The setting of A Farewell to Arms heavily affects the relationships and themes in the novel. As stated in my introduction I am a HUGE romantic, and I am obsessed with tragic love stories. Although this novel portrays the war and the demoralization of those fighting in it, I choose to focus on the romantic aspects of it. Personally, the picturesque Italian countryside makes Henry’s and Catherine’s relationship even more romantic- yes, I understand that this “countryside” is a war battlefront, but I simply don’t care. 

The aspect of the war is used by Hemingway to advance Henry’s character development, as he experiences the hardships first hand. At the beginning of the novel Henry doesn’t really care about the war and doesn’t fully understand the effects of it. He is ignorant to the horrors that come from war and is serving the army with no real honor. This is surprising to me because as an ambulance driver, you would think that he could literally see first hand how awful the war is. Even after getting seriously hurt himself he still doesn’t see the importance of the war. I’m not really sure why he is putting himself at such a disadvantage by serving, when he feels no moral commitment to the war. This changes though the more battles he is involved in, mostly the German attack on Gorizia, and his act of killing another man. Taking the life of a man is eventually what makes him comprehend his involvement in the war. Before this he had allowed himself to disassociate from what was going on around him, being brought to kill forces him to recognize the consequences of war.

“ I was always embarrassed by the words sacred, glorious, and sacrifice and the expression of vain.”

“I had seen nothing sacred, and the things that were glorious had no glory and the sacrifices were like the stockyards at Chicago if nothing was done with the meat except to bury it. There were many worlds that you could not stand to hear and finally only the names of places had dignity.”

Ernest Hemingway, A Farewell to Arms

The setting of this novel is crucial to Henry’s character development. His continuing experiences in the war demoralize him and make his character transition from indifferent to resentful. By the end of the book, he decides that his love for Catherine is more important than the war and flees in battle.

The theme poem “Go and Catch a Falling Star” by John Donne, reflects the attitude of Henry in A Farewell to Arms. Both the speaker and Henry have negative attitudes towards women, although Henry’s changes over the course of the book. More specifically, Donne warns about the hardships of finding an honest and pure woman, while Henry actually experiences those hardships.

Throughout his poem, Donne challenges the audience to impossible tasks including hearing “mermaids singing” and getting “with child a mandrake root” (Donne) .Donne makes the statement that one could do all of these before finding a good woman. These challenges parallel Henry’s journey in the beginning of the novel. Although Donne’s tasks are exaggerated, Henry goes through a lot that one might deem hard or impossible, including fighting in a war across the sea for a foreign country. During his time in the war up to the beginning of the novel, Henry spent lots of time with prostitutes. Having this be his only interaction with women, it built on his beliefs that there aren’t any honest or pure women in the world. Henry traveled across Italy looking for passion, mostly in the form of love, and only found alcohol and prostitutes.

“He should have fine girls. I will give you the addresses of places in Naples. Beautiful young girls..”

Ernest Hemingway, A Farewell to Arms

Similar to Henry, the speaker in “Go and Catch a Falling Star” has searched for love and has been left disappointed. This had led him to doubt the purity of women as a whole, differing from Henry who only doubts the ability to find love. The fact that Henry has gone through all of these experiences and still hasn’t ever found love, drives him to the same mindset at Donne. Even for a while after meeting Catherine, Henry still carries this mindset. He has found the perfect woman yet still doubts that he could ever love her.

Welcome to the end of my blog! Staring this project, I was honestly nervous that I wouldn’t be able to analyze this book with the depth that I knew Mrs. Faso wanted. At the risk of being wrong and embarrassing myself, I think I was able to. Also I think a little bit of my nervousness came from the fact that the last book I read without an English teacher requiring me to was the latest installment of the “Percy Jackson” series… so yeah it’s been a while. As much as I dreaded and procrastinated this project, I am ~actually~ very grateful for it. I genuinely enjoyed reading this book, although probably for the love story, some it had to do with the beautiful storytelling.

While originally choosing this book because the title was familiar to me, I am very lucky that it was actually good. Catherine’s character stood out to me due to her complexity and (SPOILER!) tragic ending:(. Catherine’s death resonated with me because her character inspired hope in Henry for what was to come after the war, yet her death represented the brutal outcomes of it. Her character was strong, dealing with the loss of her fiancé, and forgiving. Catherine never let the cruelty of the war overshadow her love for Henry or affect her outlook on the world. Her character was my favorite part of the book.

This assignment made me remember why I loved reading (cliche I know) and I genuinely fell in love with this book… so thanks Mrs. Faso!:)

The Sociological approach to Critical Theory focuses on the social contexts and environments that must be considered when analyzing a literary text. This theory focuses on how values and characteristics of a society are reflected into a text, and emphasizes economic and social conditions of a certain time. A Farewell to Arms takes place during World War 1 and was written in the years leading to World War, with the themes of the book very clearly reflecting the social contexts of this time. Times of war promote new ideas and advance public opinions, usually inspiring art. Although this novel was not written as a critique or to make a statement, Hemingway makes brief commentaries that uphold the general societal beliefs of his time. The overall dark and discouraged views that defined society during the late 1920’s are echoed in the underlying themes of Hemingway’s commentary. 

Most of the societal themes being reflected in the book are not through Hemingway’s intentional commentary, but simply in the way he tells the story of Henry and Catherine. The couple allows their relationship to be defined by the war for the majority of the book, being seperated by it and being each other’s escape from it, much like most relationships during this time. Upon first meeting, both Henry and Catherine’s lives have been plagued by the war. Henry feels stuck fighting for a cause he doesn’t believe in or necessarily care about, not realizing the effects of the war or the extent of them. On the other hand, Catherine is familiar with the consequences of war, as she lost her fiancée to it. By portraying predominantly negative outcomes of the war, Hemingway includes characteristics of his society and the disapproval of the war. While separated due to the war, all Henry “wanted was to see Catherine” (Hemingway 232). Although he valued his love for Catherine more than the war that he was indifferent to, it still limited their interaction. Hemingway made Henry and Catherine’s relationship a representation of the societal norm that the war dominated everyone’s lives, even when it shouldn’t have. Throughout the book, Henry starts to realize that his relationship is more meaningful to him than his empty commitment to the war. Henry’s actions reflected the disapproval of the war, with Hemingway portraying his abandonment for Catherine as heroic. Hemingway praised Henry for abandoning his loyalty to the war effort, diminishing the importance of it.

This is an example post, originally published as part of Blogging University. Enroll in one of our ten programs, and start your blog right.

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