A Farewell to Arms

Hola mis amores;

Hope each of you is having a really good day and or night :) This is your reminder to hydrate yourself and to remember that you are valid as hell! I thought I was going to write this yesterday but I've been sick since Wednesday and my fever returned yesterday night. I also had an exam today so I was studying for that too. I apologize and hope this will compensate for yesterday's blog post.

I finished reading A farewell to arms by Ernest Hemingway at the start of the new year. Ernest Hemingway's life as always fascinated me. There's some weird connection I feel towards artists who committed suicide. Sylvia Plath, Virginia Woolf, Vincent Van Gogh and Ernest Hemingway. I don't know what weird fascination I've got with their works.

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Background and Themes:

The novel is set in the backdrop of Italian campaign of World War I. It is a first person account of an American, Frederic Henry, serving as a lieutenant in the ambulance corps of the Italian Army. The book was banned for quite a time because of its controversial themes.

The two major themes are love(as a religion) and war(especially themes of bravery and manhood). I'll be talking about this in detail when I put up the excerpts below.

Some Characters:

Lt. Frederic Henry, Rinaldi, Catherine Barkley, Helen Ferguson, Miss Van Campen and The Priest.

Summary:

While working with the Italian ambulance service during World War I (1914–18), the American lieutenant Frederic Henry meets the English nurse Catherine Barkley. Although she still mourns the death of her fiancé, who was killed in the war, Catherine encourages Henry’s advances. After Henry is badly wounded by a trench mortar shell near the Isonzo River in Italy, he is brought to a hospital in Milan, where he is eventually joined by Catherine. She tends to him as he recovers. During this time their relationship deepens. Henry admits that he has fallen in love with her. Catherine soon becomes pregnant by Henry but refuses to marry him.

After the hospital superintendent, Miss Van Campen, discovers that Henry has been hiding alcohol in his hospital room, he is sent back to the front. During his absence, morale on the front had significantly worsened. During the Italian retreat after the disastrous Battle of Caporetto (1917), he deserts the army, just barely escaping execution by Italian military police. Back in Milan, Henry searches for Catherine. He soon learns that she has been sent to Stresa, some 95 miles (153 km) away. Henry journeys to Stresa by train. Once there, he reunites with Catherine, and the couple flee Italy by crossing the border into neutral Switzerland.

Upon arrival, Henry and Catherine are arrested by Swiss border authorities. They decide to allow Henry and Catherine—who masquerade as architecture and art students seeking “winter sport”—to stay in Switzerland. The couple pass several happy months in a wooden house near Montreux. Late one night Catherine goes into labor. She and Henry take a taxi to the hospital. A long and painful labor ensues, and Henry wonders if Catherine will survive. Sadly, their son is stillborn. Soon after, Catherine begins to hemorrhage and dies with Henry by her side. He tries to say goodbye but cannot. He returns to their hotel alone, in the rain.

- Taken from Britannica

Excerpts:

This was a conversation that took place between Frederic and Catherine when they formed a relationship soon after. Frederic has issues with love and when Catherine confesses he often lies to her about saying I love you.

I often use sleep as a excuse out of reality especially when I particularly feel sad. It's not all pleasant and stuff but the relief of waking up in the morning and knowing that the slate has been wiped over does bring me some amount of reassurance. What happens in the night stays there. Maybe that's why it's said a new day is a new beginning.

The above two contrast so much. Especially when it hits the reader that along the way Frederic really loved Catherine.

This is what I mean when I say want to be worshipped. Being treated like a religion in a totally pious manner sounds so damn good.

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I think the part that got to me the most is when their child is a stillborn and how Frederic seems sort of at a loss for words and feelings. He doesn't have time to dwell on that because Catherine is on her death bed. Catherine knows that she's going to die, but the sliver of hope Frederic holds on to is simply devastating. The part where he walks back from the hospital alone in the rain really got me in my feels.

Rating: 8.5/10

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I hope you guys have a great day! Thank you for reading :D

Until next time;

~moonrelation