Sunday, February 26, 2012
A Farewell to Arms
I just finished reading A Farewell to Arms, by Ernest Hemingway. It is set in World War I, on the Italian front. It is from the point of view of an American ambulance driver who falls in love with Catherine Barkley, a British nurse. This novel has a tragic ending, resulting in the death of Catherine's son. It ends with the reader feeling like the tragedy of this love will always last, but one thing I couldn't help notice was how the narrative voice gives a sense of hope. It is spoken in past-tense in the 1st person, like someone is telling the story. Another thing I noticed about A Farewell to Arms was simply the personalities of the characters. Maybe it was just the time period. On about the 2nd time that Catherine and Henry, Catherine acts as though they have been in love for months. This offers a very frank view of their love, described by Hemingway.
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That seems like a really good book. Its always wierd when a book ends with the death of a character or with something sad because it seems like in alot of books the endings are happier. It would be hard to fall in love with someone during a war, especially if you were both fighting in the war. There would always be that threat of losing them. I feel like it would be alot like having a family member fighting in the army, it would be very scary.
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