An Analysis Of Ernest Hemingway's A Farewell To Arms

Hemingway takes care to spin a perfectly developed plot and then suddenly in a single page, a few strokes of the pen, he sends it tumbling down. Why? Hemingway writes,” ‘Halt,’ I said. they kept on down the muddy road, the hedge on either side. ‘I order you to halt,’ I called. They went a little faster. I opened my holster, took the pistol, aimed at the one who talked the most, and fired.” (Hemingway 177) Frederic Henry, the book’s ever changing main character, who throughout the book is distant from the war and who grows to detest it has suddenly become firmly embroiled in it. He killed a man for no reason at all and has furthered the war which he seemed to oppose. Hemingway does this in order to bring the war to the forefront of the novel.

No longer will it remain in the background. Prior to this moment the theme of “war” has stayed happily distant from the rest of the novel and only occasionally shows itself. Following this it is all over.
Early on Frederic Henry went throughout the novel in a manner where he seems almost invincible. Like the war will never affect him and it is just a temporary annoyance. He even says, “Well, I knew I would not be killed. Not in this war. It did not have anything to do with me. It seemed no more dangerous to me myself than war in the movies.” (Hemingway 31). He does not seem to care about the war and carries this train of thought along with him for much of the book. While surrounded by mortars that could randomly bring about the end of his life he chooses to face them in order to get some food. The book says, “ ‘You better wait until the shelling is over,’ the major said over his shoulder. ‘They want to eat,’ I said. ‘As you wish.’ “(Hemingway 46) Instead of taking the major’s advice seriously he braves the mortar fire in a typical action that demonstrates his false feeling of invincibility. Hemingway continues the novel in a manner much the same as this. A manner of the war being distant. The war is there, but it doesn’t affect how Henry deals with his life. War is firmly lodged in the backdrop and in order to bring it out, it requires a radical departure from the distance Hemingway built up.
Suddenly this radical departure comes about without reason and in typical Hemingway rapidity.

Much of this rapidity comes from his own experience on the battlefield. For him it seemed random and spontaneous and in A Farewell to Arms, which mostly recounts several of his life’s events, the same speed in battle and war can be seen. Hemingway also puts Henry’s shooting of the sergeant in, in order to show how the war has influenced its members even if they seek to end it. It shows Henry to be hypocritical in his views on war because even though he bitterly opposes it he, “shot three times and dropped one.” (Hemingway 177). His action here does nothing to end the war, but only continue it and make him level with the war and its ferocity. It also does the same for his companions who were also speaking out against the war just several pages earlier. One of them says, “Let me go finish him.” (Hemingway 177) showing that not only do they participate in the war, but they actively volunteer to. There is a sense of eagerness and excitement that goes along with killing the man and there is no remorse for the actions, even going as far as calling him a, “son of a bitch.” and “dirty scum” (Hemingway 177) as well as further defiling his body by stripping him of his clothes and leaving him in the mud, the book dryly states,” ‘We’ll put his coat and cape under,’ I said. Bonello went to get them.” (Hemingway 178), They show no respect, and that is what makes them level with the war. That is

why the war suddenly becomes one and the same with them. War is now at the forefront of the novel.
Hemingway makes this critical change when he does because he now needs to develop the theme of war more than ever.

The book is at a closing, and now he intends to speed up the novel in order to achieve the highest amount of theme and character development in the shortest amount of time. We see this quickness more and more and even though the book has been largely uneventful and slow, with war as a major theme it has many events in a few chapters. Following the killing of the man on the road Henry and his companions must reach the Italian front in order to flee the ever-advancing German army. While doing so Henry’s friend Aymo is killed. The book reads, “Two more shots came from the thick brush and Aymo, as he was crossing the tracks, lurched, tripped and fell face down.” (Hemingway 184) it then continues saying, “He was hit low in the back of the neck and the bullet ranged upward and come out under the right eye. He died while I was stopping up the two holes.” (Hemingway 184). As the traditional give and take relationship of war goes, one of them died right after randomly killing another man. Hemingway establishes such action and gruesome violence suddenly in order to further develop Henry’s bitter hatred of war. Now it has taken his friend nonsensically and because he has made himself level with it, may have even altered his sense of “invincibility”. Henry being embroiled in the conflict changes the visible course of the novel and makes it widely

unpredictable.
Stemming from a single moment of war violence comes a series of events that are equally as violent and gruesome. Hemingway begins to seriously develop the theme of war all from the point at which Henry made himself level to the war. Henry began the war distant from its violence and danger and maintained this distance throughout, but one moment where he allowed himself to participate in such events set off a large trail of events that allow Hemingway to further his theme, his purpose, the plot of the book, and even the depth at which we see Henry. Which may even impact the way that life is dealt with and situations are handled as the book progresses.