In A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway, Frederic Henry, the protagonist and narrator, fits the definition of the “Hemingway Hero”, and is more so affirmed as one in his attempted deviation from this archetype. From the beginning of the novel, Frederic exhibits qualities of the Hemingway Hero. He is a man of few words, strong and stoic, and has good morals as shown by his treatment of the priest. He expresses a respect for authority and a willingness to work hard for the military, but isn’t patriotic or willing to die for Italy. Frederic feels detached from the war because of this. He feels no connection to it and believes that it is of no consequence to him. He says “Well, I knew I would not be killed. Not in this war. It did not have …show more content…
The injury emasculates him, making him “softer” and opening him up for an actual romantic connection with Catherine. He describes when he first saw her at the hospital “When I saw her I was in love with her. Everything turned over inside of me” (80). Frederic begins an almost hedonistic life in Milan. He indulges in gambling, sex, food, and most notably alcohol. He becomes less stoic and finds pleasure in not being part of the war, therefore pushing away from his role as the Code Hero. It is this pleasure that lands him back in war, after being suspected of purposefully giving himself jaundice. Frederic leaves his life of pleasure and automatically takes on his Code Hero qualities when he returns to war. He exhibits remarkable strength, courage, clear-headedness, and leadership throughout the retreat. He follows orders until it is no longer possible, keeps the men following him in check, and makes tough choices rather easily. His code of honor revolves around order, shown when he refuses to participate in raping village girls, and when he kills one of the men trying to abandon their group when the ambulances became stuck. “ I opened up my holster, took the pistol, aimed at the one who talked the most, and fired” (177). Frederic seemed in his element as he made the decision to jump into the freezing water to escape his …show more content…
In Milan, he lived a life of pleasure, away from the hardship of war. He is sent back into the war as a punishment of sorts for the excess of pleasure. In war he experiences pain and hunger and exhaustion, surrounded by injury and death. While Frederic longs for a content life with Catherine, he finds he is truly Frederic Henry in war. This is because he is a Code Hero, a character constantly having their honor and courage tested. Frederic is nothing when not facing death and destruction. He starts a peaceful new life with Catherine in Switzerland, but it isn’t meant to last. He says “The world breaks every one and afterward many are strong at the broken places. But those that will not break it kills” and it reigns true. He is not broken when he escapes from the retreat and the world will end up killing him for this. It kills him by killing Catherine, and with her, the chance of having a content life. He is sentenced to a life as a Code hero. He ends the novel as he started it;
“Don’t talk about the war,” he says after abandoning the front, “it was over…but I did not have the feeling it was really over” (Hemingway 245). For Frederic the war captured his mind in a way that he
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
Frederick Henry grew up in America and in his early twenties, he decided to go to Europe and fight in the Italian army. Henry’s decision in the first place, showed courage and bravery. Fighting for another country over making a living in your own goes above and beyond what is remotely asked for. Even in my wildest dreams, I would probably not even think about fighting for my own country, let alone a foreign country. Times were tough, especially when the start of the winter came. With that winter came “permanent rain and with the rain came the cholera. But it was checked and in the end and only seven thousand died of it in the army.” (4) In the army, people die, and it is not the nicest place. Frederick Henry chose to enter this world and this portrays bravery.
Hemingway characterizes his heroes as people with strength, courage, and bravery, but even heroes have their flaws. For example, Frederic Henry, the protagonist of A Farewell to Arms, survives an artillery bombardment that kills one of his own men and badly injures him. Hemingway shows the strength of this character through his survival of the bombardment and full recovery of his wounds. Hemingway portrays Frederic as a hero through this strength. In addition, Fredric, being fully aware of the dangers from both the enemy and the Italian's, who mistake him and his drivers for German's, kill one of them, and then threaten to execute Frederic, who escapes. In this daring escape, Frederic presents his courage and bravery in a dangerous situation. Hemingway demonstrates that although one of Frederic's men dies, he is still courageous in that his escape was successful. Frederic Henry's potential as a hero is shown by Hemingway's illustration of events that depict Frederic's use of his strength, his courage, and his bravery (Lewis 46).
In this novel A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway, Hemingway brings about the evolution of Frederick Henry being converted into a code hero in realistic ways.
...the theme that weak individuals succumb to societal norms regardless of their own feelings. Armand shows that he is a weak character, yet there are signs that some of his beliefs are progressive. However, because of the weakness in his personality, Armand is unable to express these beliefs. Rather, he is forced to destroy something of great importance to himself simply because he is too weak to stand up for his beliefs. Through the ironic ending in which Armand discovers that he is the donor of the black gene, Chopin teaches the danger of being a weak individual: Armand is punished for his weakness by Desiree, a woman he once loved, leaving while at the same time bearing the knowledge that he is of a race that he himself hates. Chopin presents the challenge to all humans to strive for individuality and self-esteem, lest they too fall victim to their own weaknesses.
But this is where Frederic made his mistake. He kept his distance from right and wrong regarding war and love. He had separated himself from war and seemed to have no place in it at all, mentally or physically (for example when he is in the hospital in Book Two). But when Aymo is killed by his own army, Frederic discovers the reality that he is not really separated from this event at all. He is very much part of this war whether he likes it or not.
While Frederic Henry may be the main focus of the novel, we cannot forget that Catherine Barkley is the original Hemingway Code Hero that helped Henry mature to the hero he is at the end of the novel. Without Catherine’s heroism, Frederic Henry would still be an immature ambulance driver that frequents brothels without much meaning to his life. Catherine forces him to grow up and face the world, and that is why she deserves her title as a Hemingway Code Hero.
A Farewell to Arms, by Ernest Hemingway, is a story about love and war. Frederic Henry, a young American, works as an ambulance driver for the Italian army in World War I. He falls tragically in love with a beautiful English nurse, Miss Catherine Barkley. This tragedy is reflected by water. Throughout the novel Ernest Hemingway uses water as metaphors. Rivers are used as symbols of rebirth and escape and rain as tragedy and disaster, which show how water plays an important role in the story.
During the period of time from 1700 to 1830, Great Britain was the first country to industrialized, making products by machine instead of by hand. You may ask: Why was Britain the first to Industrialize? Well, I’m here to answer that. Britain was the first to industrialize because it had the right resources and the right environment for industrialization, meeting all the factors of production: land, labor, and capital (money). It had the correct natural resources (coal and iron), a powerful workforce, and a favorable economic climate.
Works Cited and Consulted Hemingway, Ernest. A Farewell to Arms. Simon & Schuster, Inc.; New York, NY; 1929. The Cambridge Companion to Ernest Hemingway; edited by Scott Donaldson; Cambridge U. P.; New York, NY; 1996. Mandel, Miriam B.; Reading Hemingway: The Facts in the Fictions; The Scarecrow Press, Inc.; Metuchen, NJ; 1995.
The world contains many recurring events that remind humans of morals or things that are important. In the novel “A Farewell to Arms” many events come again and again. Usually, these events that repeat or come again have a deeper message inscribed in the text. This is not unlike the novel “The Great Gatsby” which has weather that unfailingly matches up with the tone and mood of the text. Author Ernest Hemingway has created “A Farewell to Arms” with a motif that is very precise.
A Hemingway Code Hero is a trait that almost every main character in Ernest Hemingway’s novels possesses. According to Hemingway, a Code Hero is a man (or woman) who lives correctly and demonstrates respect for honor and courage during a chaotic and stressful world. There is a particular pattern to how a Code Hero conducts his or her life on a day-to-day basis. In the novel A Farewell to Arms, Frederic Henry is the Code Hero. Because fate plays a determining role in his life’s events, he lives in the here and now, and he shows grace under pressure.
Hemingway was a firm believer in men volunteering and supporting the war, claiming that it was “simply my [his] duty” to serve the country not only because he was fit to serve, but as an act of moral conduct (Piep). Hemingway’s acts of selflessness can be seen repeatedly through Henry’s actions, suggesting Hemingway supports and values the conscious decision making the Superego plays a role in.
“A Farewell to Arms Essay – A Farewell to Arms, Ernest Hemingway.” Twentieth Century Literary Criticism 115 (1929): 121-126. JSTOR. Web. 19 Feb. 2014.