A Farewell To Arms: Henry's Journey Through Love And War

Josh Hanberry
English 255
April 18 2013
Ms. Rebecca Leblanc
Henry’s Journey Through Love and War

Ernest Hemmingway’s, A Farewell To Arms, prominently takes place in the “Alps” located between Italy and present day Slovenia. Located in this setting is the Italian army, who is trying to prevent Austria-Hungary from joining forces with the Germans on the war’s western front. Inside this war effort is revealed the great story and journey of a man named Frederick Henry. Frederick Henry is an American who is a part of the Italian Army. While with the Italian Army, Henry meets and falls in love with a woman named Catherine Barkley, who is a V.A.D in the Italian Army. In A Farewell to Arms, Frederick Henry’s journey through the experiences
of love and war reveals to change him from a man of selflessness and immaturity to a man of great wisdom and understanding. At the beginning of the story, Henry is portrayed as a carefree, immature and shallow man who is spiritually lost.
Before Henry’s leave from the war, the priest in their house insisted that Henry travel and visit his hometown of Abruzzi. The priest said, “There is good hunting. You would like the people and though it is cold it is clear and dry. You could stay with my family. My mother is a famous hunter.” Instead, Henry traveled to cities with not much meaning but filled with clubs, bars and whorehouses. After Henry visits these towns, he contemplates his decision to not visit the priest’s hometown Abruzzi. He knows in the future he will regret his decision because the places he visited did not have much meaning but for self pleasure. Abruzzi may have led Henry to discover explanations and enlightenment for his purpose on earth and his connection with people. This shows Henry does not yet have his own self understanding and connection with his purpose to the world around him. Also, after Henry returns from his leave, he meets his future love, Catherine Barkley. The meeting between Henry and Catherine reveals Henry’s low level of maturity and thought compared to Catherine. While discussing the war, Henry states to Catherine, “Lets just drop the war.” Catherine then replies, “There’s no place to drop it.” Due to Catherine’s past loss of her fiancée, she know that the war can not just simply be dropped, and she knows that it will affect anyone who has any part of themselves
in the war. Henry fails to notice this, and he believes the war will not have any affect on him. He thinks he will just coast through the war, unharmed and live on normally after. After Henry meets with Catherine on a few occasions and receives his first war wound reveals his first notion of maturing. Prior to his wound, Henry believes that bravery and accolades, trophies and praise are for nothing. Since these elements are abstract and concrete, Henry’s immature mind is revealed to not understand the meaning and importance of things that are not objective and concrete. Although for his selfless thoughts, Henry states that he is against giving up and quitting. He says, “It would only be worse if we stopped fighting.” This is due to the intense pain and trauma he received from his first war wound and witnessing of the death of his comrade. From these experiences, Henry finally is finally starting to think and act like a mature adult. The progress of his maturity in the novel is also matched by his feelings toward Catherine. Due to Catherine’s loss of her fiancée to the war and Henry’s loss of his friend in the war, Henry no longer denies his involvement in the war. His understanding of involvement and personal experience in the war matures Henry and leads him to grow closer to Catherine. His growing of maturity is also evident with his relationships between the priest and Ranaldi. Ranaldi represents Henry at the beginning of the story, and the priest represents the future Henry if he continues to mature. Ranaldi is also a troop in the war who is interested in violence and sex. The priest is an elder man who is very caring, peaceful and loving. Henry’s decision basically on whether he will continue to mature as a mature adult or dwindle back to a shallow, stubborn boy is answered through his experience with Catherine and war through the rest of the novel. Henry is finally shown to change for good towards the end of the novel during the summer he spends with Catherine Barkley.
The traumatic experiences in the war and love affair with an actual woman (rather than a prostitute) forces Henry to mature into a wise man. This change is revealed in chapter XXXIV after Henry’s desertion from the Italian Army. He shared a compartment with a hostile aviator and stated, “in the older days, I would have insulted them and picked a fight.” This reveals Henry’s maturing as a man in his beliefs, thought process and priorities to what is really important in life. Compared to the beginning of the story, Henry is now a man who actually believes in something. In a conversation with Count Greffi, Henry tells him what he values most in life, which is someone he loves and may become very devout to. Henry is now growing out of his shallow and selfish thoughts and beginning to put others before his own well-being. Also, this shows Henry’s start to believe in religion or possibly a “god’ and a greater power or being than himself. Being “devout” also reveals Henry’s decision to be loyal to Catherine. During Catherine and Henry’s time in Switzerland, Henry’s maturity level is shown to finally be equal to that of Catherine’s. Catherine suggest to Henry that they wear their hair the same length to be more alike than just on the inside. She states, “Oh darling, I want you so much I want to be you too.” Henry then says, “You are, we are the same one.”
Finally, Henry has reached the end of his long journey towards wisdom, maturity and understanding through his experiences with love and war. He has finally caught up to his equal, Catherine Barkley, and he becomes a new man as he leaves the hospital where Catherine dies. Ironically, Henry has to bear his new understanding and wisdom alone without his equal, Catherine Barkley, as he walks through the rain to the next journey life has in store for Frederick Henry. Through A Farewell to Arms, Henry Frederick goes through extreme experiences that change the way he perceives his own life and the world around him. His story is very relevant to people in our society. Most people in today’s world need some life altering experience, such as a near death experience or even harm to a loved one, to change them from being a selfish, immature kid into a mature, wise and selfless adult. For Frederick Henry, he experienced self-harm in the war, death of a loved one in the war, and a loving relationship with a girl named Catherine Barkley. Each of these experiences changed and molded Henry to become a better and more mature man than he was before. This is to say, people in today’s society should not question past decisions or experiences that may have happened to them. Everyone should appreciate the past because it is what makes and shapes a person into being what he or she is today, just as it did to Frederick Henry in A Farewell to Arms.