A Farewell To Arms Rhetorical Analysis

November 7, 2010

Essay

A Farewell to Arms Narrative (Page 231-232) “Hard as the floor of the car to lie and not thinking only feeling, having been away too long, the clothes wet and floor moving only a little each time and lonesome inside and alone with wet clothing and a hard floor for a wife. Doctors did things to you and then it was not your body anymore. The head was mine, but not to use, not to think with, only to remember and not too much remember.” Frederic Henry is feeling alone and is justifying himself. Frederic is doubting his actions on the train ride and contemplating his future with Catherine. Hemingway makes a dramatic pronoun switch by referring to himself in the second person pronoun of “you”. “… but you
loved some one else whom now you know was not even to pretended there; you seeing now clear and coldly—not so coldly as clearly and emptily.” Frederic Henry is referring to himself in the second person forcing the reader to peer inside his head. Through monologue narrative techniques, figurative language and tone, Hemingway indicates that Frederic Henry is a man reaching a point of no return. Hemingway employs a stream of consciousness writing style and reporting technique in this chapter. In the beginning of this chapter, Hemingway uses reporting to describe what Henry is doing. He states that Henry is hungry, wet and cold. Henry is in the flat-car and starts to think about Valentini’s knee. This thought sets Henry off into pontificating about when (page232) “Doctors did things to you and then it was not your body anymore.” He continues to ramble on and the writing style quickly turns into a stream of consciousness. Hemingway’s stream of consciousness technique alludes to Henry’s attitude toward those still in the war. (Page 232-233) “I wonder what they would hear in the states. Dead from wounds and other causes. Good Christ I was hungry. I wondered what had become of the priest at the mess. And Renaldi. Well, I would never see him now. I would never see any of them now. That life was over.” Henry is pondering about the people he cared for in the army. Henry will no longer have the priest to confide in. He justifies his actions in his mind and he feels resentment that he keeps to himself. Henry has reached the point of no return. Previous chapters were written in a simple and precise style. Hemingway writes in this chapter as if he is overhearing what Henry is saying in his mind. It’s as if he is addressing what he is saying to himself. The narrative technique forces the reader to entertain how Henry is thinking. (Page 231) “You did not love the floor of a flat-car nor guns with canvas jackets and the smell of vaselined metal or a canvas and pleasant with guns; but you loved some one else whom now you know was not even to pretended there; you seeing now clear and coldly—not so coldly as clearly and emptily. You were out of it now. You had no more obligation.” The frequent use of the word “you” pushes the reader to peer further into the head of Henry. This is the most extended use of second person seen so far. It is used in a story telling tone that not only lets the reader identify more with Henry, but is used for his own benefit. Hemingway’s dramatic writing style change from precise grammatical rules allows the reader to peer deeper into Henry’s mind. Semicolon usage increases dramatically as well as sentence fragments. This style details how Henry is detaching himself from his person in order to detach himself from the army and his previous actions. In essence, Henry is removing himself from his previous way of life by addressing himself as “you”. Hemmingway returns to the use of the first person towards the end of the chapter. His stream of consciousness style remains but is intensified. Hunger invades Henry’s thoughts about his friends, and his presumed death. (Page 232) “I was not made to think. I was made to eat. My God, yes. Eat and drink and sleep with Catherine.” Henry can think of nothing but his love for Catherine and the future. Henry covers his past encounters with the war by his love for Catherine. The chapter ends with a very verbose statement “There were many places.” Hemingway’s tone is rendered very clear and concise compared to other chapters.
(Page 232) “Anger was washed away in the river along with any obligation.” Henry believes the river ride purified him and provided the basis for rebirth. The river was a form of baptism and redemption. Henry believed the river provided absolution of commitment, duty and anger. Henry feels he is forced to become a deserter and he has no plans of returning to the army. (Page 232) “I had taken off the stars, but that was for convenience. It was no point of honor.” Stars on a uniform represent competency and duty. Henry cut off the stars to disguise himself, but he also is throwing away his responsibilities and his identity. “I was not against them. I was through. I wished them all the luck….It was not my show anymore.” He clearly has no intention of going back to the war. He doesn’t hate the people in the war; he just opposes the war itself. Henry even wishes those left in war the best of luck. Hemingway expresses his distinct feeling through his characters. It is easy to correlate the actions of Henry in this chapter to the title of the book, Farwell to
Arms. Figurative language expresses Frederic reaching a point of no return, through various metaphors, similes, and idioms. He expresses his loneliness, (Pg 231) “…hard floor for a wife,” Henry compares the floor to Catherine. At this point he is extremely lonely and has nothing but his wet clothing and the floor for comfort. Henry compares himself to a floor walker that has lost his job and if he goes back he will get shot. So there is no reason to return to his old life. (Page 231) “The head was mine, but not to use, not to think with, only to remember and not too much remember.” Henry is trying to clear his conscious for his own benefit. “…not too much remember. But it was not my show any more and I wished this bloody train would get to Mestre and I would eat and stop thinking. I would have to stop.” Henry’s thoughts migrate towards his friends, food and presumed death but Henry is never going back to his old life, he is only focusing on the future. Hemingway uses a discrete simile when he writes, “You had lost your cars and your men as a floorwalker loses the stock of his department in a fire. There was, however, no insurance. You were out of it now. You had no more obligation. If they shot floorwalkers after a fire in the department store because they spoke with an accent they had, then certainly the floorwalkers would not be expected to return when the store opened again for business. They might seek other employment; if there was any other employment and the police did not get them.” When “shooting the floor walkers for having an accent they have always had,” he is recounting when he was on the bridge and the carabiniere were shooting all the officers because they thought them to be Germans in Italian uniforms. Henry concludes that floor walkers (him) shouldn’t return to war, because they would get killed. The narrator uses the floorwalker as a way of justifying what he had done by deserting his post. Henry is clearing his conscious and justifying his army desertion in an internal monologue. Henry is only thinking of his future with Catherine. This is why Henry makes a reference to seeking new employment. Hemingway uses idioms to contrast Henry’s thoughts of life and war.
“I had done half the retreat on foot and swum part of the Tagliamento with his knee. It was his knee alright. The other knee was mine. Doctors did things to you and then it was not your body anymore. The head was mine, and inside the belly. It was very hungry in there….The head was mine, but not to use, not to think with, only to remember and not too much remember.” Both knees were Henry’s but, he is alluding to the fact that war changed him, even when Doctor Valentini fixed him. It is not his original knee and this expresses a change in him. Henry’s head was his but not to think or use, only to remember. Ever since the war he had had to follow orders and now that he is out of it, he can only remember. Henry can remember his friends and he also remembers the trying times of war. Yet he doesn’t want to remember too much because he will have nightmares. The tone of this chapter is serious. The seriousness is reflected in language manipulation. (Page 232) “You had lost your cars and your men as a floorwalker loses the stock of his department in a fire. There was, however, no insurance. You were out of it now. You had no more obligation.” The seriousness of the chapters tone is also exemplified when Henry stated, “The head was mine, but not to use, not to think with, only to remember and not too much remember.” The tone reflects Henry’s opinion of war and how it changes
people. Hemingway’s change in writing style in this chapter from the use of precise grammatical rules and precise words is an outstanding technique to force the reader to enter the mind of Henry. It is easy to see how Henry detaches himself from his person in order to detach from the war. Hemingway’s use of intense narrative techniques, figurative language and tone portray Frederic Henry as a man on a path of no return. This chapter surely is the source for the title of the book, Farewell to Arms. Frederic Henry will bear arms no more.