A Farewell to Arms essays

A Farewell to Arms essays A Farewell to Arms, by Earnest Hemingway, is a great novel about the pains of life including the great sorrow that comes with loosing those you love. Frederic Henry, the protagonist of the story, is an American Lieutenant in the Italian Army during the First World War. This fact is significant in learning why this book was written because Earnest Hemingway, an American, actually drove ambulances for the Italian Army during the war. Therefore, one could safely say that this book is somewhat of a portrayal of Hemingways own experiences during the war. The gap between humanitys noble words and its dishonorable deeds was never more obvious than during World War I. For this reason the war serves brilliantly as the setting for Hemingways novel of love and disillusionment. The story begins in the summer of 1915. This is about the time that Italy joined the war. The starting place is a city named Gorizia located in Northeastern Italy near the front with Austria-Hungary. This is where Frederic lives along with the rest of the officers. As the story develops, Frederic ends up in many different cities and towns, all along the Italian-Austrian front. The story ends in the late spring of 1918 not in Italy but rather in Lausanne, Switzerland. Hemingways choice of Italy as his setting reinforces his theme. One reason for its effectiveness is that Italy was where Hemingway served as an ambulance driver: he knew its terrain and its military history very well. Italy is also a setting that further demonstrates the ironies of war. To most of the world, France was where the real war was taking place; even today our memories of World War I are drawn mainly from the Western front. Italy was, as Henry says, the picturesque front. Yet in this picturesque land men are being slaughtered by the tens of thousands. What better time and place could serve for Frederic Henrys farewell to arms? The novel sta...