Italian Scandals~

I have just finished reading "A Farewell to Arms," a 1929 book by Ernest Hemingway. 

Before I go on about the book, I feel I must mention the author and a bit about how his life might have influenced this story.  I am finding his biography on this website. Also info on his Nobel Prize.

Ernest Hemingway was born in Illinois in 1899,  at seventeen years old he started writing for a newspaper office in Kansas City.   Think about this!  At 17 yrs. old, he lived a whole state away from his hometown, and he was a paid writer.

After the United States entered the First World War, he joined a volunteer ambulance unit in the Italian army.  Serving at the front, he was wounded...    All this before even reaching twenty!  When you go to most high schools, and colleges, it's not likely that you will find a student ready to join a war, let alone for another country (learning to speak fluently) and serve at the front lines.  But in times as these it seemed not all that uncommon.

Understandable that he would write about a young American fighting for the Italian army, and give the character his perspective as an ambulance driver.

The clear morals (or lack thereof), of the main characters is very disconcerting and normally I wouldn't read such a tale of graphic depression, love, death, seduction, and pain.  Having said all this reading "A Farewell to Arms" for school is quite possibly the only way I would have ever read this book.  

Hemingway's "Heros" to put it loosely, are portrayed as strong and tough with good thoughts about intentions.  When confronted with the hardships of life, they are always losing hope and faith. . .  well more like the notion of trust in others, and concepts of some better life.  It is as if Lieutenant Frederic Henry, has seen the happy lives of others (although few characters in the book have such), and Henry desires their good fortune for his own, but refuses to become an upstanding moral person, highly principled and a thought to actions have consequences.  Even in the end, when Henry's life is crashing down around him, Ernest Hemingway doesn't allude to anything more, or remorse for choices, only Henry's bitter cry against death, man's struggle to prolong his life, and how one can only dull the pain throughout life and that is all.
This idea is seen through a powerful analogy at the very end of the story.  The problem I have with Ernest Hemingway's ending, is while he is a literary genius deserving of his Nobel prize,  I believe he missed a very important message that is woven through his story even though it is evident, the characters (and Hemingway himself) fail to see what is right in front of them.
A stronger hope, the life beyond our own, willingness to believe there is more then ourselves and even when we toil throughout life, life itself is greater then us.  An excellent literary example would be "Jane Eyre" by Charlotte Brontë,  where Jane is beaten down by life, has more then a rough time, but understands when given the choice of "anesthetic" (read Hemingway's book), even in longing desperately for an easier way, Jane choses to place her trust in God.  There is a stark contrast in these two books, one a dark tale of hopelessness and pain, the other while full of hardships gives sight to a deeper meaning in humanity and the comfort that one is never alone and is dearly loved.

Ernest Hemingway has written a detailed account of war, and perhaps he creates this feeling of defeat as a way of pointing to more.  My thoughts rest on that of redemption and a new tomorrow.  Reading "A Farewell to Arms" has given me a fresh look on life, and an understanding of other's pain an sorrows.  I hope it shows something to you as well.


The sun will come out tomorrow,