Hemingway And The Things They Carried: An Analysis

The representation of war in literature allows for creative liberty in both its depiction and its message. While there are traditional tropes associated with the war novel genre like glory through combat or the heroification of a character, there are literary techniques in the 20th century that have expanded the thought provoking elements of the genre. In particular, Farewell to Arms’ use of marginalizing war with its focus on a love story and The Things They Carried use of metafiction of war storytelling, allow for reader’s to be challenged by providing different interpretations of the text. By Hemingway and O’Brien’s novels using these techniques, the war genre has progressed and allowed a new development of ideologies to accompany the traditional

At this point in the novel, Frederic is not actually in love with Catherine as he mentions in their previous encounter that “I knew I did not love Catherine Barkley nor had any idea of loving her” (30). This is also confirmed in book 2 when he’s actually in love with her narrating “When I saw her I was in love with her” when they first meet in the hospital in Milan (91). The use of “lonely” and “hollow” refers to Frederic’s inherent state at war but is unable to distinguish them from his thoughts about Catherine. These terms are also common reflections of soldiers’ feelings during and after war as combat has this effect on its participants. In this manner, war is being overlooked and conflated with Farewell to Arms’ overarching love

She essentially tells him that she will be his ideal projection of the perfect woman. Again this passage indicates that the text is to be interpreted as something more than a traditional love story as Catherine and Frederic’s love is not for each other but projected on one another. For Catherine, this comes in the form of her late fiancé whom she sees Frederic as, which can be attributed to her reluctance to marry similarly to her fiancé as it might “bad for him” (18). Similarly to Frederic, she is also lonely from losing her former love interest so Catherine and Frederic have love that is mediated by war. With that said, war controls how love is manifested in the novel and in turn, how love functions in