Post #7 - A Farewell to Arms

I have read all 297 pages of my third book, A Farewell to Arms, since the posting of my sixth post. I have now started on my fourth book, For Whom the Bell Tolls. The third novel by Hemingway I read was about an American, Lieutenant Frederic Henry, in the Italian Army serving in the ambulance service during the Great War. The story is primarily of him falling in love with an English nurse, Catherine Barkley, and his resulting relationship with her. The novel is separated into five books, the first book is where Frederic and Catherine meet. The second book covers Henry falling in love with Catherine as he recovers from his wounds, including her becoming pregnant. In the third book Henry returns to the front but after an Italian retreat deserts the army after almost being killed by Italians accusing him of treachery. In the fourth book Henry and Catherine meet up and escape to Switzerland. Finally in the fifth book, the couple live a quiet life in Switzerland until Catherine goes into labor. Their son is stillborn and Catherine dies soon after. The book ends with Henry walking back to his hotel alone and in the rain.

Throughout the books I have read so far one particular similarity stands out. Every single main character is what would be called a man's man, rugged, stoic, and graceful under pressure. They all have failed relationships with women, the old man is unmarried (The Old Man and The Sea), Jacob Barnes (The Sun Also Rises) is impotent from a war wound, and Fredric Henry's love Cathrine dies after giving birth (A Farewell to Arms). All of the men find purpose in there lives mainly through hard work (Henry the only exception when he devotes his life to his love Catherine). The old man spends all of his time fishing, the only distractions being his own dreams and baseball. All of this make it quite obvious that Hemingway follows a similar pattern when he creates his protagonists, because of their similar characteristics. Another similarity I found between Jacob Barnes and Fredric Henry is their resemblance of Ernest Hemingway himself. This is especially evident with Henry, because A Farewell to Arms is a semi-autobiography of Hemingway. Barnes, after serving in World War I, becomes an expatriate journalist in France, much as Hemingway did. It is not unreasonable then to postulate that Hemingway's protagonists are often extensions of himself.

Another similarity I have found in the books is the protagonist's isolation. Through almost all of The Old Man and The Sea, the old man is alone on his boat. Even in the ending, the old man is not physically alone because "the boy was sitting by him," but he "was sleeping again" (140). The book ends with the old man alone with only his dreams. The ending of The Sun Also Rises is very similar. Barnes is not alone physically either, for he is in a taxi with Brett, but he is separated from her due to his impotency. "Brett said, 'we could have had such a damned good time together,'" to which he merely replies, "Yes,...Isn't it pretty to think so" (222). Barnes, after leaving his friends, spends his time alone on the coast. Henry is the least isolated compared to the other two, however he becomes so in the end. Whereas the old man and Barnes are separate from meaningful relationships, especially with women, to begin with Henry becomes so in the novel. The book ends with him moving into isolation, "After a while I went out and left the hospital and walked back to the hotel in the rain" (297). He goes through the traumatic experience that Barnes, and possibly the old man, have already had.