farewelltoarms

Part 2: A Farewell to Arms

Commentary | Approach | What Critics Say |

Photographs of Hemingway

Note: This page is in progress; I will be adding material to it and most likely also catching some errors and correcting, proofing, and polishing as I go.

COMMENTARY

“American ‘modernism,’” wrote Alfred Kazin in On Native Grounds (1940), the first book length examination of the period, ”grew principally out of . . . our writers’ absorption in every last detail of their American world together with their deep and subtle alienation from it” (ix). The new generation of writers most of whom were born on the cusp of the 20th century questioned the adequacy of traditional values that seemed to offer no safeguard against senseless destruction reaped by the Great War. They rebelled against America’s prohibition of alcohol and puritanical attitudes towards sex; and they gave their readers up close views of a lost generation—lost to drinking, promiscuity, and agnosticism in place of their parents’ faith.

Echoing Kazin’s early observations, The Harper American Literature introduces the modernist period to students today as follows:

American writers appear both fascinated with the details of American life and ambivalent toward the values that inform it. Some of the protagonists bear the scars of old injuries and wounds; others suffer from a profound sense of disappointment that culture does so little to nourish lives or enlarge their happiness. Virtually all of them appear ill equipped to cope both with alluring, threatening worlds that they inhabit and with the sharp, contradictory needs that they harbor . . . . [T]he notion of the individual as a special force capable of fashioning or making its self and remaking its world—a notion that arose in the Renaissance and later acquired an American flavor in Benjamin Franklin’s Autobiography—becomes deeply imperiled . . . . [P]rotagonists sometimes flee, sometimes withdraw, and sometimes improvise, but they rarely act with confidence in themselves or their worlds. (1092)

Willa Cather, the Modernists’ immediate precursor, continued to write until her death in 1948, but she became increasingly alienated from the post World War I world. T. S. Eliot created a complex, composite protagonist in his landmark poem The Waste Land (1922)—a profoundly broken protagonist, psychologically and spiritually fragmented who is trying to put himself back together amid the post war ruins of London and the dry, sterile wasteland of civilization at large. Hemingway’s protagonists, too, often find themselves in violent settings where no proper code of conduct exists; his characters must invent a code for themselves, knowing that it can offer no real protection from the senseless destruction of outward forces. Fitzgerald depicts the sad corruption of the American Dream of the self-made man who rises through hard work from rags to riches in his creation of Jay Gatsby.

American Modernists were as different in temperaments and politics as any group of people, but what they held in common was their adamant belief that they were living in a period of history in which the present radically broke with the past. They knew the old techniques of art would not suffice and that they had to discover new ways to write about the worlds they lived in. Therefore, modernist writers (like modernist painters, such as Picasso) were uncompromising in their commitment to presenting the early 20th century world as they perceived it no matter how difficult their work was to their audience. These writers meant to challenge readers’ perceptions by presenting them with ambiguity, ambivalence, and conflict, and offering few, if any, resolutions.

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APPROACH

1. By now you will be finishing up the novel. So, step one is simply: Finish the novel.

2. Now, step back and view the work as a whole. First, think about the structure: Next, read the excerpts in the Critics section and see if you find any of them particularly helpful to you in your own thinking about this novel.

3. Next, review the passages you have marked and see how they work together to create a larger vision. What is the larger vision of human existence Hemingway has created in this novel? Can you begin to put it into words?

4. Intertextual Connections: After reviewing this particular novel, and making useful notes, think back and create bridges to connect it with Cather's My Antonia. For example, let's compare and contrast Cather's and Hemingway's portrayal of gender roles, and think about whether or not they challenge or reinforce gender roles and stereotypes of their day--and then ours. Think ahead to Fight Club's Jack/Tyler and Marla Singer; or think about other contemporary portrayals of gender roles you might be familiar with. In addition to gender roles, what other points of comp/contrast seem most important to you ?

5. Come to class prepared to discuss: (a) key quotations from FTA; (b) what you will take away from this novel; (c). the contribution EH makes to American novel with this text; AND (d) points of comp/contrast between EH's world and Cather's. Hear what your classmates think. Make some excellent notes on this text and Cather's that you can use to review for the mid-term.

6. If seems as if we are moving too fast for you to digest what you are learning, go to the syllabus and the Tentative Course Schedule and reassure yourself that (a) we will have two weeks for Dreiser, (b) Gatsby is a comparatively short novel and fun to read; (c) They Shoot Horses, . . . is a really short novel; and finally (d) we finish Horses on March 13 with an entire week to review these texts and prepare for the mid-term. Then it's Spring Break.

6. At this point, you have now read two prominent 20th century novels and know more about Cather and Hemingway than you did two weeks ago. You are also noticing and thinking about a number of important textual details, larger thematic issues, and how form and artistic vision are related . You are developing your literary analysis skills. And you are working at articulating your ideas, insights, and textual analysis more clearly and gracefully in your writing. You are a good class--individually and as a group, and we are working well together.

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WHAT CRITICS SAY

Note: I will be adding more quotes from critics. I'll also try to proofread and correct what I have posted so far.

"A Farewell to Arms" . . . is a parable of twentieth century man's disgust and disillusionment with civilization's failure to achieve the ideals it had been promising throughout the nineteenth century." ---Ray Be West, Jr. "

"Universal violence compels the language to be mute . . . . Silence is not only a metaphor of Hemingway's work; it is also the source of its formal excellence, its integrity." --Ihab Hassan, "Hemingway: Valor against the Void" 292-93

Commentary from Dr. Barks on R. W. B. Lewis's theory of The American Adam in American novels and on the quotation from Harper's American Literature:

1. The critic R. W. B. Lewis argues that the archetypal images of America in American novels are that of Eden and the Promised Land and that the corresponding image of male protagonists is of a New Adam—a protagonist who reenacts the story of innocence, experience, and the fall, and is unable to create a fresh start or second chance or comfortable life in American society. Male protagonists are often unable to create moral, social, economic, and vocational space for themselves in a manner that allows them to realize their dreams and maintain their integrity. These protagonists often find their greatest moments of happiness away from society rather than within it: alone with nature and the imagination, they dream of worlds more commensurate with their aspirations and longings. Let's think about these ideas in relationship to Jim Burden and Frederick Henry, and these ideas with continue to be important throughout the semester. Traditionally, societies have found ways to initiate the young into rather than away from society and adult roles within society.

2. This quotation from the The Harper American Literature seems especially relevant to Frederick Henry and will continue to be relevant to the novels are reading. I have highlighted points to consider:

writers appear both fascinated with the details of American life and ambivalent toward the values that inform it. Some of the protagonists bear the scars of old injuries and wounds; others suffer from a profound sense of disappointment that culture does so little to nourish lives or enlarge their happiness. Virtually all of them appear ill equipped to cope both with alluring, threatening worlds that they inhabit and with the sharp, contradictory needs that they harbor . . . . [T]he notion of the individual as a special force capable of fashioning or making its self and remaking its world—a notion that arose in the Renaissance and later acquired an American flavor in Benjamin Franklin’s Autobiography— becomes deeply imperiled . . . . [P]rotagonists sometimes flee, sometimes withdraw, and sometimes improvise, but they rarely act with confidence in themselves or their worlds. (1092)

In addition to considering these ideas in relation to the novels and protagonists, let's think about our own lives in America today. Are we ambivalent about prevalent American values? Does American culture nourish our growth and development as human beings? Do we feel that we can cope with the world we live in? Do we have reasonable confidence in ourselves? Are we optimistic or pessimistic about creating relatively happy and satisfying lives for ourselves? What are the forces outside ourselves that threaten us today, and how do they comp/contrast with the forces that threaten Lt. Henry? Do we as individuals and as a society have means to cope with these threats? Has American culture and its institutions--such as family, school, popular culture (TV, radio, music, magazines, advertisements), religious institutions, legal institutions, politics and government, neighborhoods, and so forth--initiated us into adult roles in American society or away from American society? These are real questions, and I am eager to hear what you have to say.

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