From the beginning, I knew what I was getting myself into. Hemingway. An author known for his contribution to the Lost Generation. In addition, I had heard mixed reviews about this book from my classmates. However, it was one person, Archer French, that convinced me to pursue reading it.
This book follows the story, told in first-person, of Lieutenant Frederic Henry, an American ambulance driver serving the Italian army during World War I. Through his friend, Rinaldi, Henry meets Catherine Barkley, an English nurse helping a British hospital. She expresses to Henry her grievances for her fiance's death and thus shows passion for Henry, who is otherwise detached from the war situation. Henry goes back into the battlefield but is brought to Milan shortly after he receives a blow to his knee. There, a surgeon named Dr. Valentini operates his knee, and Catherine is transferred to the hospital Henry is recovering at. There, Catherine and Henry's relationship develops to something that resembles more of one with genuine love. Henry eventually has to leave to the front after his recovery, and before he leaves Catherine informs him that she is pregnant. However, soon after Henry travels to travels to the front, Italian forces have to retreat as German troops begin breaking through Italian lines. However, the Allied battle police, fearing German soldiers in disguise in the Italian army, accuse Henry and sentence him to death. Henry escapes by jumping into a river and boarding a train to Milan. He reunites with Catherine in Stresa, and from there, they escape to Switzerland. In the spring, the couple move to Lausanne so that they are closer to the hospital. Catherine dies soon after delivering a stillborn baby boy from a hemorrhage.
The first thing I noticed about Hemingway's writing was the similarity to Camus's, which I read earlier this year. Like in Camus's novel, Hemingway includes many concepts pertaining to Existentialism. After his injury, Rinaldi visits Henry at the hospital and tells him he will get a medal for his injury, and pushed Henry to admit to a heroic act he did causing the injury. Even though Henry refuses to say he did a heroic act while being blown up, Rinaldi still maintains that he should be awarded a medal. Rinaldi attempts to impose meaning to Henry's wound, which in reality was only a byproduct of the war and was not caused by him doing anything special. The fact that Henry was blown up by chance, to Rinaldi, is worthy of a medal. Like the characters in Camus's book, Henry and Catherine do not have a religion. Instead, an older character in A Farewell to Arms makes the connection that "love" is a "religious feeling" (263). I believe that Hemingway replaces society's need for religion with love, as seen with Henry and Catherine's relationship.
One thing I did not enjoy at all was Hemingway's portrayal of women. Catherine is a submissive, clingy woman that craves the attention of Henry. In contrast to Catherine, Henry is more masculine and therefore seen as the stronger character. Catherine tends to say things without logistical meaning, such as her statement, "I'm afraid of the rain because sometimes I see me dead in it" (126). I learned later that this was supposed to serve as foreshadowing.
Overall, this book was unnecessarily sad and showed the true pointlessness of the war. I did not enjoy it because Henry never reaches an epiphany, even with the death of his girl and son.
