Blog #5: Personal Review

The novel A Farewell to Arms, by Ernest Hemingway, is a heart throbbing story about an American man named Frederic Henry who enlists in the Italian army and discovers the love of his life, a nurse named Catherine. Although he is skeptical of love at first, Frederic discovers that love is not only the most import thing in life, but that love will endure any battle or war. This book particularly intrigued me with the unique usage of syntax in order to express concise and often irritated dialogue between characters. This allowed the reader to establish a more personal relationship with the characters and created stronger bonds between the characters themselves. However, Hemingway’s tedious and explicative descriptions of the scenery in the novel were slightly irritating and dull because there were very little usage of metaphors and analogies in these descriptions. I found myself reading details about a single mountain range for close to an entire paragraph, and the descriptions of the scenery were completely irrelevant, at times, to the development of the novel. The combination of both the vast descriptions and the interesting dialogue do, however, provide for a well-synthesized novel.

A Farewell To Arms is not only about a soldier’s love for a woman, but also about the soldier’s love for war. This fact was troubling because at times it felt as if Lieutenant Henry loved war more than he loved his family. He is so incapable of loving something more than war itself, it takes him many months to actually admit to himself that he loves Catherine, and, fearful of the thought of being removed from his post, Frederic does not ever marry Catherine. My least favorite part of the novel was the conclusion of the novel, which ends with Catherine dying after childbirth, and Frederic, not being able to accept this loss, disregards his newborn child and leaves the hospital. Although A Farewell to Arms is monotonous at times, the overall plot development and connection to the reader makes this story an impressive novel.

Blog #4: Text Connections

In the novel A Farewell to Arms, Ernest Hemingway makes many text-world connections in order to connect more strongly with the readers. Two of these connections in particular, hold significant importance when relating to the reader. The first text-world connection occurs when the main character, Frederic Henry, makes a comment saying that what the Japanese really want in their increasing conquest in the Pacific is Hawaii. Although this book was written in 1929, and Pearl Harbor did not occur for over a decade later, the thought that even the soldiers knew about the Japanese desire for Pacific control is unsettling. The prediction that the Japanese should not be trusted accurately shows the cautiousness and uneasiness of the enlisted soldiers.

A second text-world connection is made when the hospitalized lieutenant is talking about American baseball. Baseball, the great American pastime, is shown as an escape from the ideas of war and an important aspect of an American soldier’s life. This connection is particularly interesting because it talks about Babe Ruth, one of the most renowned baseball players in the history of the sport. To the downtrodden soldiers, athletes like Babe Ruth are inspiration to fight hard and end the war as quickly as they can. Without updates like these in the newspapers, American soldiers feel as if they are lost and are unable to connect with the place they call home.

Blog #3: Syntax

· “I want her to” “You do not” “I’ll make her” “I don’t believe it” (109)

· “’No,’ I lied” (105)

· “(He probed ­­– Does that hurt? – Christ, yes!)” (59)

· “They’ll shell the ––– out of us” (47)

· “We’d better finish dinner.” “No. Go away.” “Fergy, be reasonable.” (248)

· “You saw the flash, then heard the crack, then saw the smoke ball distort and thin in the wind” (185)

· “Oh you’re a lovely girl.” “I’m a very simple girl.” (154)

In A Farewell to Arms, Ernest Hemingway uses different types of syntax in order to support multiple examples of tone and style. Specifically, Hemingway establishes a militaristic and domineering tone by using terse and often rude lines of dialect between soldiers of different rank. However, Hemingway also finds it necessary to censor the soldiers who are talking to the officers, as to create a tone of respect for higher-ranking officers. Hemingway also applies this example of syntax in order to show the simplicity of the love between Lieutenant Henry, the main character, and Catherine, a British nurse. On the other hand, Hemingway also uses long, often pedantic, run-on descriptions of scenery such as rivers. This application of syntax creates a style that is unique to Hemingway, which allows the reader to quite accurately imagine the scenery that the soldiers are experiencing. Hoverer, this dull and tedious style often turns the reader off and affects the novel in a negative fashion. Hemingway also utilizes parentheses and other devices in order to simultaneously express the inner monologues of the main character and the emotions of those monologues.

Blog #2: Diction

· “The Saint hung down on the outside of my uniform” (44)

· “You’re my religion” (116)

· “did you ever know a man who tried to disable himself by kicking himself in the scrotum?” (144)

· “Our children will probably have beastly temperatures” (103)

· “…a package of cigarettes, Macedonias… The lighter was shaped like a Fiat radiator” (47)

· “hauling them back from the mountains to the clearing stations and then distributing them to the hospitals” (16)

· “Well baby… Good old baby… Take of your pants baby… I see that, baby… This is a terrible war, baby… Don’t you feel good yourself, baby?” (166-167)

In A Farewell to Arms, by Ernest Hemingway, a tone is established through the choice of diction that Hemingway uses. The tone is an unenergetic feeling that war is not as glamorous as people might think, and that the hardships endured need to be met with teamwork and companionship. In the novel, Hemingway uses informal diction throughout the scenes in order to allow the reader to establish a closer relationship with the soldiers as well as a better understanding of the people and lands of Italy. He also uses a variety of imagery in order to create the boring and lifeless environment that these soldiers live, fight, and die in. Although it is provides for a very drab environment, Hemingway does successfully create a vivid image of what the soldiers experience, and their need for friendship. In particular, Hemingway shows the brotherhood of soldiers through a man name Rinaldi, who addresses the main character as “baby” whenever Rinaldi speaks to him. This informal diction provides for an effective tone through the novel.

Blog #1: Rhetorical Strategies

· Imagery- “I could see the river far down below, the line of ties and rails running along it, the old bridge where the railway crossed to the other side and across, under a hill beyond the river, the broken houses of the little town that was to be taken” (45).

· Humor- “‘When I tell him you were not an Austrian. Ho ho ho.’

‘Ho ho ho,’ I said bitterly. ‘How funny if he would cut my throat. Ho ho ho’” (90).

· Repetition-“It’s been a bad summer…It was very bad…It has been bad…You couldn’t believe how bad it has been…Next year it will be worse” (164-165).

· Symbolism- “The moon was supposed to rise but there was a mist over the town and it did not come up…” (125)

In the novel, A Farewell to Arms, Ernest Hemingway establishes a unique style through his vast and continuous usage of effective rhetorical strategies. This usage of rhetorical strategies is exemplified by his numerous accounts of repetition throughout the novel. Though his use of repetition, Hemingway is able to effectively create a style that persuades the reader to listen to as well as believe all the thoughts and inner monologues presented in the story. By using this technique, Lieutenant Henry, the main character, is portrayed as an honest and capable man. Along with repetition, Hemingway also establishes his unique style through his imagery and symbolism to describe the events unfolding in the novel. There are few symbols in the novel that hold significant importance, however, “the mist,” or “the fog,” is used by Hemingway to create a sense of peril and uncertainty. By alerting the reader before an attack or a suspenseful event in the story through his description of the ghostly mist, Hemingway is able to give the reader a sense of suspense and curiosity that hooks them into the novel.