A Farewell to Arms
Book 1: Page 1- 77
1. Hemingway’s Writing style
2. Masculinity, Games and Diversions
3. Character Study: Frederic Henry, The
Priest and Rinaldi
Hemingway’s Writing Style
First person narrator, understatement,
clipped dialogue, unadorned prose
‘Things went very badly’
‘Only seven thousand died of [cholera] in the army.’ (Page 4)
1. How does Hemingway’s use of understatement and sparse prose
influence the way the readers’ understanding of or feeling about
the war?
1. Why do you think Hemingway chose to use a first person narrator?
What is the effect of this?
EXTENSION: Look through your novel to find other examples of this
style.
Ways of escaping the horrors of the war
The world of the senses vs the world of thought
“Looking out the window [of a brothel]”
“Eating spaghetti seriously.”
“nights in bed, drunk, when you knew that was all there was.” (page
13)
“There isn’t always an explanation for everything.” (p17)
1. Look these quotes up in your novel to be sure you understand the
context. What do these show us about the way Hemingway’s men
deal with war?
2. Using quotes, explain how the priest is different and why the other
men mock him so much.
Masculinity
What are ‘real men’
like?
Masculinity
What are ‘real men’ like according to Hemingway?
In groups of 3, find examples from the text that demonstrate the
following masculine traits.
(Write down the example/quote and record a page number.)
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
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Heavy drinkers
Detached attitude to sex and love
Want to be heroes
Calm in the face of death
Atheistic/ irreligious
Anti-intellectual or ‘over-thinking’ things
Follow a ‘code of brotherhood.’
Good at games and like winning
Frederic’s early attitude to Catherine
“What the hell, I thought. I stroked her hair and patted her
shoulder.” (pg 25)
“I knew I did not love Catherine Barkley nor had any idea of
loving her. This was a game, like bridge, in which you said
things instead of playing cards.” (pg 29)
“And I did not care what I was getting into. This was better
than going every evening to the house for officers where
the girls climbed all over you.” (pg 29
1. Using the quotes above in your answer, explain Frederic’s
initial attitude towards Catherine.
CLOSE TEXT STUDY
• PAGE 27-39
Rinaldi? Henry? The Priest?
• takes on a kind of older brother role
• Recognises and appeals to Frederic’s sensitive side
• Determined to dull his mind by ‘not caring’ and blunting the trauma caused by
the war.
• He is faithful, affectionate, boisterous and supportive of Frederic
• Always mocked by the others in ‘the mess’ but shows great tolerance
• Constantly refers to Frederic as ‘Baby’
• During the day, he seems sober and is always describing the mud and the rain
• He is oversexed and appears unbelievably frivolous in his attitude to women
• He doesn’t appear to have any faith in ideals, except for his devotion to his work.
• Wanted Frederic to visit his family in Capracotta
• He is intrigued by Catherine’s direct speech about the war and the death of her
fiancé at the Somme
• represents the typical Italian temperament
• Initially, he uses love as another means of diversion
• Devout and tries to act as a moral compass for the others
• No longer believes in the glory of war, sees no reason for it
Rinaldi
Lieutenant Rinaldi takes on a kind of older brother role, even though he is the
same age as Frederic. He seems determined to emphasise his maturity by
constantly referring to Frederic as ‘Baby’. Rinaldi is a surgeon who patches
up broken bodies and sends them back into battle. His is oversexed and
appears unbelievably frivolous in his attitude to women: ‘I am now in love
with Miss Barkley. I will take you to call. I believe I will probably marry Miss
Barkley’. (p.11)
He is faithful, affectionate, boisterous and supportive of Frederic. He
immediately stands aside for his friend’s interest in Catherine. Rinaldi has a
zestful attitude to life, some say he represents the typical Italian
temperament, but this may be a mask to avoid serious contemplation of
war’s butchery. He doesn’t appear to have any faith in ideals, except for his
devotion to his work.
The Priest
The priest is another of Frederic’s friends at the Italian Front.
He is mocked by the other soldiers. ‘All thinking men are
atheists,’ taunts the major. However, Frederic listens to him.
When he takes leave and forgets about the priest’s
invitation to visit his family in Capracotta and hunt in
Abruzzi, Frederic is regretful about this. It seems like
Catherine and the priest recognise the sensitivity in
Frederic that lies beneath his participation in overt
masculine games. Of the priest he says enigmatically ‘He
had known what I did not know and what, when I learned
it, I was always able to forget’.
What is this ‘it’ that the priest knows but Frederic does not?
Frederic Henry
Hemingway offers no explanation or motivation for his character’s journey. Catherine Barkley
asks him directly and Frederic replies casualty and evasively, ‘There isn’t always an
explanation for everything’. (p.17) In hindsight, this comment can be read as an absurdist
response to an irrational world.
At first, Frederic doesn’t seem to be a deep thinker. He has a low opinion of the generals
judging by the way he describes the way they splash mud upon their soldiers from staff cars.
He is at ease enjoying manly pursuits, eating, drinking and keeping company with prostitutes.
But there is a sensitive side too, as he also enjoys the talking with the priest, who is teased
by the other officers. Mostly he seems intent on dulling his mind by ‘not caring’ and blunting
the trauma from the horrific suffering inflicted by the war.
Initially, he intends to make Catherine another part of his diversions, but he is intrigued by her
direct speech about the war and the death of her fiancé at the Somme: ‘He didn’t have a
sabre cut. They blew him to bits’. (p.19) Even though he says ‘I did not love Catherine
Barkley nor had any idea of loving her’. (p.29) He finds her more interesting than he can
explain. Perhaps it is because she sees through his games. Perhaps it is because she
perceives possibilities in him that he isn’t conscious of: ‘You’re a very good boy’.
HOT SEAT
• Write a list of questions to ask Rinaldi, The
Priest and Frederic Henry.
To be submitted at the end of class
• Using quotes and examples form the text,
describe in detail, how Hemingway’s male
characters attempt to escape the horrors of
war.
Feedback on work on work submitted
LANGUAGE
Avoid slang
• Mates - Great companions
• Kick back – relax
• Have few beers – consume alcohol
Avoid repetition (Hint: use a thesaurus)
• Annoyed by the war = disillusioned, traumatised, deeply
affected, disenchanted
Topic sentences
Does the first sentence of a paragraph make a point about an
idea? Or does it give details about a character or part of the
plot?
Try to look for a bigger central idea to link points
together, rather than just listing things in an overly
simplistic way.
FOR EXAMPLE:
They drunk alcohol and ate lots of food to escape the war.
They indulged in the world of the senses in order to
escape the horrors of the war.
OR
To avoid thinking about the war, they focused excessively
on other things, such as food and alcohol.
Try to include some discussion of the
way the author creates meaning.
FOR EXAMPLE:
• To avoid thinking about the war, they focused
excessively on other things, such as food and
alcohol. This is highlighted by Hemingway’s
lengthy descriptive passages of the men
“eating spaghetti seriously.” This is in sharp
contrast to the sparse details he provides
about the war itself.
Are you re-telling instead of analysising?
Ask yourself, am I just describing something or am I also
explaining what it means and why it is in the story?
• At first Henry only sees women as a game, “like
bridge.”
• At first Henry only sees women as a game, “like
bridge,” demonstrating his cynicism as a result of the
war.
Avoid oversimplifying
• Priest –
Did the priest escape the war by turning to god?
Or did his faith give his life a sense of meaning
despite the horrors of war? The others didn’t
have this sense of meaning because of their
disillusionment regarding the war and their
lack of faith in anything else.
Chapter 4
• Explain the difference between Catherine and Henry’s attitude to
‘knowing things’. Look specifically at their different ideas about why it may
or may not be important to know the truth about things.
• What character traits are we starting to see in Catherine?
• In Pairs, go through the list of quotes and decide what they show the
reader about the character of Catherine.
• Individually, read through the embedding quotes sheet and practice this
skill.
WRITING TASK: Catherine is a passive and naive character. Do you agree?
Using quotes, write a paragraph explaining your point of view.
THEME STUDY: Games and diversions.
TASK 1: See pp.6-7, p.29, pp.60-62, pp.118-119 and pp.230-231.
What do you think Hemingway is saying about how men
communicate here?
TASK 2: Now complete the close Text Study - Page 53-55
RAIN
• Rain serves in the novel as a potent symbol of the
inevitable disintegration of happiness in life. Catherine
infuses the weather with meaning as she and Henry lie in
bed listening to the storm outside. As the rain falls on the
roof, Catherine admits that the rain scares her and says that
it has a tendency to ruin things for lovers. Of course, no
meteorological phenomenon has such power; symbolically,
however, Catherine’s fear proves to be prophetic, for doom
does eventually come to the lovers. After Catherine’s
death, Henry leaves the hospital and walks home in the
rain. Here, the falling rain validates Catherine’s anxiety and
confirms one of the novel’s main contentions: great love,
like anything else in the world—good or bad, innocent or
deserving—cannot last.
• Find 3 significant moments when it rains.