Intro to Lit Blog

A Farewell To Arms, Book One

Although I've never read a Hemingway novel before, I am familiar with his famous style of using short, concise sentences to tell his story. This style works particularly well with this book because of the contrast between his emotionally detached writing and the serious subject of war. Since the sentences are so abrupt and to the point, they lack emotion from the character and makes him seem distant and detached from his surroundings. Events seem to suddenly happen and traumatic events are described with the same detail and excitement as his description of breakfast. At first I didn't like the lack of detail and emotion, but after a few chapters I found that the bluntness of Hemingway's language adds some shock value to the content. For example, on page 44 the main character tells us, “I felt him in his metal box against my chest while we drove. Then I forgot about him. After I was wounded I never found him again. Some one probably got it at one of the dressing stations.” We are told in this section that the main character will be wounded, but it is told so “matter of factly” and so suddenly that it surprised me and got me more interested in the story.

In stark contrast to this is the use of dialog. While some characters have the same dry tone as the narration, others, such as the priest and Rinaldi, are very animated and their dialog tells a lot about their character. For example, on page 63, Rinaldi goes to visit the main character and says, “Because you are gravely wounded. They say if you can prove you did any heroic act you can get the silver. Otherwise it will be the bronze. Tell me exactly what happened. Did you do any heroic act?” There are still short sentences, but in this instance these sentences create a frantic pace with the dialog and you can tell that Rinaldi is excitable and his mind is all over the place. The priest also speaks in short sentences, but his voice is kind and serious which is given away only by the word choice and the use of proper grammar.

The ability to convey such a variety of emotions such as fear, hate, and love with such few words is truly remarkable. Hemingway's short sentences do create distance, but it may have been intentional. With such serious subject matter as war, it seems fitting that the main character distances himself from it and tells the story as if it's no big deal. When the camp is attacked and the main character watches his soldier die, it is told only as facts, there is no emotion in the narrative. That scene seemed very real to me because of the blunt way it was described. I imagine that is how the main character would have experienced it – without emotion attachment. Most traumatic experiences are remembered like that. Any additional description would have ruined this effect. While the story itself is interesting enough, it's the style that makes me want to keep reading.

posted by rcunning @ 4:11 PM