Comparing Tom Joad and Frederic Henry across literature

¶ … John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath and Ernest Hemingway's A Farewell to Arms take place during tumultuous social and political climates. The Grapes of Wrath features the Great Depression and therefore has the added dimension of economic depression and poverty. Hemingway's A Farewell to Arms is set during wartime Europe, on the Italian front during the Second World War. Along these similar but distinct backdrops, the protagonists demonstrate their respective strengths and weaknesses. Tom Joad of The Grapes of Wrath and Frederic Henry of A Farewell to Arms are both products, if not total victims, of their circumstances. They are both tragic heroes, but not in the classical sense because hubris is not their fundamental weakness. Instead, these male protagonists suffer from a sort of impotence that prevents them from reaching their full potential.

Both Tom and Henry are tragic in part because they never know what makes them happy in the first place. Henry is a sad protagonist from the start of A Farewell to Arms. Henry seeks personal fulfillment and never succeeds. His romantic interlude with Catherine seems like only an escape from the fact that he has failed in his role as a soldier; sexuality is one of the only ways the Henry can assert his masculine identity. "When I could not see her there I was feeling lonely and hollow,"

(Hemingway Chapter 7). Disillusionment is part of the protagonists' personalities. For Henry, disillusionment is due to the war and for Tom the disillusionment is due to the American Dream's failure to come true for his family.

Both Tom and Henry have killed a man; their homicides define their character and yet neither of the two learn anything from their moral transgression. Tom kills a man because he needed to avenge his friend, but also because he has no political or social power with which to avenge Casey in a just way. Henry kills a man only because he did not respect him. If Henry were confident enough to feel self-respect he would not have needed to commit murder.

Both Tom and Henry are victims of their times; Tom of the economic depression and the disenfranchisement it entails and Henry because of the war and the nihilism that it entails. In fact, a nihilistic sentiment pervades both Tom and Henry. Tom and Henry kill for different reasons. Tom kills to avenge Jim Casey's death, whereas Henry kills because a man wounded his pride and sense of authority. In both cases, the men kill to assert their manliness and personal power. They kill because they have not channeled their personal power, creativity, energy, or anger anywhere else. "Man, unlike any other thing organic or inorganic in the universe, grows beyond his work, walks up the stairs of his concepts, emerges ahead of his accomplishments," (Steinbeck, Chapter 14).

The circumstances in which they live are too unfortunate. Their valuation of human life has gone down because they have seen too much tragedy in their respective lives. Tom has seem the world beat down on people like him, and has witnessed the failure of America to live up to its promises as the land of opportunity. The failure of the American Dream is not the same sentiment for Henry, who kills more because he has lost touch with a sense of right and wrong. He falls in love with a woman who was slated for his friend. He seems to have loyalty to no one, and Catherine is the only person to whom he seems remotely devoted.