A farewell to arms

Love and Redemption in A Farewell To Arms Earnest Hemingway would make a career in exploring the psyche of America's stoic male archetype, drawing the heroes in his stories from solitary personality traits and an uncanny sense of tenacity in weathering the suffering in life. His work is constructed on the deeds of men who have endured incredible afflictions of misfortune in order to be delivered to some moment of redemption, however fleeting. For Henry, in A Farewell To Arms, that redemption comes in the form of Catherine. The author uses the blossoming love between the two characters in order to present the argument that love is indestructible and has the power to transform an individual emotionally, intellectually and spiritually so he/she can gain self acceptance. Certainly, in the case of Henry, Catharine's love would prove not just transformative but, in deed, life-saving. The medical conditions for Henry were, in many ways, less severe than the damage to his psyche as a result of the horrors of war. So are we given this insight in an exchange between Henry and a young Italian soldier with dreams of honoring his fatherland. Here, the author denotes of Henry's perspective, "abstract words such as glory, honor, courage, or hallow were obscene beside the concrete names of villages, the numbers of roads, the names of rivers, the numbers of regiments and the dates." This disposition underscores the sense of disillusionment at the war, which Henry has witnessed with too vivid a brutality from his ambulance. The gory extent of all that which Henry has seen is powerfully understated here, but in his distant sense of emotional distraction we can see that Henry had done much psychologically to protect himself from this reality. It is thus that Catharine's ability to access a man deeply recessed into the defensive mechanisms of his own psychic pain demonstrates that transformative and all-encompassing power of love. It is remarkable to see that the same man that Hemingway had crafted as the stolid antihero would eventually display a softness made possible only by Catharine's loving hand. In a context where individuality has seemed almost inherently to precipitate loneliness-a distinct commentary on American culture-the value that Henry places on his relationship is telling. He indicates that "we were never lonely and never afraid when we were together. I know that the night is not the same as the day: that all things are different, that the things of the night cannot be explained in the day, because they do not then exist, and the night can be a dreadful time for lonely people once their loneliness has started." One is prompted to consider this character relative to another war time figure of literary note, Hemingway's Jake Barnes. The protagonist of The Sun Also Rises, he fails to find Henry's redemption and must suffer his wartime injury of impotence with a staggering loneliness. He faces it with stoicism and sarcasm, and contrary to Henry, must endure it in the company of an inconstant and flighty woman. The distinction is significant as Henry is enabled a transformation to this warmth and companionship never afforded the miserable Barnes. Indeed, I myself find a much more resonating contentment with Henry's experience, which comports with my own belief in the importance of companionship. Henry's experience causes me to reflect on the common trial of undergoing the death of a loved one, which everybody must endure. Though Henry initially responds to his own state of grieving by closing himself off, he finds, just as have I through such situations, that this type of mourning is best shared with those who can provide comfort. Closing one's self off as had Henry can be an impediment to truly contending with the emotionally devastating. Even still, it is hard to say that Hemingway wished the best for a character who was briefly redeemed. The most important episode in the text is Catharine's death during labor, to which Henry responds during its happening, "Poor, poor dear Cat. And this was the price you paid for sleeping together. This was the end of the trap. This was what people got for loving each other." Naturally, this rather cynical presumption tends to place a final stamp on the novel, suggesting that while love may conquer all human vagaries, it remains vulnerable to the whims of the universe.