Catherine And Frederick example essay topic

The Italian front of World War I, while remembered as less devastating than the blood bath in France, reflected every deplorable aspect of war. The effects were far reaching; nearly 600,000 Italian soldiers lost their lives, and more than a million were wounded. Among both the enlisted and civilians, no person escaped the poisonous touch of the war. Such was the case with Frederick Henry, an American architecture student in Rome at the time the war began. When he joined ranks as an Italian Lieutenant, Frederick never anticipated the misery that would accompany military life. However, save a few chapters mid-novel, Hemingway's A Farewell to Arms is by no means a painful account of the tribulations and tragedies of war.

In the midst of pervasive evil, Frederick finds salvation in the form of love. His relationship with Catherine Barkley is a respite from the savagery. Their union leads him to establish his own principles and is ultimately his refuge from the massive chaos of war. Hemingway gives several clues throughout the novel that foreshadow Catherine's role in Frederick's development as well as the impact that their relationship has on his life. The reader can trace a pattern of regression from the war, each time mirrored by a progression in his attachment to Catherine.

Conversely, a period of deeper devotion to Catherine predicts a revolution in his regard to the war. By the novel's conclusion, a reformation has occurred in Frederick Henry. He is transformed from a disillusioned young man, into a weathered soul that has suffered life's greatest agonies: to lose in love and to lose in war. When Henry is first introduced, he is arrogant and dissolute and has yet to establish any parameters for his life. The reader is given no indication of why he abandoned architecture to join a foreign army. We are left to assume that it was an impulsive measure, probably an attempt to establish routine or order in a chaotic life.

Immediately Henry exhibits dwindling enthusiasm for the war. When conversation at the dinner table turns to the topic of where Frederick ought to vacation on his leave, a critical example of his immaturity (thus far) surfaces. The officers, who take joy in raucous chiding of the priest to the outfit, insist that Henry visit the whorehouses in each of their favorite cities. The priest however, extends a warm invitation for Frederick to visit his family's scenic, picturesque hometown. Frederick does not yet appreciate the value of the untainted and cleansing countryside, and opts for nights in bed, drunk, when you knew that that was all there was... not caring in the night, sure that this was all and all and all and not caring. When he has returned to the front, he experiences deep remorse for ignoring an opportunity to see a place where it was clear cold and dry and the snow was dry and powdery and hare-tracks in the snow and peasants took off their hats and called to you.

Even the language and voice which Hemingway uses to describe the contrasting locations highlights the fallacy in his choice. Frederick is longing for something greater than can be satisfied by cheap alcohol and solicited sex, but he has not begun to understand his own neediness. Responding to Frederick's ambiguity in regard to army life, Hemingway follows with a series of chapters introducing and developing the character of Catherine Barkley. Initially, it is clear that Catherine and her bizarre games puzzle Henry.

His compliance stems, not from the love he feigns, but from purely physical desire. The priest clarifies the difference between true love and Frederick's lust, When you love you wish to do things for. You wish to sacrifice for. You wish to serve. And although he consents that he does not feel love for Catherine, he prefers her company to that found in the brothels. As though he has learned his lesson by forgoing the trip to the countryside, Frederick chooses to endure her eccentricities at the chance of establishing a relationship.

At this point, the only type of relationship he desires with her is a sexual one, but by fostering the necessary trust to entice her to bed, he accidentally begins to fall in love. As Hemingway began book two, he planned for dramatic changes in Frederick's life. During a portentously ironic stream of consciousness, Frederick divulges his brazen regard for the war. I knew I would not be killed. Not in this war. It did not have anything to do with me.

What Frederick chose to ignore is that the mortar shells and bullets are impartial. The enemy was the enemy, and the Austrians wanted Italian soldiers dead. As chance would have it, just such a trench mortar plowed through Frederick's dugout the next day while he was stationed near Plaza, and although he withstood the pain stoically, it was immense and the damage to his body was extensive. This served only to further remove Frederick's commitment to the Italy's cause.

Not only does Frederick face the possibility of permanent maiming, but any fragment of a sense of duty has been injured, as well. His disconcerted opinion of the army gave way to resentment. Frederick finally established an exacting set of criterion by which he intended to live. He began to differentiate between hollow pleasure and philosophical fulfillment. This is demonstrated by his rejection of the attempts to decorate him for his bravery, as he insisted that there was nothing brave about hiding in a dugout eating macaroni. Conversely, in his conversation with the priest, Henry shows a fervent interest in understanding what it means to feel love.

Frederick's transformation is on the brink of emergence, and in Hemingway's response to this foreshadowing, we again see how he uses the relationship with Catherine to actualize this growth. This twist of fate was Hemingway's tool for a transition into the most significant period of development in the couple's relationship. The events of the second book serve primarily to solidify their mutual trust, security, love and respect. Against the backdrop of pleasant summer weather, the two try futilely to erase the ravages of the ongoing combat.

Though they are not untouched by the scarring effects of war, tender devotion abounds. He is undoubtedly captivated by her mere presence. She came in the room... she looked fresh and young and very beautiful. When I saw her I was in love with her, explained Frederick. He no longer is the simple creature that could feel fulfilled and contented by casual sex.

He has sampled the love of which the priest spoke so highly and concurs that its splendor is unsurpassed. Despite any previous reservations, Frederick willingly and completely commits to Catherine. In fact it is he who encourages a legal wedding between the two, but Catherine insists that a ceremony is unnecessary. What good would it do to marry now? We re really married. I couldn t be any more married...

There isn t any me. I m you. Don t make up a separate me. Her relatively liberal attitude has an important bearing on the events after their reunion in book four, and Hemingway seizes the opportunity to suggest that Catherine can and will support any decision of Frederick's both morally and spiritually.

Her idea of their oneness, paired with her open-minded tolerance, makes her the ideal partner to support Frederick in his upcoming trials. In Book Three, Hemingway follows his well-established trend, and reverts the focus of the novel again to the war. Immediately, Frederick is ushered back to the front, where he finds himself entirely detached from army life. He no longer associates with an existence that represents hollow pleasures and is not attracted to the rigidity and order associated with the army. Nonetheless, in the midst of an enormous retreat, all he could find was confusion and disorder. Book Three serves three purposes.

First, it responds to the joyous summer lived in Book Two, by following with great pain and sorrow. In the same manner, this portrait of despair serves as a test of endurance for Frederick. His persistence during the grisly days of retreat is maintained by his focus on Catherine. Secondly, the atmosphere of life-less, defeated, and demoralized soldiers foreshadows the tragedy that is to follow in Book Five. Frederick is gaining respect for the finality of death as he is a first hand witness (and even perpetrator) of the deaths of colleagues. Finally, the desertion is his is ultimate act of self-actualization and commitment to Catherine.

Henry makes a farewell to arms and washes himself of any responsibility to a war in which he has little interest. Book Four is a brief interlude of peace and normalcy for the couple. Once they have escaped to Switzerland, Catherine and Frederick anticipate an idyllic existence. But Book Five is close at their heels, and unimaginable tragedy looms in Hemingway's foreboding words, If people bring so much courage to this world the world has to kill them to break them, so of course it kills them. Of course, Hemingway has given away the ending, but only as Book Five ends, is the reader aware of the magnitude of Frederick's loss. Frederick is a transformed man, schooled by her love, forever changed by the war, and a completed person for their time together.