War Devastates People’s Life

Qi+Jiankun

Abstract：Ernest Hemingway masterpiece A Farewell to Arms strongly rebukes the inhumane devastating of war to peoples lives， especially to the hero and heroines in the physical， mental and spiritual aspects although the novel， from the very beginning to the end， never depicts the bloody war scenes， yet the nightmare of the war surrounds everyone and everything like a ghost.

Key words：Ernest Hemingway； A Farewell to Arms； war； life

Ernest Hemingway is an outstanding writer in world literature in that his works always concern about ordinary peoples life and fate among some personally uncontrolled environments. In his masterpiece A Farewell to Arms， he strongly declares his opposition to the war by depicting the common peoples suffering and helplessness both physically and mentally.

1. The Tragic Ending of the love between the Hero and Heroine

The main plot of the characters love is set in war and will inevitably end in tragedy. Frederic first comes to Italy to study architect and he is called up simply because he can speak Italian. He is numb， empty and cynical. At his first meeting with Catherine， he does not take her seriously， and he always thinks that to play with her should be better than to go to whores. He does not love her nor has any idea of loving her since flirting with her is just a game for him to fill in the emptiness and the merciless numb caused by war. He only pretends to fall in love with her to let her feel being valued. When he is wounded at the battlefields and sent to American hospital in Milan offers a turning point for their love story. During his treatment in Milan， Catherine nurses Frederic wholeheartedly so that she gives her body and heart to look after him. Catherine accompanies him day and night as he requests， paying no attention to her own reputation and tiredness from hard work in as a nurse. She acts as two roles in his life——as a mother and lover in that she is tender and considerate， always putting his needs and feeling first. On learning that Frederic is going to return to the army soon， she tells her about the fact that she is pregnant but not trying to detain him， and makes sure that it does not worry him too much. Her devotion to him in his helplessness touches him immensely and also enlightens him about the meaning of true love， which makes a huge contrast against the casual attitude he held formerly. For the first time in his life he is fascinated with a woman， feeling he belongs to her and has a strong attachment to her so that when he restores his health and returns to the front， he misses Catherine so much that he dreams about her every night due to lovesickness.

2. TheWars Impact on Their Mind and Body

Later due to his hatred of war， he escapes from army and returns to Catherines arms. They both flee to Switzerland and plan to get married after she gives birth to their baby. They live an almost utopian life there. She adores him and spoils him as a mother treats her beloved son. Although they make every effort to escape the wars control over their life， yet the dark shadow of the war is everywhere. Once they are informed that someone will come here to arrest them on account of their illegal departure， which makes them leave in the rain to the sea in the darkness. The cruel war also leaves its negative mark on Catherine who often sees a horrible vision that she dies tragically in the rain， which is fulfilled as she dies painfully at a difficult delivery to her child on a rainy day. One time he has a newspaper in hands， but he says to himself："I had the paper but I did not read it because I did not want to read about the war. I was going to forget the war. I had made a separate peace” （Hemingway 173）. His extreme opposition to the war reveals the deep harm it has left on his mind as he believes the war reveals the most brutal and nasty sides in humanity and it has no connection to justice（Hemingway 178）. War makes Frederic cynical， who always embarrassed by the words such as sacred， glorious and sacrifice， etc. After the horrible experiences in war， he has seen nothing as sacred and glorious and the things that are glorious have no glory at all and the sacrifices are nothing but emptiness. The so-called honor is gained at the expense of precious lives of many innocent people. He often feels having been cheated， feeling angry and disillusioned even though he has chosen to escape the war to live a peaceful life with his lover. However this apparently happy life doesnt last long and end in tragedy eventually when Catherine dies a miserable death at her delivery， which left immense sadness on Frederics heart. At the very beginning of the book， there is a paragraph in which the description of the leaves foreshadows the love story of the main characters， which is as beautiful as yellow leaves， but it ends in tragedy. The early fallen leaves that year imply the unfortunate death of Catherine and their baby.

Even though Hemingway doesnt depict the bloody scenes of the war， yet he denounces it fiercely by depicting what Frederic and Catherine have suffered during the war and declares his belief firmly that wars are made up of only bloody killings with the least connection with glory or sacred， much less with truth or justice while wars can only devastate innocent peoples spiritual and physical lives.

【Bibliography】

[1] 杜小紅， 张美兰. 雨中求生——试析《永别了，武器》中“雨”的象征作用[J]. 井冈山师范学院学报， 2003.

[2] Hemingway， Ernest. A Farewell to Arms. 1929[M]. New York： Scribner， 2003.

[3] Spanier Sandra Whipple. Hemingways Unknown Soldier： Catherine Barkley， the Critics and the Great War New Essay on A Farewell to Arms[M]. Cambridge University Press， 1987.

[4] Keavns George. American Literature[M]. California： Glencoe Publishing Company， 1984.

[5]Baym Nina. The Norton Anthology of American Literature[M]. NewYork： W.W.Novton & Company， 1995.

【作者简介】

齐建坤，英美文学硕士，内蒙古工业大学外国语学院讲师。