Plot: Federick Henry is an American boy serving in an Italian ambulance unit during World War I. Henry doesn't understand why he is in this war like most people fighting. But, they keep fighting and killing people without understanding the purpose behind it. During this war novel, a romantic twist comes into play when Henry meets an English nurse, Catherine Barkley. A Love affair between an English nurse and an American boy shows the hardships of being in war and being in love.
Author Biography: Ernest Hemingway was born in Oak Park, Illinois in 1899. Throughout his childhood, he went hunting with his dad and did a lot of boxing. He got his first job when he was seventeen at a newspaper office in Kansas City. Later, he went off to fight in World War I. He returned to his hometown as a decorated soldier and a hero. Soon after, he started writing many novels. Two of the most successful ones were, A Sun Also Rises (1926) and the one I read, A Farewell to Arms (1929). Both of these books were in the Top 100 Best Language novels of the 20th century. Hemingway also received the Pulitzer Prize (1953) and the Nobel Prize (1954). Most of his work was inspired by events that happened in his real life. Most of the books he wrote contained violence and war. He was a very successful writer and was living a life of luxury. Then he had a streak of bad luck. Hemingway's health condition worsened, but he survived , even through two plane crashes. In 1961, Hemingway was too paranoid and committed suicide, just like his dad and like his granddaughter would later kill herself.
Literary Analysis: Ernest Hemingway is a respected author. One technique of his writing is Imagery. I consider Hemingway to have the best use of imagery I have ever read.In his writing, the description and details create vivid images. "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," (3). The river is part filled with small and large rocks that are sitting out of the river getting the sun rays. Also, it says that the water is usually clear except when it moves through channels it turns blue. You can just image this in your head and this is just a taste of the description he gives. Also, he uses symbols in his story. The main character Federick Henry always wears his uniform. When he is fighting in his uniform, he gets severely injured and experiences his best friends dying (213). He does not have the best of luck. One day he takes off his unifrom off and never wears it again. His life seems to be the best it could be he is with his love Catherine and out of the horrible war. But then a twist comes along and shattered him. He longs to go back to the war to try and forget what has happened. It goes in a circle, he wants to be out of war and when this finally comes true he wishes to be back in the war. This symbol gives out a message. The message is clear and simple; you never know what will go wrong in your life, so appreciate what you have. If you want to know what the twist is in the story you will have read the book.
Literary Information:
Genre: Semi-autobiography and war drama
A semi-autobiography is a autobiography with changes to the story like certain events and characters names. They do this to protect people or to make the storyeven more exciting. This is also a war drama because it is about a love affair between a nurse and a soldier in the war.
Style: Ernest Hemingway's style is what makes this book so unique and allows it to stand out. The way he writes the story is what grabs the reader, not so much what he writes. The overall language used in this story is neutral language. The reason it is neutral language is because of the time period the story takes place in. It is formal language for today's time period. Most of his story is using dialect and jargon. Since the characters are soldiers, they speak differently from everyone else. They use slang words like "tenant" instead of fully saying Lieutenant. Also, the book is in a first person point of view (unreliable narrator) from the main character Federick Henry. Hemingway wrote this novel making parts suspenseful and others more relaxing and enjoyable. The way he did this was through sentence structure. He used a lot of complex and polysyndeton sentences when he wanted to get a point across. He also created lower energy in the story by using simple sentences during the less intense parts. A few components to Hemingway's style was different sentence structures, different word choice and the story being told from a first person point of view. He created excitement and high energy in this story through his writing techniques. It is not always what he wrote but it is how he wrote it, that makes this book fascinating.
Criticism:
Ernest Hemingway is a notable author with writing skills that are not seen every day. The best part of his writing is the description. Hemingway makes the readers feel they are in the story with the characters. He engulfs the readers with emotions of every kind, from hatred to sorrow, passion to the feeling of being perplexed. Readers get drawn in by the description and word choice of his writing. Hemingway has a gift with words.
The one part of Ernest Hemingway's technique of writing that did not work as well was the myriad of conversations. During these parts of the story it gets very confusing who is saying what. The reason for this is because it would be line-after-line of words with no indication of who was saying what. This confuses the readers on what is happening in the story. Besides that he does a great job on this story. I would rate this story a 4.5/5 stars with 5 being the best.
If you enjoyed this book, A Farewell to Arms you may also enjoy:
Grapes of Wrath- it is in the same time period as A Farewell to Arms Emma- If you liked the romance part of this book you may like the book Emma The Sun Also Rises- another book by Ernest Hemingway
If you enjoyed this book, you can click on the link below and watch the movie that was made based of the book. The movie- Farewell to Arms
Plot:
Federick Henry is an American boy serving in an Italian ambulance unit during World War I. Henry doesn't understand why he is in this war like most people fighting. But, they keep fighting and killing people without understanding the purpose behind it. During this war novel, a romantic twist comes into play when Henry meets an English nurse, Catherine Barkley. A Love affair between an English nurse and an American boy shows the hardships of being in war and being in love.
Author Biography:
Ernest Hemingway was born in Oak Park, Illinois in 1899. Throughout his childhood, he went hunting with his dad and did a lot of boxing. He got his first job when he was seventeen at a newspaper office in Kansas City. Later, he went off to fight in World War I. He returned to his hometown as a decorated soldier and a hero. Soon after, he started writing many novels. Two of the most successful ones were, A Sun Also Rises (1926) and the one I read, A Farewell to Arms (1929). Both of these books were in the Top 100 Best Language novels of the 20th century. Hemingway also received the Pulitzer Prize (1953) and the Nobel Prize (1954). Most of his work was inspired by events that happened in his real life. Most of the books he wrote contained violence and war. He was a very successful writer and was living a life of luxury. Then he had a streak of bad luck. Hemingway's health condition worsened, but he survived , even through two plane crashes. In 1961, Hemingway was too paranoid and committed suicide, just like his dad and like his granddaughter would later kill herself.
Sources from this section concludes of: http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/1954/hemingway-bio.html and http://www.biographybase.com/biography/Hemingway_Ernest.html
Literary Analysis:
Ernest Hemingway is a respected author. One technique of his writing is Imagery. I consider Hemingway to have the best use of imagery I have ever read. In his writing, the description and details create vivid images. "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," (3). The river is part filled with small and large rocks that are sitting out of the river getting the sun rays. Also, it says that the water is usually clear except when it moves through channels it turns blue. You can just image this in your head and this is just a taste of the description he gives. Also, he uses symbols in his story. The main character Federick Henry always wears his uniform. When he is fighting in his uniform, he gets severely injured and experiences his best friends dying (213). He does not have the best of luck. One day he takes off his unifrom off and never wears it again. His life seems to be the best it could be he is with his love Catherine and out of the horrible war. But then a twist comes along and shattered him. He longs to go back to the war to try and forget what has happened. It goes in a circle, he wants to be out of war and when this finally comes true he wishes to be back in the war. This symbol gives out a message. The message is clear and simple; you never know what will go wrong in your life, so appreciate what you have. If you want to know what the twist is in the story you will have read the book.
Literary Information:
Genre: Semi-autobiography and war drama
A semi-autobiography is a autobiography with changes to the story like certain events and characters names. They do this to protect people or to make the storyeven more exciting. This is also a war drama because it is about a love affair between a nurse and a soldier in the war.
Style: Ernest Hemingway's style is what makes this book so unique and allows it to stand out. The way he writes the story is what grabs the reader, not so much what he writes. The overall language used in this story is neutral language. The reason it is neutral language is because of the time period the story takes place in. It is formal language for today's time period. Most of his story is using dialect and jargon. Since the characters are soldiers, they speak differently from everyone else. They use slang words like "tenant" instead of fully saying Lieutenant. Also, the book is in a first person point of view (unreliable narrator) from the main character Federick Henry. Hemingway wrote this novel making parts suspenseful and others more relaxing and enjoyable. The way he did this was through sentence structure. He used a lot of complex and polysyndeton sentences when he wanted to get a point across. He also created lower energy in the story by using simple sentences during the less intense parts. A few components to Hemingway's style was different sentence structures, different word choice and the story being told from a first person point of view. He created excitement and high energy in this story through his writing techniques. It is not always what he wrote but it is how he wrote it, that makes this book fascinating.
Criticism:
Ernest Hemingway is a notable author with writing skills that are not seen every day. The best part of his writing is the description. Hemingway makes the readers feel they are in the story with the characters. He engulfs the readers with emotions of every kind, from hatred to sorrow, passion to the feeling of being perplexed. Readers get drawn in by the description and word choice of his writing. Hemingway has a gift with words.
The one part of Ernest Hemingway's technique of writing that did not work as well was the myriad of conversations. During these parts of the story it gets very confusing who is saying what. The reason for this is because it would be line-after-line of words with no indication of who was saying what. This confuses the readers on what is happening in the story. Besides that he does a great job on this story. I would rate this story a 4.5/5 stars with 5 being the best.
If you enjoyed this book, A Farewell to Arms you may also enjoy:
Grapes of Wrath- it is in the same time period as A Farewell to Arms
Emma- If you liked the romance part of this book you may like the book Emma
The Sun Also Rises- another book by Ernest Hemingway
If you enjoyed this book, you can click on the link below and watch the movie that was made based of the book.
The movie- Farewell to Arms