““A FarewellA Farewellto arms”to arms”

-ernest -ernest hemingway-hemingway-

-was an American author and journalist

-he produced much of his work between the mid 1920s and the mid 1950s;

-He won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1954.

-Many of his works are classics of American literature. He published seven novels, six short story collections, and two non-fiction works during his lifetime;

-he died by commiting suicide

His distinctive writing style, characterized by economy and understatement, influenced 20th-century fiction, as did his life of adventure and public image.

WORKS•"Indian Camp" (1926)•The Sun Also Rises (1927)•A Farewell to Arms (1929)•"The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber" (1935)•For Whom the Bell Tolls (1940)•The Old Man and the Sea (1951)

“A Farwell to Arms”

• A Farewell to Arms is a semi-autobiographical novel;

• The novel was based on Hemingway's own experiences serving in the Italian campaigns during the First World War. The inspiration for Catherine Barkley was Agnes von Kurowsky, a real nurse who cared for Hemingway in a hospital in Milan after he had been wounded. He had planned to marry her but she spurned his love when he returned to America.[6] Kitty Cannell, a Paris-based fashion correspondent, became Helen Ferguson. The unnamed priest was based on Don Giuseppe Bianchi, the priest of the 69th and 70th regiments of the Brigata Ancona.The source of Rinaldi are unknown;

Frederic HenryFrederic Henry

Catherine Barkley

Helen FergusonRalph Simmons

Rinaldi

The Priest

Plot SummaryThe novel is divided into five booksThe novel is divided into five books

THE FIRST BOOKHenry meets Catherine and is wounded in the knee while being on the battlefield.

THE SECOND BOOKCatherine pays Henry many visits to the hospital and they fall in love.She soon remains pregnant.

THE THIRD BOOK Henry returns to his unit and is on the point of being executed but he manages to escape by jumping into a river.

THE FORTH BOOKHenry goes to Stresa where he meets Catherine and they both go to Switzerland by boat.

THE FIFTH BOOKCatherine and the baby die.Henry walks through the rain back to the hotel.

• The novel concerns itself primarily with the development of Hemingway's philosophy of life. The story focuses on Henry's discovery of this philosophy. Hemingway, and indeed many of his existential peers, believed that the universe is unordered one. There is no God to watch over man, to dictate codes of morality, or to ensure justice. Instead, the universe is indifferent (sometimes even hostile) to man's plight. In the book, this indifference is best exemplified by the war-an ultimately futile struggle of man against man.There are no winners in a war.

Because there is no God, there are no universal moral codes, no abstract values such as "justice" or "glory," and certainly no need for moral conventions. This is what Catherine knows from the beginning and Henry learns in the course of the war. In essence, the hero learns that he, himself, is a crucial source of meaning. Finally, such a person must accept the finality of death, knowing himself to be caught in a meaningless existence.

SymbolsSymbols

• Perhaps the two most prominent symbols in this work are rain and mud. It is raining outside almost every time something bad occurs, such as the army's retreat or Catherine's death, and serves to mark these events as random occurrences (just like rain itself). Similarly, the mud serves as an obstacle to the army in both offensive and retreat, thus demonstrating nature's hostility to man.

• Other symbols include the snow and winter, which contrast the hot, dust-filled battlefield, and the act of drinking alcohol, found in characters who have abandoned social conventions.

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• It is not only a book about It is not only a book about war or love,it is also a lesson war or love,it is also a lesson of life,a philosophy that tries of life,a philosophy that tries to explain that no matter to explain that no matter what people do,they cannot what people do,they cannot fight with their destiny and fight with their destiny and no one can run away from no one can run away from death.death.