Characteristics of the hero frederic henry in chapter IV of ‘a farewell to arms’ by earnest hemingway

TOPIC Characteristics of the hero Frederic Henry in Chapter IV of ‘A Farewell to Arms’ by Earnest Hemingway Group Members of Group 45.Phạm Thị Loan 46.Phạm Thị Phương Loan 47.Trần Ngọc Chi Mai 48.Vũ Chi Mai 49.Vũ Thị Mến 50.Lương Tuyết Minh 51.Phạm Ngọc Minh –Leader 2| P a g e OUTLINE INTRODUCTION I Introduction of the author and the novel The author - Earnest Hemingway The novel - A Farewall to Arms II Characteristics of the hero Frederic Henry General characteristics of Frederic Henry in the novel Characteristics of Frederic Henry in the Chapter IV 2.1 Frederic Henry – A responsible person in work 2.2 Frederic Henry – an optimistic man 2.3 Henry’s attitude towards the war 2.4 Henry’s attitude towards Miss Barkley III The value of content and art in the Chapter IV to set off the characteristic of hero Frederic Henry CONCLUSION INTRODUCTION Nobel Prize winner Ernest Hemingway was one of the most important writers of the 20th Century His brief writing style in his novels "A Farewell to Arms," "The Sun Also Rises," and "The Old Man and the Sea" changed literature forever Hemingway left behind an impressive body of work and an iconic style that still influences writers today His personality and constant 3| P a g e pursuit of adventure loomed almost as large as his creative talent The publication of A Farewell to Arms cemented Hemingway's stature as a modern American writer, became his first bestseller, and is described as "the premier American war novel from that debacle World War I." The story is about a love affair between the expatriate American Henry and Catherine Barkley against the backdrop of the First World War, cynical soldiers, fighting and the displacement of populations 4| P a g e I Introduction of the author and the novel The author - Earnest Hemingway • The Life of Ernest Hemingway Ernest Miller Hemingway was born in Oak Park, Illinois (just outside of Chicago) on July 21, 1899 His father, Clarence, was a medical doctor and his mother, Grace, was a voice and piano teacher As a young boy, his father taught him how to hunt and fish the untouched wilderness of Northern Michigan Right away in Horton's Bay, the young boy learned a delicate appreciation for the beauty and intricacy of nature, as he could often be found along the many streams of the area Although his writing carried him to many large cities like Paris, Chicago, and Toronto, the undying peace and serenity Ernest found in Mother Nature continued throughout his life and is certainly evident in his many works Hemingway graduated the Oak Park public school system in 1917 and followed his interest in writing to the Kansas City Star, where he served as a young reporter In just his short time at the paper, he learned some aspects of style that would follow him as an accomplished writer for all his days, as the Star emphasized short sentences, short paragraphs, active verbs, authenticity, compression, and clarity Hemingway later said: "Those were the best rules I ever learned for the business of writing I've never forgotten them." At this same time, World War I was raging over the grounds of Europe, and Woodrow Wilson was now unable to stop the United States from entering Our young masculine man wanted very badly to enlist in the army and serve in WWI, but his poor eyesight prevented him from doing so Instead, he became an ambulance driver for the Red Cross in Italy Only one month after his arrival, Hemingway was badly wounded in both legs by an Austrian mortar shell and immediately afterwards by machine-gun fire while carrying a wounded Italian soldier to safety This injury disputably gave him the title of “the first American casualty of the war.” Hemingway was coined a hero for his actions on the battlefront and was awarded the Italian Silver Medal for Valor The surgery to repair the 200 shards of shrapnel in his leg was successful and while he was in the hospital, the nineteen-year old fell in love with a nurse named Agnes von Kurowsky He wrote her almost daily, but was eventually crushed when she told him that she was simply too old for him Finally returning home from Milan, Hemingway eventually took a job with the Toronto Star Weekly and married his first of four wives, Hadley Richardson, in September 1921 The happy (at the time) couple then moved to Paris, where the books of literature were being rewritten by expatriate writers like James Joyce, Gertrude Stein, and F Scott Fitzgerald First introduced by Sherwood Anderson (an author also studied in this course,) he became acquainted with many of these fine artisans of the era His reporting in this time was extensive, as he covered subjects like the Geneva Conference, bullfighting, and fishing, all of which interested him greatly later in life.Then, with a recommendation from Ezra Pound, Ford Maddox Ford let Hemingway edit the Transatlantic Review.In this time, some of Hemingway's earliest stories were published, including "Indian Camp" and "Cross Country Snow." 5| P a g e From 1925 to 1929 Hemingway wrote some of the most prominent landmarks of the 20th century, including In Our Time (1925) which contained “The Big Two-Hearted River,” The Sun Also Rises, (1926) and then Men Without Women (1927) which collected “The Killers,” and “In Another Country.” A Farewell to Arms was published in 1929 as the most genuine (and first) account of World War I and established him as one of the monumental writers of his time From there on, Hemingway traveled to such places as Key West for fishing, Africa for hunting, and Spain for bullfighting Drawing from his unique personal experiences, he continued his flurry of inspiration by writing such works as For Whom the Bell Tolls, Death in the Afternoon, and The Green Hills of Africa Late in his life, Hemingway struggled with deteriorating health, four different marriages, and a deep depression which eventually caused him to commit suicide in his home in Katchum, Idaho on July 2, 1961 at the age of 61 • Hemingway’s Writing Style Ernest Hemingway’s writing is among the most recognizable and influential prose of the twentieth century Many critics believe his style was influenced by his days as a cub reporter for the Kansas City Star, where he had to rely on short sentences and energetic English Hemingway’s technique is uncomplicated, with plain grammar and easily accessible language His hallmark is a clean style that eschews adjectives and uses short, rhythmic sentences that concentrate on action rather than reflection Though his writing is often thought of as “simple,” this generalization could not be further from the truth He was an obsessive reviser His work is the result of a careful process of selecting only those elements essential to the story and pruning everything else away He kept his prose direct and unadorned, employing a technique he termed the “iceberg principle.” In Death in the Afternoon he wrote, “If a writer of prose knows enough about what he is writing about he may omit things that he knows and the reader, if the writer is writing truly enough, will have a feeling of those things as strongly as though the writer had stated them The dignity of movement of the iceberg is due to only one-eighth of it being above water.” Hemingway is also considered a master of dialogue The conversations between his characters demonstrate not only communication but also its limits The way Hemingway’s characters speak is sometimes more important than what they say, because what they choose to say (or leave unsaid) illuminates sources of inner conflict Sometimes characters say only what they think another character will want to hear In short, Hemingway captures the complexity of human interaction through subtlety and implication as well as direct discourse The writers of Hemingway’s generation are often termed “Modernists.” Disillusioned by the large number of casualties in World War I, they turned away from the nineteenth-century, Victorian notions of morality and propriety and toward a more existential worldview Many of the era’s most talented writers congregated in Paris Ezra Pound, considered one of the most significant poets of the Modernist movement, promoted Hemingway’s early work, as did F Scott Fitzgerald, who wrote to his editor, Maxwell Perkins, on Hemingway’s behalf The powerful impact of Hemingway’s writing on other authors continues to this day Writers as diverse as Bret Easton Ellis, Chuck Palahniuk, Elmore Leonard, and Hunter S Thompson have credited him with contributing to their styles Direct, personal writing full of rich imagery was Hemingway’s goal Nearly fifty 6| P a g e years after his death, his distinctive prose is still recognizable by its economy and controlled understatement The novel - A Farewall to Arms “A Farewell to Arms” is a novel by Ernest Hemingway set during the Italian campaign of World War I The book, published in 1929, is a first-person account of American Frederic Henry, serving as a Lieutenant ("Tenente") in the ambulance corps of the Italian Army The title is taken from a poem by 16th-century English dramatist George Peele “A Farewell to Arms” is an anti-war novel in which Hemingway wanted to make the reader see war as a merciless massacre of men and woman and the senseless destruction of the values created The novel falls onto five parts, each describes a different phase in Frederic Henry’ adventures - the main character of the novel.It is also a typical love story A Romeo and his Juliet placed against the odds In this novel, Romeo is Frederick Henry and Juliet is Catherine Barkley Their love affair must survive the obstacles of World War I Henry falls in love with Catherine Barkley, a volunteer nurse from Great Britain When he wounded she nurses him at the hopsital His convalescence is over, he returns to the front and finds himself in an disorganized retreat He deserts during the mass retreat, rejoining the girl he loves, and they escape to Switzerland in a small boat over the lake of Maggiore Their idyll comes to an end when she dies in child-birth The plot is revealed in the famous concise Hemingway style where many detailed descriptions of characters are omitted leaving room for full description of events The reader is expected to follow the events carefully and imagine the details for himself Each personages that disclose the characters in full so that they can be seen eventually in retrospect “A Farewell to Arms” is often referred to by literary critics as “a masterpiece of imaginative omissions” The story is told in the first person, by Frederic Henry, the hero of the novel The love between Catherine and Frederick must outlast long separations, life-threatening war-time situations, and the uncertainty of each others’ whereabouts or condition This novel is a beautiful love story of two people who need each other in a period of upheaval Frederick Henry is an American who serves as a lieutenant in the Italian army to a group of ambulance drivers Hemingway portrays Frederick as a lost man searching for order and value in his life Frederick disagrees with the war he is fighting It is too chaotic and immoral for him to rationalize its cause He fights anyway, because the army puts some form of discipline in his life At the start of the novel, Frederick drinks and travels from one house of prostitution to another and yet he is discontent because his life is very unsettled He befriends a priest because he admires the fact that the priest lives his life by a set of values that give him an orderly lifestyle Further into the novel, Frederick becomes involved with Catherine Barkley He slowly falls in love with her and, in his love for her, he finds commitment Their relationship brings some order and value to his life Compared to this new form of order in his life, Frederick sees the losing Italian army as total chaos and disorder where he had previously seen discipline and control He can no longer remain a part of something that is so disorderly and so, he deserts the Italian army 7| P a g e Frederick’s desertion from the Italian army is the turning point of the novel This is the significance of the title, A Farewell to Arms When Frederick puts aside his involvement in the war, he realizes that Catherine is the order and value in his life and that he does not need anything else to give meaning to his life At the conclusion of this novel, Frederick realizes that he cannot base his life on another person or thing because, ultimately, they will leave or disappoint him He realizes that the order and values necessary to face the world must come from within himself Catherine Barkley is an English volunteer nurse who serves in Italy She is considered very experienced when it comes to love and loss since she has already been confronted with the death of a loved one when her fiance was killed earlier in the war The reader is not as well acquainted with Catherine’s inner thoughts and feelings as we are with those of Frederick The story is told through Frederick’s eyes and the reader only meets Catherine through the dialogue between her and Frederick or through his personal interpretations of her actions Catherine already possesses the knowledge that her own life cannot be dependent on another She learned this lesson through the death of her fiance Her love for Frederick is what her life revolves around, yet she knows not to rely on him to be the order in her life Had she been dependent on Frederick for the order in her life, she would not have been able to allow him to participate in the war for fear of losing her own stability with his death The theme that Hemingway emphasizes throughout the novel is the search for order in a chaotic world Hemingway conveys this through Frederick’s own personal search during the chaos of World War I Chapter IV is one of the first chapters of the novel It describes a Henry’s morning in an army camp near the battle line and the first meeting of Frederic Henry with Catherine Barkley, to whom he is introduced by an Italian, Rinaldi The chapter IV starts by Henry’s reaction to enemy fire with manly understatement, calling it a "nuisance”, and ends by a short coversation between Henry and Catherine A certain mood felt in the novel which later to become Hemingway’s chief lyric motif: that is a moral advantage in defeat Man may be trampled by war, man may die, but the pround spirit of man can not be conquered Hemingway’s heroes not panic in the face of disaster “A farewell t o Arms” is still read and admired by many generations to come II Characteristics of the hero Frederic Henry General characteristics of Frederic Henry in the novel A Farewell to Arms, a novel of love and war, written by Ernest Hemingway, tells us a gripping story of a passionate lover named Frederic Henry, the protagonist of the novel who never tires of love making Hemingway’s portrayal of Lieutenant Frederic Henry is one of the author’s triumphs in the sphere of characterization Henry is a man without religion, morality, politics, culture or history He cherishes private, isolated life and attempts at shirking social responsibilities He is receptive, a keen observer but curiously passive We come to know that Henry is a rootless person who has a stepfather somewhere in America but he has quarrelled so much with his family as hardly to have any communication with them He is an American who came to Italy to study architecture and he speaks fluent 8| P a g e Italian He has volunteered to serve in the Italian Ambulance Corps for reasons which are nowhere made clear to us He is a non-combatant and is more of a spectator than a participant in the war The loyalty that he feels for Rinaldi and the priest and the group of ambulance drivers is very important He has also had sexual experiences with many women but none of them affected him in any meaningful way The priest says that Henry does not love God and he does not love women either At first, he merely flirts with Catherine thinking her an easy prey to his lust and he plays a game with her At one point, Henry falls in love with Catherine and he wonders at this development From now on Catherine becomes the centre of the world for him He has made ‘a separate peace’ and would now like to be reunited with Catherine He now builds a small-enclosed world for himself and Catherine Count Greffi tells him that his love is a religious feeling and we feel it too As for becoming a husband, he has offered several times to get formally married to Catherine but Catherine kept putting off the marriage The death of Catherine is the psychic wound which Henry has suffered and which he will always bear in mind He learns about war, love and finally death Catherine’s death is the final stage in his initiation To conclude, in Frederic Henry we see a development from a Hemingway hero to a Code hero A sexually promiscuous, hard drinking ‘creature’, he ultimately transcends the cult of hedonism in his true love for Catherine Catherine’s death leaves him a heroic figure in his stoic endurance of his experience Characteristics of Frederic Henry in the Chapter IV 2.1 Frederic Henry – A responsible person in work In chapter IV, Frederic Henry proves to be a responsible person in work His responsibility is revealed through his attention to the operation of the machines At the beginning of the chapter IV, when Henry wakes up, he goes around to check machines: “I addressed, went downstairs, had some coffee in the kitchen and went out to the kitchen and went out to the garage” “The machines were working on one out in the yard Three others were up in the mountains at dressing stations” Henry asks one of the mechanics whether the machine have trouble or not? For example: “How’s everything?” “What’s the matter with this machine?” “What’s the matter now?” The mechanic stops working and says that It still okay All machines are used except one “Not so bad This machine is no good but others march” “It’s no good One thing after another” “New rings” And then, He leaves them working and checks everything very carefully: “They were moderately clean, a few freshly washed, others dusty I looked at the tyres carefully, looking for cuts and stone bruises” “Has there been any trouble getting parts?” Henry asked the sergeant mechanic “No, Signor Tenente” “Where is the gasoline park now?” 9| P a g e “At the same place” “Good” And he goes back to the house when he knows “Everything seemed in good condition” 2.2 Frederic Henry – an optimistic man Henry lives in the cutthroat front: “The battery in the next garden woke me in the morning” “The battery fired twice and the air came each time like a blow and shook the window and made the front of my pajamas flap” However, he still feels the beauty of the scenery surrounding him The nature is beautiful like a romantic picture: “The gravel paths were moist and the glass was wet with dew” He gets out of the bed when seeing the sun coming through the window After that, He goes to the window and looks out this scene Though it is cold and wet, actually it is fresh and vital It completely differentiates from cutthroat front and makes him more comfortable and peaceful He still feels happy and optimistic even it is an annoying and dangerous circumstance: “It was a nuisance to have them there but it was a comfort that they were no bigger” Besides, he also assumed that “This is the picturesque front” when Miss Barkly imagine about a silly idea that the boy who is going to marry her will come to the hospital where she is with wounds: “With a sabre cut, I suppose, and a bandage around his head Or shot through the shoulder.” 2.3 Henry’s attitude towards the war Henry did not lose his believe in the war He confirmed: “They won’t crack here.” “They did very well last summer.” Herry did not lose his believe in the war, did not share Miss Barkley’s opinion of the war When Miss Barkley asked: “Do you suppose it will always go on?”, Henry said that : “What’s to stop it” All of these illustrations in this chapter prove that Henry is still optimistic and believes in the war 2.4 Henry’s attitude towards Miss Barkley - The first impression of Henry to Barkley: In chapter IV, Catherine Barkley appears beautiful in Henry’s eyes when she in the garden with another nurse “Miss Barkley was quite tall She wore what seemed to me to be a nurse’s uniform, was blond and had a tawny skin and gray eyes I thought she was very beautiful She was carrying a thin rattan stick like a toy ridding-crop bound in leather” Especially, Henry is strongly impressed by her hair, “ We sat down on a bench and I looked at her – ‘ you have beautiful hair’, I said” In this chapter, Barkley is not only a beautiful woman but also a faithful sweetheart towards her fiancé The thin rattan stick in her hand is the souvenir of her fiancé He died in the battle of the Somme It reminds her of good memory about love affair with her fiancé She is willing to anything for him, even cut her hair “I was going to cut it all off when he died.” “I want to something for him You see I didn’t care about other thing and he could have had it 10| P a g e all He could have anything he wanted if I would have known I would have married him or anything I know all about it now But then he wanted to go the war and I didn’t know” In short, Barkley leaves Henry a deeply impression on the first meeting by the beauty and the faith toward her fiancé - Henry is a sympathetic person to Miss Barkley: This characteristic is revealed through the conversation between Henry and Barley in the first meeting He proves to understand the sad story of Barkley’s love affair He listens to Barkley attentively and sympathetically when she talks about her fiancé, “ It belonged to a boy who was killed last year’, said Barkley – ‘I’m awfully sorry’, Henry said – ‘he was a very nice boy He was going to marry me and he was killed in the Somme’, Barkley said – ‘It was a ghastly show’, Henry replied… ‘ I didn’t say anything’ In the context of chaotic war, it was very precious when a person spends time and emotion listening to another person’s life story In this situaton it is more precious because although Henry and Catherine Barkley meet each other for the first time, he already sympathizes with Barkley III The value of content and art in the Chapter IV to set off the characteristic of hero Frederic Henry The work has potentially a positive sense about people in war It‘s optimism praising revolutionary heroism permeating with the spirit of freedom and humanism The motive for Henry’s participation in the war is the patriotic action fighting for the welfare of his country He is depicted here as one of many who are made to believe when the war breaks out that their participation in the war is patriotism and that their sacrifice is not in vain Through the novel, comradeship as the only fine bright that war has brought in Hemingway’s novel It seems to have formed a deep tone of humanity left among the formidable destruction of battlefield scenes In this chapter, Henry out between the solidiers as a big brother He is responsible and loving to comrade He cares about the broken machine, checks everything very carefully and goes back to the house only when he knows “ everything seemed in good condition” In addition, he is the one while people go to sleep , having still voluntarily a wakeful night to prepare meal for friends Henry perhaps embodies the author Hemingway past served as US troop in Italy as Henry Hemingway’s personal story to tell the story of the era and a generation of that era so the writer focuses deeper into private life of the main character- Henry Besides, internationalism and human love exist steadily in Hemingway’s work It’s the sentiment of the Italian soldiers and the US ones each other on the movement We can see this is the original, values of literary workshumanity never dies in the nature of the human soul In view of Hemingway, passionate love in war is real It is seen as a cure to help people escape from war to find happiness, to get to the place to rebuild their lives Henry – Catherine’s love story in the context of war cage is the love story of Romeo and Juliet in modern times Later, after deciding to leave the battlefield, Henry thinks of her as a finality that love is the fulcrum but that wish does not come true It shatters like a beautiful soap bubble, delicate and full of illusion With the author, romantic love may interfere well and survive in a deadly war Still there is room for silent love taking place and ending to condemn the brutality and extent of war destruction 11| P a g e The main character struggles for understanding through effective communication In this chapter, Hemingway uses the iceberg writing style artfully by short declarative sentences In fondness for Catherine , Henry reveals a vulnerability usually hidden by his stoicism and masculinity The quality of the language that Henry uses to describe her hair and her presence “ you have beautiful hair” or “ she had a tawny skin and gray eyes I thought she was beautiful” testifies to the genuine depth of his feelings for her The author wants to hide to the depth of meaning without writing too much and then we can understand Henry’s feeling and emotion with very short and effective sentences The author also uses carefully selected words He repeats usage of his characteristic punctualities when describing events, people and things In addition, he eases usage of adjective, adverbs and focuses on nouns and verbs The story, typical of Hemingway style, depicts the hero as a person with a dangerous job who goes about it without fear and accepts defeat with bravery and brushes off death around him His short sentences magnificently relay the potent emotion of the characters through well- placed imagery Therefore, nowhere is Hemingway’s uncanny ability to portray character emotion and development more omnipresent than in A farewell to Arms CONCLUSION 12| P a g e Critics generally agree that A Farewell to Arms is Hemingway’s most accomplished novel It offers powerful descriptions of life during and immediately following World War I and brilliantly maps the psychological complexities of its characters using a revolutionary, pareddown prose style Furthermore, the novel, like much of Hemingway’s writing during what were to be his golden years, helped to establish the author’s myth of himself as a master of many trades: writing, soldiering, boxing, bullfighting, big-game hunting The novel is a story of initiation in which the growth of the protagonist, Frederic Henry, is recounted Frederic Henry experiences the disillusionment, the hopelessness and the disaster of the war as well as a passionate love It is typically that Hemingway did not provide much in the way of physical descriptions of Henry, however, Frederic Henry, Hemingway's "Code Hero" was described through his deeds and action in the whole novel Furthermore, because Hemingway allows Henry to narrate the book, Hemingway is able to suffuse the entire novel with the power and pathos of an elegy: A Farewell to Arms, which Henry narrates after Catherine’s death, confirms his love and his loss 13| P a g e ... Introduction of the author and the novel The author - Earnest Hemingway The novel - A Farewall to Arms II Characteristics of the hero Frederic Henry General characteristics of Frederic Henry in the novel... War I Chapter IV is one of the first chapters of the novel It describes a Henry s morning in an army camp near the battle line and the first meeting of Frederic Henry with Catherine Barkley, to. .. attitude towards Miss Barkley III The value of content and art in the Chapter IV to set off the characteristic of hero Frederic Henry CONCLUSION INTRODUCTION Nobel Prize winner Ernest Hemingway