A Farewell to Arms, My Favourite Book

Earnest Hemingway's spacious articulation of poignant characters underscores the virtues of sacrifice, judgment, charitable trust, and commitment and on the whole rebirth of the age of prosperous up-to-the-minute progression of facts in view of social conflicts. The feelings for the despondent, which he deliberates in his stories, made me one of his fans and he became my favourite author. Earnest Hemingway was an author of such critical time where the People were intensively depressed in skepticism, wants, intolerance and overall engaged in unlawful and mischievous activities like bribing, prejudice, jealousy and war on earth for which the burning question of the day was to survive for lively-beings in the midst of crisis. Notwithstanding such critical exigency, the people were burning desire for love; commiseration and flexibility like rest, recreation and peace. In the midst of war, crisis, hunger, criticism and cruelty were prevalent in the society and even every one in that derogatory moment was craving for love and tranquility of life. In that hypercritical state of literary distinctness, Hemingway has been committed to reflect war with love in a consequential manner. Hence, he had accepted a great provocation as his utmost efforts to avoid evoking, a specified or committed response in the mind of the prolific readers. He has presented the facts in most impartial manner which is feasible in order to convey the truth of enlightened encountering and consequently to inspire the people in most vigilant emotions. Unlike many authors who direct the reader's attention through the use of many symbols and critics or by the representation of facts in a painstaking order, Hemingway has followed the simplest objective form and attitude in his literary renunciation. ' A farewell to Arms ' is the best creation of Hemingway who has tried to enlighten the necessity of love that is universal in the midst of war, crisis and intolerance.

In the first book of the novel, Henry meets up Catherine and is afterward wounded in the battle. The second book envisages the love affairs between Henry and Catherine, which blossoms during their time together at the hospital in Milan. The third book is devoted to the retreat from Capuretteo, climacteric with Henry's desertion from the Italian Army. The fourth book deals with Henry's fight to Stresa and then their lively-beings to Switzerland with Catherine. The fifth book represents the couple's pastoral life in Switzerland, eventuating unexpected mental afflictions with Catherine's death during child's birth. Both of the phenomena relevant to love and war have been vividly and carefully thought about in the first book, preparing the readers for Henry's eventual farewell to war in the third book and the termination of love in the fifth book. The Book II deals exclusively with love and this is balanced by the similar theme in the fourth book. The third book develops the war plot and represents both the turning points for Henry and central swivel in the potting the novel.

There is a development in the character of Henry over the course of his preoccupation in the World War I and his love affair with Catherine. At the out set of the novel, it is obvious that Henry while being antagonistic for life as well as for want of a nail, does not fully understand the horrors of war, nor does he understand the final reality of death. Henry has conspicuously lost some of the idealism that influenced him charitable for the army but having observed death from somewhat limited perspective of an ambulance driver, he was still unable to fully understand the meaning of death. By contrast, Catherine was introduced as one whom, having recently lost her fiancé to the war, possesses a dear insight of the inviolable finality of death. Seemingly, Henry does not function well in the whirlwind existence of disorder and confusion. His basic desire to derive some code of life can be seen as the motive that first prompts him to pursue Catherine. His reactions to Catherine are at first physical, since he would prefer to sleep with her than to go to the army brothels. But, as he becomes more and more involved with Catherine, he sees in their relationship, a type of order, a type of commitment to a regular existence. In this context, Earnest Hemingway has tried to reflect the necessity of morality as well as universal love, which may be treated as an inevitable critic in between men and women.

When Henry has profoundly observed the Haling army in chaos, he feels no more allegiance to what has become an abstract organization. In contrast, he feels a deep sense of loyalty to Catherine. In his love affairs, he has dedicated his lives for his beloved, he can discover a sense of duty, a sense of order, and can develop a code by which he can survive on earth with true belief and utmost care. But Henry is unable to deviate himself wholly from the bonds of the traditional order. Even though he disserts the crumbling Italian army to save his own life, he is nevertheless unable to reconcile himself to the fact that he is not a traitor. Catherine, however, is not concerned, since patriotism and loyalty are, in her view, merely the bogus value adopted by others. The war is not theirs' the only reality is the love that survives for them as individuals. Unlike Henry, Henry has succeeded in isolating herself from any sense of obligation to the conventions of society. Catherine is presented in the beginning of the novel as immersed in the dislocation of personality that results from a lamentable personal loss; her fiancé had been killed in the war. What started out as casual wartime affair is transformed into a love that returns to her a sense of the beauty and significance of life? Her devotion and concern for her lover are absolute. She takes all the night shifts- the most taxing in the hospital to be near Henry. When there is a question of her accompanying her lover on leave, it is clear that no professional commitment to nursing will be able to keep her from going with him. For Henry she is that unique human being whose prime necessity power consists in the ability to make a home out of the most rigidly uncompromising places. She has no pleasure but in her lover, no thought of life outside of his ' you're my religion. You are all I have got" The Priests religion is his clear, cold country, Catherine's religion is her love. Henry begins, particularly in his relation to women and love, from a completely self-centered position. On his leave early in the novel, Henry goes to the city and immerses himself completely in the self-satisfaction. As it is pointed earlier, he signifies the realm of ideal love and sympathy by contrast and conflicts in a significant manner.



The trap of death is sprung in book V. Catherine's parturition is difficult, and the birth when it does come is finally performed through a caesarian operation. The child is born dead. Catherine herself dies soon afterwards. Yet, though, it is Catherine, who dies "A farewell to Arms" is not her tragedy She does not become commendable in her dying; she remains in the state of being estimation according to the rules of comportment which the author has set up. Catherine had the perception of death early. But it had come to the notice of Henry only since learning of the doctor's fears. Catherine knows intuitively that she is going to die. Henry senses it, but his reason will not allow him to accept it. Hence heart felt screams are echoed from the core of his heart.

" I knew she was going to die and I prayed that she would not. Oh! God, don't let her die. Oh! God, please don't let her die. I'll do anything for you if you don't let her die"

In this connection, we find consistence of Henry's outcries with the following lines of the poem composed by Ella Wheeler Willcox:

" Out! Out! a brief candle,

A life's but a walking shadow

A Poor Player!

That struts and frets his hour,

Upon the stage,

And then is heard no more,

It is a tale;

Told by an idiot,

it is full of sound and fury

Signifying nothing

In this book, Hemingway has shown that love is not only present in sweet heart but also preponderates in the midst of cruelty during war. In the wake of misfortune and bafflement of war, sufferings of humanity and overall misfortunes of the wounded, love and fraternity lie side by side. In order to serve the humanity, the doctors and the nurses' stand in their weal and woe. By dint of knowledge, education and hardihood, one becomes conversant with the reality and conflicts of life. In the battle of waterloo, Napoleon sought peace in the midst of destruction and misfortunes of the defeated soldiers. Florence Nightingale was being able to understand the service of humanity in the limitless troubles of the wounded soldiers lying in the battlefield. She afterwards had had the recognition of the world as a rare personality to continue efforts for the service of humanity. Madame Teressa had spent her whole life for the cause of humanity. She was a symbol of good mother who had contributed a lot to the service of humanity. The persons who are peaceful, sober, create awareness for service to the humanity are the rare personalities to get relieved from mental distortions by active intervention of others. Man is a social being and as such he has to dedicate himself for the cause of humanity as the specific job of an ideal personality in this ephemeral world. A man who is fighting for a just cause is always a great man being a symbol of real peace and perpetual happiness in the eternal world.

In the book, 'A farewell to Arms', Earnest Hemingway, has found a truth of maxim that love is really universal beam of light like the glittering flame of the sun which is beautified being coherent with the absorption of infra-red radiation and which created suffering by its utmost potentiality of mental distortions. Henry's heart has stirred to a great extent due to immature departure of Catharine from this ephemeral world. He has understood that man's life is ornamented with the perfection of human knowledge. He believes the theory of human imperfection of knowledge and so, he is fickle- minded in nature. Henry thinks that he has achieved the base of life due to love of Catherine who has directed the way to lead life controlled and cleanly. He had observed corruption, falsification, bribing, and tortures of the innocent people that made him bewildered self-centered and deviated from soldier's life. At that time, according to him, army life was such where cruelty and rudeness were the prime factors to lead their separate entity. When he was involved with Catherine's ideology, he had to turn over a new life, which was filled with the dreams of bright future ahead.

Hemingway has occupied a great off-planet in the sky of modern novel and it is he who has dimensionally been dedicated to contemplate human psychology with different critics and sensible aspects of life in a penetrating and blood-and-guts manifestation by bringing contrast of feelings for metaphorical representation and reflections of factual events. In his almost all novels, he has correlated the sense of using different strategies of love as enunciated with cruelty and to show the ethics of human conflicts and contrasts by bringing similarities and dissimilarities of human attitudes with symbolic ethics and the tremendous beauties of forceful happenings what is ordered and disciplined. In ornamenting different characters, he has intensified his views regarding nature by bringing contrasts with human conflicts and attitude in question. He was a personality of philosophical distinctness with which he was well versed in trimming the common thing into the depth of illuminated realm that is sequentially a criterion of critical study of life being mammoth, intensive and a realm based on wide range of truth and preponderated. It has duly stirred the heart of the readers in view of its beauty of truth to expand the maxim of human problems and its widespread solutions. Hemingway was the greatest author to ornament the characters in modern diction with regard to definitive situation in the realm of ideal sequence of life.. He was the only personality who had scrutinized firstly the dimension of human psychology and added the increased truth of beauty inside the literary feelings in most objective manner. That is to say, the author has tried heart and soul to intensify war with love by contrast, conflicts and representation of metaphor with critical realm of the sphere relevant to socioeconomic condition at that time virtually.

In this connection, a few lines composed by Benjamin Franklin, an American statesman, scientist, inventor and a famous author is worth mentioning:

" For want of a nail, the shoe was lost

For want of a shoe, the horse was lost,

For want of a horse, the rider was lost

For want of a rider, the battle was lost

For want of a battle, the kingdom was lost

And all for want of a horseshoe nail"