Character Analysis Of Ernest Hemingway's A Farewell To Arms

Submitted By bronem4
Words: 1415
Pages: 6
Open Document
Jones 1

Jane Mundadan
AP English 11
Helly
04 December 2014

It is the utmost responsibility of every competent author to be able to express the depth in their character’s emotions through a variety of stylistic devices. However, readers tend to disregard these rather distinguishing details that are the pathway to understanding the author’s style techniques and their character’s point of view. Ernest Hemingway utilizes the character
Frederic Henry, in
A Farewell to Arms
, as a character who encompasses multiple layers to his personality due to the circumstances that are placed at hand during the time of war. Frederic's tone is constantly in flux throughout the story as he captures his memories of trials, tribulation, heartbreak, love, and little triumph during his days as an ambulance driver in World War I. Page
249 of
A Farewell to Arms marks a moment of reflection for Frederic while he recalls a night spent with his previous nurse and love interest, Miss Catherine Barkley. As Frederic reminisces back to this extraordinary night, he is bombarded by memories of happiness that he once felt, all of which became a mere memory along with Catherine after her death. Frederic is left with void and feels rather fatuous as he had let himself fall into the dangers of love during a time where detachment would conquer. Despite the twelve year gap between Catherine’s death and Fredric’s memoir, he continues to dwell on the joy of the past with an underlying tone of somber and emptiness as if they were yesterday.

Jones 2

Fredric utilizes a myriad of positively connotated words in portraying the existing gaiety.
Frederic begins the excerpt on page 249 by setting the scene. Henry is trying to accentuate the attachment they had for each other and how it bought about a sense of unity. He intuitively explains every detail of the moment with diction in words such as “pleasant”, “cheerful”,
“exciting”, and “comfortable.” These words create a sense of radiation as it exemplifies the happiness that perseveres despite the war in existence. In addition, the simplicity of the words that he utilizes conveys how when Catherine is in acquaintance “life isn’t hard to manage.” It is understood that he is not as detached from life as he makes himself seem to be. However, he juxtaposes this happiness as rain continues to fall, showing that the war prevails. The first sentence is unusually long, indicating that he prefers this moment to live on, just as he allows the sentence to continue on. While the overriding tone of this segment is comfortable and happy, by the way Frederic clutches on to this moment, the reader can infer that he is so attached to this memory because in the midst of war it made him realize there was something to live for. Frederic includes repetition at the end of the segment when he states, “if we woke the other one woke too so one was not alone” and “waking in the night to find the other was there, and not gone away.”
He also includes the sentence, “feeling that we had come home, feeling no longer alone.” The beginnings of both the separate thoughts in these sentences create parallelism. He does this in order to stress the similarities between the idea of being “home” and being “not alone”;which implies being with Catherine. One can then infer that Frederic feels comfortable and “at home” when he’s with Catherine. Frederic’s constant repetition of this idea of loneliness shows his obsession over the possibility of being alone, and how it is not favorable because he has
Catherine now. The implications of Frederic’s animosity towards being alone foreshadow

Jones 3

Frederic’s immense loneliness after Catherine’s death. While Frederic is describing this moment as if he is Frederic the character, his foreshadowing through diction and syntax makes it apparent that he is a narrator reflecting on the past. These first few sentences exhibit a tone of somber and
void
Show More

Related Documents: Character Analysis Of Ernest Hemingway's A Farewell To Arms

Frédéric Chopin Essay

Frederic Chopin Fredric Chopin was a prodigal pianist and composer from Poland. He came into the world on February 4, 1810 in Zelazowa Wola, Poland and died at the age of 35 in 1845. Nearly all of his compositions were for piano. Over the course of his career as a composer, he wrote hundreds of pieces. Chopin is sometimes referred to as “The Poet of the Piano” due to the dreamy yet dark and emotional nature of his music. Many scholars consider him one of if not the most important composers…

Words 719 - Pages 3

Frederic Chopin Essay

Frederic Chopin When most people hear the term “romantic,” thoughts of candlelight dinners, dramatic movies and love between two people come to mind. Rarely is the Romantic period of music thought about, and even less likely the composers who pioneered it. However, the Romantic period left a huge imprint on the world for centuries, as did its spotlight composer, remarkable pianist Frederic Chopin. His life and musical works impacted generations of musicians after him. His breakthrough style of writing…

Words 1806 - Pages 8

Frederic Remington's Early Life

Frederic Remington Early Life Frederic Remington was born in Canton, New York in 1861. His family immigrated to the United States in 1637. He was related to a few other artists, George Catlin and Earl W. Bascom. His father wasn’t around much because of the war. Their family moved around a lot. First it was Bloomington, Illinois very briefly. After that they moved back to Canton. Frederic was only eleven when their family moved to Ogdensburg, New…

Words 528 - Pages 3

Frederic Chopin Research Paper

Name: Omar Maldonado Professor: David Kellogg Class: MUSC1101-Music Appreciation (20718) Date: 11/10/2014 Frederic Chopin was the foremost pianist of the Romantic period known as both a virtuoso performer and a great composer. Chopin was born in Zelazowa Wola which is a small village six miles from from Warsaw. The “when” of his birth however is not as simple as the “where”. Chopin is said to be born on February, 22 1810 per his baptismal certificate however another well accepted date of birth…

Words 1474 - Pages 6

Frederic Kimber Seward Research Paper

Brennan Austin Mrs. Thomas English 10 03/15/2024. Mr. Frederic Kimber Seward Mr. Frederic Kimber Seward was born in Wilmington, Delaware on 23 March 1878. He was the son of Samuel Swayze Seward (1838-1916), a clergyman, and Christina F. Kimber (1837-1906), natives of Mendham, New Jersey and Delaware respectively who had married on 19 October 1864. He had four known siblings: John Perry (b. 1868) Lydia (b. 1870), Mary (b. 1872) and Samuel Swayze (b. 1876). The. Following the death of his mother in…

Words 524 - Pages 3

Essay about Behaviorism and Stimulus Frederic Skinner

Several feedings later the dog would salivate when the bell was rung even when no food was presented. Thus learning conditioned response, a newly learnt response to a previously neutral stimulus that mimics the response of a unconditional stimulus Frederic Skinner, Operant conditioning: Skinner was an American psychologist who worked mainly with rats and pigeons to discover some key principals of learning new behaviours. He used the Skinner box; this box contained a lever, when pressed released a food…

Words 633 - Pages 3

Essay about War Poem Analysis Hear Me Now

the agricultural economy. Khmer Rouge longed to bring the nation back to “Year 0” by eliminating everything and everyone relating to popular culture. Hemingway on the other hand takes a fictional stand on war through his novel, specifically with Frederic Henry with his war experience being an American on the Italian army. Nevertheless, war and genocide are portrayed as tormenting, for the sorrow events result in death and desolation. In a similar style, “Hear Me Now”, Stagg conveys war as an…

Words 807 - Pages 4

Farewell To Arms Loss

Ferguson, Catherine and Frederic go up to their hotel room where he clarifies how he feels about Catherine. Frederic reveals that his relationship with Catherine is significantly remarkable at this point. However he realizes that his joy with Catherine will only last so long until he runs into reality. Hemingway’s use of syntax and diction conveys how there…

Words 956 - Pages 4

Fredrick Henry In All Quiet On The Western Front

Throughout the novel the actual appearance of protagonist, Frederic Henry, was not revealed in detail at anytime. The reader was left to speculate through the majority of the novel as to what he looked like. Very late in the novel Frederic returned to the hospital to visit Catherine and was described as looking like a fake doctor with facial hair. This would suggest that he must be in his late twenties to early thirties as many years of education are required to become a doctor. The growth of facial…

Words 564 - Pages 3

Fredrick Henry Character Analysis

assures us that he is being fed enough, and only snacks because he can’t stop himself when they are directly in front of him. Frederic Henry is similar to my 60 pound pit bull Milo when it comes to relationships. He continues seeking and making bonds, because of the temptation of companionship during war time, but never appears to benefit from his relationships in any way. Frederic is continuously “torn between [the] compulsion” of making bonds through the tragedies of World War I, and suffering the pain…

Words 978 - Pages 4