with customs, traditions, an...
In the first paragraph of the article, he lists various forms of people and philosophy, and their views of the relationship between religion and deviance. Functionalists and Marxists support the theory that religion deters deviance. Functionalism is a philosophy which states that what makes something a characteristic of a mental state is dependent on its function to the cognitive mind. Marxism is the view and critique which is applied to capitalism and class struggle as the systemic economy changed during the 19th century. (Merton 1968, p.98).