A Farewell To Arm By Ernest Hemingway Critical Analysis

Trina Duong

Ms. Reeves

APEL 3

June 15, 2016

Critique

A Farewell to Arm by Ernest Hemingway is a romantic novel about an American ambulance lieutenant, Frederic Henry, and his love interest, an English nurse, Catherine Barkley. This takes place during World War I, in which the war has a significant impact towards the relationship of Henry and Barkley. My first impression of the novel is that it was nothing how I expected it to be. Given its context and title, I expected the novel to be mainly about World War I and how it impacted Henry’s life. Hemingway’s introduction to the novel was very unique. He introduced the story with their position and current stage in the war. This is what led me to believe that the novel was going to be based mainly

The novel was written during the late 1920s, in which some of the word use and sentence structures were odd, but expected due to it’s outdated time. For example, “All the country wet and brown and dead with the autumn.” (10) The war was mentioned briefly throughout the text to provide context and and background of the novel. However, when the war was mentioned, Hemingway used many legitimate descriptions of the the war, the smells, and the feelings during the time, which gave the novel a lot of realism. For example, “In the fall when the rains came the leaves all fell from the chestnut trees and the branches were care and trunk black with rain.” (4) Hemingway’s use of imagery allowed me to have a better understanding of the war during the time. His realistic descriptions showed the depression and resentment attitude towards the war during the

This image symbolizes the entire novel, because the whole story mainly revolves around Henry and Barkley’s intimate relationship and how it was affected during a time of war. I found the novel interesting at first, however as it began to get further into the relationship of Henry and Barkley, it started becoming boring as events in their relationship were being repeated and were becoming more and more predictable, taking away the surprise factor. The novel was written in first person, which made it more interesting to read, because it showed the point of view of Lieutenant Henry, from his thoughts to his actions. His writing also contained strange patterns, which was followed with either very short sentences or very long run on sentences. His writing style in this novel really enhanced the point of view. It allows for a more raw and in depth thoughts into the mind of a retired veteran, portraying it as a diary almost. Throughout the novel, not much insight was given about many characters, expect for Lieutenant Henry and Catherine. The novel mentioned about Henry’s background, but not much about Catherine's, however she’s the main character. I felt disconnected to Catherine, because since she’s one of the main characters, and was one of whom the whole novel was based upon, we didn’t learn much about her which I found to be very lacking. I also found her attitude quite annoying, there wasn’t much