Passage Analysis- A Farewell to Arms

One measure of a powerful writer lies in her ability to write literature in which any passage can be set apart from its context and still express the qualities of the whole. When this occurs, the integrated profundity of the entire work is a sign of true artistry. Ernest Hemingway, an author of the Lost Generation, was one such writer who mastered the art of investing simple sentence structure with layers of complex meaning. Hemingway, who was a journalist in the earlier years of his writing career, was known for writing in a declarative or terse style of prose. The depth of emotion and meaning that he conveyed through such minimalistic text is astounding. He also experimented with a stream-of-consciousness technique developed by writers such as James Joyce and William Faulkner to an interior dimension to his prose. In A Farewell to Arms, the story of wartime romance between an American soldier in the Italian Army, Frederic, and Catherine, the British nurse who cares for him, there are a multitude of passages which could easily stand alone as poetry because of their symbolic meaning. However, when these exceptional passages are woven into the fabric of the novel as a whole, the reader is able to reach an even greater level of understanding. One extraordinary passage is found near the end of the novel during which Frederic Henry agonizes over the danger his lover’s in while she struggles with the birth of their baby. By juxtaposing the imminent birth of Frederic’s child with the possible death of his beloved, Hemingway explores a deep ambivalence about the meaning of life and loss. Throughout this passage, structure plays an important role in illuminating Frederic’s emotional metamorphosis from concern to desperation.

The passage opens with Frederic watching “poor, poor dear Cat” (line 1) in her apparent state of helplessness as she struggles through giving birth. Through strong word choice, Hemingway continues to display Frederic’s obvious contemptuous feelings about the biological consequences of love. He views Catherine’s pain and suffering as the “price you [pay]” (line 1) for loving someone. Ironically, a birth is usually shown in a positive light as the pain one suffers to birth a child pales in comparison to the tremendous joy of receiving a newborn baby. Despite conventions, Frederic feels as if he has been trapped by some malignant force of life and is anything but happy about the impending birth.