“Now I am depressed myself, that’s why I never think about these things.” (Hemingway 179). In order to forget about traumatic experiences and events, millions of people all around the world, from all walks of life, and different eras of existence have always used distractions as a coping mechanism. In A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway, Lieutenant Frederic Henry and Catherine Barkley are two characters who best exemplify this way of thinking. These characters rely on different distractions to ease the pain and harshness caused by war. These distractions, however, are only short-lived diversions blurring the line between the reality of war and the fantasy created to escape it. The truth is war does not care how you cope, in the end you either die or live long enough to fight another battle.
Lieutenant Frederic Henry is an American fighting in the Italian front during World War I. His infatuation with Catherine Barkley is initially a diversion from the war. On page thirty he says, “I did not love Catherine Barkley nor had any idea of loving her. This …show more content…
She says, “You’ll never get married...Fight or die. That’s what people do. They don’t marry.” (108). Frederic is set to fight in the Battle of Caporetto. The battle lasted from October 24, 1917 to November 12, 1917. During the German attack on Caporetto, Italian soldiers were tired of the constant offensive attacks made by the Austro-German army (Griffiths 126). Hemingway incorporates this into the novel when Frederic says, “I hoped a long time for victory....Now I don’t know...I don’t believe in victory anymore.” (179). Caught off guard by a surprise attack, many Italian soldiers had to retreat or surrender. The Italian losses totalled up to about 10,000 deaths, 30,000 wounded soldiers, and 265,000 prisoners (Roberts and Tucker 431). For soldiers like Frederic, the reality is war does not censor itself for
Lieutenant Frederic Henry is an American fighting in the Italian front during World War I. His infatuation with Catherine Barkley is initially a diversion from the war. On page thirty he says, “I did not love Catherine Barkley nor had any idea of loving her. This …show more content…
She says, “You’ll never get married...Fight or die. That’s what people do. They don’t marry.” (108). Frederic is set to fight in the Battle of Caporetto. The battle lasted from October 24, 1917 to November 12, 1917. During the German attack on Caporetto, Italian soldiers were tired of the constant offensive attacks made by the Austro-German army (Griffiths 126). Hemingway incorporates this into the novel when Frederic says, “I hoped a long time for victory....Now I don’t know...I don’t believe in victory anymore.” (179). Caught off guard by a surprise attack, many Italian soldiers had to retreat or surrender. The Italian losses totalled up to about 10,000 deaths, 30,000 wounded soldiers, and 265,000 prisoners (Roberts and Tucker 431). For soldiers like Frederic, the reality is war does not censor itself for