LECTURE II

American Literature

A FAREWELL TO ARMS
Style: simple and paragraph structure is characteristically based on simple sentences. Most of the rhythm is provided through the use of conjunction and and can be analyzed at the situation where it appears. The sentence structure is so short that it lacks subordinate clauses(clauses that depend on the main clause).

CODE HERO

In the Hemingway hero is a man whose concepts are shaped by his view of death, that in the face of death a man must perform certain acts and these acts often involve enjoying or taking the most he can from life. He will not talk about his concepts. He does not talk too much. He expresses himself not in words, but in actions. The Hemingway man is not a thinker, he is a man of action. But his actions are based upon a concept of life. The Hemingway code hero is also a person of some degree of skill. It is seldom mentioned what the character does, but we do know that Frederic Henry has been a good architect. It is in the act of doing that which a man is good at doing that the code character finds himself. Rinaldi makes the statement that he only lives while he is performing an operation. Thus the Hemingway man detests people who are mediocre. There are enough people who are like the Hemingway hero that he will not associate with the ordinary or mediocre person.

The code hero or heroine (like Catherine Barkley) must perform his or her work well to create a kind of personal meaning amidst the greater meaninglessness. Still, life is filled with misfortunes, and a code hero is known by how he endures those misfortunes. Ultimately, the code hero will lose in his conflict with life because he will die. But all that matters is how one faces death. In fact, one should court death, in the bull ring, on the battlefield, against big fish, because facing death teaches us how to live.

CONCEPT OF NADA

Aside from death being a part of the concept of the code hero, there are certain images that are often connected with this view. His actions are often identified by certain definite movements or performances. He is often called a restless man. By restless is meant that he will often stay awake at nighttime and sleep all during the day. The reason for this is that for the Hemingway man sleep itself is a type of obliteration (destruction) of the consciousness. Night is a difficult time for night-itself-the darkness of nightimplies or symbolizes the utter darkness that man will have to face after death. Therefore the code hero will avoid nighttime. This will be the time he will drink or carouse or stay awake.

Hemingway, who meant his work to last for generations, developed his own versions of the technique. In A Farewell to Arms (1926), Hemingway uses filmic montage to com- press a years time into two pages of prose. The book begins with the muchquoted sequence, In the last summer of that year we lived in a

house in a village that looked across the river and the plain to the mountains. In the bed of the river there were pebbles and boulders, dry and white in the sun, and the water was clear and swiftly moving and blue in the channels. Troops went by the house and down the road and the dust they raised powdered the leaves of the trees. The trunks of the trees too were dusty and the leaves fell early that year and we saw the troops marching along the road and the dust rising and leaves, stirred by the breeze, falling and the soldiers marching and afterward the road bare and white except for the leaves.

BOOK I
End of book I, we have found certain layers of meanings behind the story. Book I covers the whole journey of Henry, his love and his story about the war. The story is about violence but violence is within the limits/boundaries of decency. We see a close bond between Priest and Henry. Continued

Captains calling Priest as five against one later we have been

shown that Henry does not take part in teasing him, there is good
hunting.goodnight, he said.(9 ch 2)

There is a contrast b/w officers who invite hero to brothel house and the priest who invite Henry to Abruzzi, hides simple issue of the novel Realization of the Truer Meaning of Life apart from Physical Love. continued

Henry lives in the world of appetite and disgust and it(the flirt and the fun) was all and all for him e.g., to the smokeand all and all and not caring(13 ch 3). Here comes the two important issues: One, Henry, as sleepless and man haunted by nada(nothingness), aimless, not following any purpose. Second, true meaning of love story with Catherine has not yet defined completely. continued

As Priest knows what he(Henry) does not know ( it does not matter. But there in my country..i have always been happy ch11, 69) indicates the next stage of life that leads him to the Divine Love. In the end of the novel where he begs to God for the life of Catherine. The Nada turns into the Divinity the wish to do things for

CRITIQUE

Michael Reynolds commented about the exploitation as, A Farewell to Arms in many ways epitomizes violence follows Henry on his journey into loneliness, we see what war can do: Passini loses both legs and his life to the trench mortar shell; Henry, leg wounded and skull possibly fractured, lies helpless in the ambulance while a nameless casualty bleeds to death above him in the dark; the deserting sergeant is casually shot continued

and killed; Aymo is killed by the Italian rear guard; at the river, two officers are executed by firing squad; Catherine hemorrhages to death in Lausanne. Out of sight, thousands die from cholera.

According to Carlos Baker Catherine has entered into the novel by the degrees into the centre of image. Her love affair begins as a rotten game of war time seduction. Emotionally unstable, she is easy to conquer.

It is the integrity of [Hemingways] craft, a richness beyond legend, that will for-ever endure.Henry louis Gates quoted in Hemingway on War and Its aftermath.

Till the end of Book I, we have find heroes as part of the ordinary world e.g., Bernard Shaws Arms and the Man. No glorification of war. Brecht/Wilfred Owen and Auden present the effects of war/ destruction of war. Destruction and deterioration of the humanity. continued

BOOK II
o

Catherine for Henry serves as an Home. Wherever they go, that place becomes a land, a home for him. Catherine in other words symbolizes love, liberty and happiness. If we compare Brett Ashley from The Sun also Rises and Catherine from Farewell to Armsboth are English woman, beautiful, tall and blonde. She talks as Brett does, stresses certain words like do you love me etc... Cat has lost her true love in war and has become confused.

Brett is not confusedshe is independent and like to be with men in their own manners.she opposes to adopt the feminization. Catherine on the other hand is dependent and independent. She wants no other men in her lifequite accurate at her own decisions. The two kinds of war is going on, the love war and the war in real among the countries. Life shown is decomposed and broken.

BOOK III
Consists of incident mainly: Henrys escaperegeneration, rebirth, birth of a new self, a new generated man. The individual has been made to Endure pain of life alonelike Baptism(no longer dependent on society and his friends as in war( ch 32 222). The river served as a life saving agent saved Henry from death. The water has positive connotation. Its kind of baptism. He has been cleansed in this war (war of saving life) for glory I thought then I would drown

because of my boots, but I thrashed and fought through the water, and when I looked up the bank was coming toward me, and I kept thrashing and swimming in a heavy-footed panic until I reached it

Henrys escape, and difficulties they face during their hiding themselves from enemies. Henrys alone fight for himself as a solitary reapwe are kept in suspense, what would happen next. Theres in Book III, Hemingway has captured the feelings of soldiers with an eye of camera. War has taken away all the pleasures and joys of a Real Life as Henry feel for this absence of love in chapter 28 if

there were no war we would probably all be in bed. In bed I lay me down my head

BOOK IV
Both Henry and Catherine escape to Switzerland to find solace and to have their child. Archetypal imagery(recurrent) water play an important part in this part. The rowing of boat suggests the continuous struggle to reach the destination.

BOOK V
Tragic end with the death of Catherine and her child. Both lived the life of hibernation(away from people, cut off from the society). There is details of the operating instruments, why? Because Hemingways father was a doctor. Roles have been changed: Catherine used to take care of Henry in Milan and now Henry is taking care of her. Life never remains same. It does not remain fixed so the circumstances too have changed. We have no actual identity, we are in search of permanent identity.

The appearance of dog in this last chapter on page 299, A

dog was nosing at one of the cans. What do you want? I asked and looked into the can to see if there was nothing I could pull out for him; there was nothing on the top but coffee-grounds, dust and some dead flowers. The

dog is looking for something to sustain his life like Henry. He too needs something. The image of dead flower is foreshadows the death and end of Catherine life. Page(303 ch 41) poor, poor dear Cat. And this was the price.what if she should die? We as readers find Hemingways philosophy of life that everything has come to an end. Use of Third Person Pronoun They may be referring to the invisible tortures inflicted by society. Transformation of Henry in the end of the novel comes to the Spiritual levelin lines on page 312 I knew that she wont
die, Oh, God, please save her

Realization of death by Catherine and it shows that war is unnatural , the unnatural circumstances, unnatural birth and unnatural relation caused the destruction of both of them. The death of Catherine has been compared with the swarm of ants on the log of fire. Some immediately die and some get wounds like Henry who is still alive and those are away from the fire, wait for their turn to come. But in the end all have to die some got out, their
bodies burnt and flattened, and went off not knowing where they were going. But most of them went toward the fire and then back toward the end and swarmed on the cool end and finally fell off into the fire. I remember thinking that it was the end of the world

Im not brave any more, darling. Im all broken. Theyve broken me. I know it nowbut I get so tired of it and I feel Im going to die

the rain is done with its role in the end of the novelwe see in chapter 17 page 105 Ferguson's words youll never get marriedyoull fight before youll marry. The reality/ words come true that they could never marry and both fight against their fate and death and nothing positive comes out of their life. The fight went on till the end of the novel against the society, their own faith, their own relationship and against the circumstances.

IMAGERY
Image of Rainsymbolizes the destruction for the characters in the novel. Catherine was always afraid of the rain, Im afraid of the rain, and till the end she interprets rain as the symbol of death for her. From the beginning of the novel, Rain stopped at intervals but it never provided the calm and relief to the soldiers. The novel ended with heavy rain

Water has been given importance as its a life saving force it has positive connotation, a kind of baptism. When Henry jumps into the river to save himself, it was the water that saved him. It was the water that gave him the new life and a new identity removed the filth( the thoughts about mere love affairs) and made him a new man. No more dependent on society but on himself and his abilities to face the world alone with courage.

Recurrent images of Mountains and Plains: Mountains serve as a temporary peace and plains are on warmiseries and sufferings of people. Men are at wartheres voiceless, faceless and unidentified against the plain. The color imagery has played an important role in manifesting the settings and atmosphere of the novel e.g., the road bare and white, branches were bare and the trunks

black with rain, the country wet and brown and dead with the autumn, there were small gray motor cars, sun went a dull yellow and then everything was gray and it was all snow.

In short, the novel reflects the faith of lost generation, who have no faith on religion. The war has destructed the lives. Man is rational being and Hemingway wants his readers to feel emotions directly even for characters. Sexual imagery is not focus of the writer but the lost generation who seek to retreat back from war. Theres no comfort of home, they need to live somewhere. They want to relax but theres no escape from sadness, pain. Most appropriate is to endure and endurance is the code of Hemingway and that we should stay true to our relations.

Thank you