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Ernest Hemingway’s A Farewell to Arms is his greatest novel. It tells the story of love and war; of morality and immorality; of friendship and loyalty. The chapters are short. The narrative is in the first person (it seems).
Hemingway’s manipulation of language in service of storytelling is without peer, leading some readers to complain of run-on sentences. Take for example, in the very first paragraph of the book:
“In the bed of the river there were pebbles and boulders, dry and white in the sun, and the water was clear and swiftly moving and blue in the channels.” (p. 3)
The language is swift, bouncing and evokes the flowing river itself. The “and”s act like rocks or obstacles in the river’s (or sentence’s) path, conveying action both in words and in the form of words. Throughout the book, he manipulates language to represent the story beyond the meaning of the words.
This article summarizes the story, using passages from the book in parts, then analyzes some of Hemingway’s writing.
Synopsis
The story is told by American Lieutenant Frederic Henry, who volunteers to serve in the Italian Army as an ambulance driver during the First World War. Henry is laconic, detached, and a bit sarcastic. He jokes around with his friends. He pokes fun at people…