The book I read for this report was A Farewell to Arms, by Ernest Hemingway. The novel tells the story of Frederic Henry, an American ambulance-driver in the Italian army during the middle-to-closing years of WWI. It begins with Henry returning to Italy after a spring traveling Europe. He meets an English nurse by the name of Catherine Barkley. Henry and Catherine develop a puzzling relationship at first, a confused mix of lust and genuine care. Henry is wounded on the battlefront, and is taken to Milan for his knee to be tended to. Catherine is transferred to the hospital where Henry is being treated. Their relationship intensifies; they lean away from lust, and more towards genuine care. Catherine reveals that she is 3 months pregnant.
…show more content…
The first instance of this took place in Chapter Seven, where Henry encounters a soldier who is trying to be excused from duty; he purposely threw away his support brace (for those afflicted with a hernia). Henry tells him to merely hit himself in the head, saying it 's the easiest way to be excused. This foreshadows Henry 's attempted self-harm to leave the military. Also in chapter seven, Henry gets drunk, and Catherine does not want to see him. I took this as a sign that alcohol is not the solution to every problem, nor is is the source of true happiness. Both of these events correspond to Henry attempting to be excused from duty by making himself sick with alcohol in Chapter 22; his attempt backfires, and is sent back to the front lines ahead of …show more content…
The book has a slow pace to it; only the last ten or so chapters (after Henry escaped from the army) excited me. Reading about a rogue lieutenant who values his lover over his loyalty to his country was interesting, but the plot took too long to build up to this climactic point. The most important part of a novel is the ending; in my opinion, I believe that even though the ending was grim, it did, in some respects, have a motive. This is a novel about war, and it would make sense to have an ending as sad as war itself. I believe that Hemingway tried to show that sadness is inescapable. For those who believe the world is all “rainbows and sunshine”, this book was meant as a blunt kick in the teeth, giving such readers a healthy dose of
The first instance of this took place in Chapter Seven, where Henry encounters a soldier who is trying to be excused from duty; he purposely threw away his support brace (for those afflicted with a hernia). Henry tells him to merely hit himself in the head, saying it 's the easiest way to be excused. This foreshadows Henry 's attempted self-harm to leave the military. Also in chapter seven, Henry gets drunk, and Catherine does not want to see him. I took this as a sign that alcohol is not the solution to every problem, nor is is the source of true happiness. Both of these events correspond to Henry attempting to be excused from duty by making himself sick with alcohol in Chapter 22; his attempt backfires, and is sent back to the front lines ahead of …show more content…
The book has a slow pace to it; only the last ten or so chapters (after Henry escaped from the army) excited me. Reading about a rogue lieutenant who values his lover over his loyalty to his country was interesting, but the plot took too long to build up to this climactic point. The most important part of a novel is the ending; in my opinion, I believe that even though the ending was grim, it did, in some respects, have a motive. This is a novel about war, and it would make sense to have an ending as sad as war itself. I believe that Hemingway tried to show that sadness is inescapable. For those who believe the world is all “rainbows and sunshine”, this book was meant as a blunt kick in the teeth, giving such readers a healthy dose of