A Farewell to Arms CritiqueThe overall tone of the book is much different than that ofThe Sun Also Rises. The characters in the book are propelledby outside forces, in this case WWI, where the characters inSAR seemed to have no direction. Frederick’s actions aredetermined by his position until he deserts the army.
Floating down the river with barely a hold on a piece ofwood his life, he abandons everything except Catherine andlets the river take him to a new life that becomesincreasing difficult to underezd. The escape to Switzerland seemed too perfect for a book thatset a tone of ugliness in the world that was only dottedwith pure love like Henry’s and Cat’s and I knew the storycouldn’t end with bliss in the slopes of Montreux. In aworld where the abstracts of glory, honor, and sacrificemeant little to Frederick, his physical association withCatherine was the only thing he had and it was taken awayfrom him long before she died. The love that Frederick and Catherine had for each other wasmore than could be explained in words and Frederick makes itknown that words are not really effective at describing theflesh and blood details. Their love during an ugly war wasnot to be recreated or modeled even as much as through ababy conceived by their love.
The baby could not be bornalive because their love was beautiful yet doomed so thatnothing could come out of it. Hemingway’s language is effective in leaving much to thereaders interpretation and allowing a different image toform in each readers mind. The simple sentences andincomplete descriptions frees your imagination and inspireseach person to develop their own bitter love story.
