A Farewell To Arms: Love In The Shadow Of Death

A Farewell To Arms is about as positive as Hemingway is going to get. Frederic Henry is the American protagonist wounded while serving as an ambulance driver. A lieutenant in the Italian army, he lets us see World War I through his eyes.

Before we get to the heart of the book, let me highlight the character of Rinaldi, who introduces Frederic to the woman who becomes his love interest, Catherine Barkley. Rinaldi is absolutely hilarious, and his passion is characteristically Italian. This particular friendship by itself shows the camaraderie of the men in the unit. It’s an important part of who Frederic Henry is, and it demonstrates that his agnosticism or atheism isn’t bitter or nihilistic.

Speaking of which, the priest who travels with the unit functions as a reminder of the faith that Hemingway never could embrace. There’s a subtle subplot throughout between the brutality and nihilism of the war, and the implied goodness of God, though it isn’t stated by any character in those terms.

The horror of the war is well represented in literature and popular culture, for example, by Owen’s “Dulce Et Decorum Est” and All Quiet On The Western Front. This work is no exception.

Yet it asks for more from us than simple condemnation of all war. We would do well to balance our meditation on war’s horror with a recognition that the First World War could also be called, “The First War of German Aggression.” Though tactics were far behind technology for a full century, it does not follow that avoiding the war would have been a benefit.

Nor is the story merely about war. Though Catherine is based upon Agnes von Kurowsky, who broke Hemingway’s heart in 1919, there are no jilted lovers here, to my great relief.

It makes sense that this work would become an early talking film scarcely three years after its publication; love stories just work. It also has a grand scope owing to the war, but with central characters that we care about.

The American writer of the Twentieth Century began to make his legacy with this work. Fitting, given that it faces down the large and small details of the event that set the stage for that century.

Jason Kettinger is Associate Editor of Open for Business. He writes on politics, sports, faith and more.