A Farewell To Arms & # 8211 ; A Love Story Essay, Research Paper

A Farewell to Arms, by Ernest Hemingway, is a typical love narrative. A

Romeo and his Juliet placed against the odds. In this novel, Romeo is

Frederick Henry and Juliet is Catherine Barkley. Their love matter

must last the obstructions of World War I. The background of war-worn

Italy adds to the calamity of the love narrative. The war affects the

emotions and values of each character. The love between Catherine and

Frederick must outlive long separations, dangerous war-time

state of affairss, and the uncertainness of each other & # 8217 ; s whereabouts or

status. This novel is a beautiful love narrative of two people who need

each other in a period of turbulence.

Frederick Henry is an American who serves as a lieutenant in the

Italian ground forces to a group of ambulance drivers. Hemingway portrays

Frederick as a lost adult male seeking for order and value in his life.

Frederick disagrees with the war he is contending. It is excessively helter-skelter and

immoral for him to apologize its cause. He fights anyhow, because

the ground forces puts some signifier of subject in his life. At the start of the

novel, Frederick drinks and travels from one house of harlotry to

another and yet he is discontent because his life is really unsettled.

He befriends a priest because he admires the fact that the priest

lives his life by a set of values that give him an orderly life style.

Further into the novel, Frederick becomes involved with Catherine

Barkley. He easy falls in love with her and, in his love for

her, he finds committedness. Their relationship brings some order and

value to his life. Compared to this new signifier of order in his life,

Frederick sees the losing Italian ground forces as entire pandemonium and upset

where he had antecedently seen subject and control. He can no longer

stay a portion of something that is so disorderly and so, he deserts

the Italian ground forces. Frederick & # 8217 ; s abandonment from the Italian ground forces is the

turning point of the novel. This is the significance of the rubric, A

Farewell to Arms. When Frederick puts aside his engagement in the

war, he realizes that Catherine is the order and value in his life and

that he does non necessitate anything else to give significance to his life.

At the decision of this novel, Frederick realizes that he can non

establish his life on another individual or thing because, finally, they

will go forth or let down him. He realizes that the order and values

necessary to confront the universe must come from within himself.

Catherine Barkley is an English voluntary nurse who serves in Italy.

She is considered really experient when it comes to love and loss

since she has already been confronted with the decease of a loved 1

when her groom-to-be was killed earlier in the war. The reader is non as

good acquainted with Catherine & # 8217 ; s inner ideas and feelings as we are

with those of Frederick. The narrative is told through Frederick & # 8217 ; s eyes

and the reader merely meets Catherine through the duologue between her

and Frederick or through his personal readings of her actions.

Catherine already possesses the cognition that her ain life can non be

dependant on another. She learned T

his lesson through the decease of her

groom-to-be. Her love for Frederick is what her life revolves about, yet

she knows non to trust on him to be the order in her life. Had she been

dependant on Frederick for the order in her life, she would non hold

been able to let him to take part in the war for fright of losing

her ain stableness with his decease.

The subject that Hemingway emphasizes throughout the novel is the hunt

for order in a helter-skelter universe. Hemingway conveys this through

Frederick & # 8217 ; s ain personal hunt during the pandemonium of World War I.

Catherine has found strength within herself to take her through life.

This is what Frederick must come to recognize. Through his engagement

with Catherine, Frederick easy finds his ain interior strength.

Frederick & # 8217 ; s matter with Catherine prompts him to go forth his wild life

of cocottes and drink. He becomes cognizant of an component of stableness

in their matter and realizes that the war that he was involved in was

excessively helter-skelter, so he deserts the ground forces. He and Catherine make a life for

themselves wholly isolated from everything and everyone else.

Frederick believes that his life is now wholly in order and that

his values are in position, yet he still seems discontented. He

continuously has to convert himself that he has & # 8220 ; a all right life. & # 8221 ; He has

non yet reached Catherine & # 8217 ; s degree that enables her to be absolutely

happy in their love and yet non dependent on it for all comfort and

support. Frederick still has to happen that within himself.

Until the decision of the novel, Frederick still relies on Catherine

as the beginning of order in his life. With the terminal of their matter

when Catherine dies giving birth to their abortive love-child,

Frederick realizes that he can non depend on any one individual, such

as Catherine, or any thing, such as faith, war, or frivolousness, for

order and subject. Hemingway describes Frederick & # 8217 ; s enlightenment

best in the concluding paragraph of the novel when Frederick sees

Catherine & # 8217 ; s cadaver for the first and last clip. Frederick & # 8217 ; s reaction

was that & # 8220 ; it was like stating adieu to a statue. & # 8221 ; Frederick realizes

that Catherine was merely a symbol of the order and strength in his

life. Strength to confront life must come from within him and merely he will

be able to acquire himself through his ain life. He will hold to larn to

depend on himself. Frederick realizes this and is able to acquire on with

his life on his ain. & # 8220 ; After a piece [ he ] went out and left the

infirmary and walked back to the hotel in the rain. & # 8221 ; He did non mourn

or experience like his ain life had ended with her decease, instead he was able

to go on on with his newfound inner strength and confront his universe

entirely.

This fresh succeeds in acquiring Hemingway & # 8217 ; s message across. Frederick & # 8217 ; s

realisation causes the reader to reflect on his/her ain life and on

what establishments they depend on in their ain lives. I enjoyed this

novel because I learned along with Frederick that I must confront my life

on my ain. The strength to confront my jobs can non come from any other

beginning because no other beginning can of all time be every bit lasting as the

strength that I can happen within myself.