deatharms Accepting Death in Ernest Hemingways A...

Accepting Death in Hemingways A Farewell To Arms A Farewell To Arms is Ernest Hemingways poignant yet simple tale of two young lovers who meet during the chaos of W.W.I and the relationship that endures until its tragic end. Frederick Henry, an American lieutenant in the Italian army, and Catherine Barkley, an English volunteer nurse, share a devout love for one another that deepens as Catherine becomes pregnant, yet their blissful relationship becomes tragically shortened as the baby and Catherine die as a result of the birth, leaving Frederick alone to accept their deaths. Written in the distinctive and unimbellished style signature to Ernest Hemingway, A Farewell To Arms carries the reader through a roller-coaster of emotions†¦show more content†¦Hemingway uniquely writes in a manner that continuously places his characters in the face of death; testing them to conquer it and to discover their potential to cope with lifes pressures. In A Farewell To Arms Frederick and Catherine shared many glorious times together during their lives. However, death had a subsequent test for Frederick, which was to discover his sense of being through the confrontation of death of Catherine and their baby. So that was it. The baby was dead. That was why the doctors looked so tired. But why had they acted the way they did in the room with him? They supposed he would come around and start breathing probably. I had no religion but I knew he ought to have been baptized. But what if he never breathed at all. He hadnt. he had never been alive. Except in Catherine. Id felt him kick there often enough. But I hadnt for a week. Maybe he was choked all the time. Poor little kid. I wished the hell Id been choked like that. No I didnt. Still there would not be all this dying to go through. Now Catherine would die. That was what you did. You died. You did not know what it was about. You never had time to learn. They threw you in and told you the rules and the first time they caught you off base they killed you... But they killed you in the end. You could count on that. Stay around and they would kill you (302,303). In this passage, the tragic end to Catherine and the babys life remains prominent, and Frederick realizes