Verified Document

Farewell To Arms -- Hemingway Hemingway's Well-Critiqued Essay

¶ … Farewell to Arms -- Hemingway Hemingway's well-critiqued novel, A Farewell to Arms is always a subject of intense literary examination because the structure of the novel has great lessons and examples for the reader and the critic as well. The narrative structure of Hemingway's book is almost considered a textbook example of exposition, rising action, climax, falling action and resolution / denouement. Those literary tools used by Hemingway will be presented in this paper.

A Farewell to Arms

There are many great novelists from English and American history and there are many even in contemporary society. Students that are studying literature and the tools that make good literature are often attracted to Hemingway because not only is he a worthy talent to learn from but his narrative represents different voices based on the conflict that is occurring, or on the character that is being developed. In A Farewell to Arms it is almost as though Hemingway wrote five distinctly different short stories and linked them together brilliantly to engage the reader and develop his theme.

The landscape in Italy during the war is an important part of the exposition in A Farewell to Arms; the author uses exposition to set the table for the characters and the conflict. One way to look at exposition in A Farewell to Arms that it helps prepare the reader for what is to come in this book. There will be conflict (not just because it is about the Spanish Civil War, but because it is a novel and conflict is always a part of good literature). The reader comes into contact with Frederick and he immediately is a sympathetic figure because of the way Hemingway presents the exposition into the novel.

Frederick is in a war, he's a soldier, so he has his job and he can't be too distracted from his responsibilities lest he get killed or cause another solider to be harmed in some way....

But the war is just one of his issues; he also loves Catherine, and in wartime romance can be even more emotional than in peacetime. So Frederick is kind of being nudged in two directions -- romance and the killing and bloodshed of a war. When Frederick gets hurt that opens up the literary exposition Hemingway is master at -- and now his nurse during his rehabilitation and healing will be Catherine, a person that has recently been mourning the loss of her finance. Hemingway's exposition has created ample interest and tension going into the main characters and theme.
The rising action in Hemingway's novel becomes quite apparent in Chapters twenty-eight and twenty-nine; the harsh, brutal realities of war are presented in these chapters. It would be fair to term these chapters as the heart of the book. As was mentioned earlier, Hemingway has basically written five short stories; the characters that are later in love, Frederick and his nurse and sweetheart Catherine are not presented in these chapters of rising action. What the reader does encounter is a rising action that relates to morality, as two tough, hard-nosed engineer characters and two apparent Italian virgins are the main focus. The idea that a reader gets from this part of the novel is that there is always evil and good in any setting but especially in a wartime setting there will be a focus on good vs. evil, and vice versa.

This isn't the only scene that depicts a sense of rising action; as Frederick becomes fascinated with Catherine, and makes a strong play for her, knowing how life could be greatly improved with her -- that is another rising action. Again the reader can experience rising action when Catherine expects a baby and her lover has to go back to the battlefield. This is dramatic material; readers can identify with Frederick, his desires, his challenges, and his stresses. The rising action for Frederick reached a climax…

Cite this Document:
Copy Bibliography Citation

Related Documents

Italian Americans of the 1930's
Words: 2845 Length: 9 Document Type: Research Paper

Italian-Americans -- 1930s The American experience for Italian immigrants (with particular emphasis on the 1930s) is the salient topic for this paper. The materials presented from scholarly sources in this paper show the positive and negative impacts experienced by Italian-American immigrants; those sources will also be critiqued and analyzed in the context of the experiences, including impacts such as discrimination that Italian-Americans went through during the 1930s. Italians Arrive in the United

Italian Unification Process Unification Processes
Words: 5952 Length: 20 Document Type: Research Paper

[footnoteRef:5] Although Cavour could not pursue Napoleon III to continue war with Austria due to Napoleon III facing pressure domestically and abroad, there were long-term gains made by him. Kingdom of Piedmont was recognized by many world powers. Pope's power along with hat of Austrians was significantly reduced after wars in 1950s and 60s. Nonetheless, it was due to the valor of Giuseppe Garibaldi that enabled the unification to be

Italian Immigration Late 19th to
Words: 3281 Length: 11 Document Type: Term Paper

The biggest reason for this was financial. Farming takes time to sow, grow and harvest, and there was simply not time for that; the Italian immigrant needed to make as much money as he could in the least time possible; farming simply would not work (2008). Farming also implied a certain amount of permanence, which was not the plan for many Italian immigrants (Mintz 2007). Land in America was also

Italian-Americans the Standard History of the Italian-American
Words: 2255 Length: 5 Document Type: Research Paper

Italian-Americans The standard history of the Italian-American experience, La Storia by Jerre Mangione and Ben Morreale, speaks of the "five hundred year" span of that experience. This is a somewhat whimsical reference to the Italian (specifically Genoese) explorer Christopher Columbus: although Columbus' 1492 voyage of discovery did indeed bring an Italian into North American waters, one can hardly call Columbus an "Italian-American." However the annual federal holiday of Columbus Day was initially

Italian-American Stereotyping Despite the Unique
Words: 668 Length: 2 Document Type: Essay

Even the better aspects of the Corleone family are shown in a light that makes them seem contrary to the personalities and wills of other, more "typical" Italian-Americans. That is, their positive qualities are shown in the film to be aberrations; departures from the Italian-American norm. Don Corleone's initial reluctance -- refusal, in fact -- to become involved in any way with the drug trade makes him appear noble, yet

Italian Renaissance the Dignity of
Words: 2316 Length: 8 Document Type: Term Paper

People were traveling to lands like Jerusalem or Egypt, the Greek Islands and to cities like Barcelona, Lisbon or Bruges. Merchandise and aliens were bringing along traditions and civilizations different from their own. Another factor that influenced a cultural unity in Italy during the Renaissance was according to Welch the claim of being the inheritor of Rome every major Italian city had. The culture of the antiquity, Latin or Greek

Sign Up for Unlimited Study Help

Our semester plans gives you unlimited, unrestricted access to our entire library of resources —writing tools, guides, example essays, tutorials, class notes, and more.

Get Started Now