Farewell To Arms Loss

Words: 956
Pages: 4

Throughout the extraordinary novel, A Farewell to Arms the themes of love and loss is shown to have a significant meaning within Frederic’s life. Within chapter 34 of the novel, Frederic’s thoughts shift from the exposition of the horrors and reality of the war into having a perspective in which the world can be cruel to all people, even the good. After a nettlesome dinner with Catherine and Ferguson, Catherine and Frederic go up to their hotel room where he clarifies how he feels about Catherine. Frederic reveals that his relationship with Catherine is significantly remarkable at this point. However he realizes that his joy with Catherine will only last so long until he runs into reality. Hemingway’s use of syntax and diction conveys how there …show more content…
He can distinguish this feeling when compared to feeling lonely because that is how he felt with other girls. According to Frederic, “ Often a man wishes to be alone and a girl wishes to be alone too and if they love each other they are jealous of that in each other, but I can truly say we never felt that. We could feel alone when we were together, alone against the others. It has only happened to me like that once. I have been alone while I was with many girls and that is the way that you can be most lonely.” With other girls, Frederic tends to feel different in terms of being alone. However, when he is with Catherine he states that he never felt that way. Loneliness seems to represent a change from Frederic feeling reclusive to happy and secure with Catherine. The simple sentences within the quote mirrors the simplicity of his current situation. Frederic’s life is now straightforward since he only needs Catherine to alleviate his …show more content…
However he quickly realizes that the world breaks everyone and begins to feel gloomy: “If people bring so much courage to the world the world has to kill them to break them, so of course it kills them. The world breaks every one and afterward many are strong at the broken places. But those that will not break it kills. It kills the very good and the very gentle and the very brave impartially. If you are none of these you can be sure it will kill you too but there will be no special hurry.” Frederic’s rapturously thinking switches to a dark philosophy that maintains that the world was designed to kill the good, the gentle, and the brave. The repetition of the word “kill” in this part of the passage emphasizes his negative perception about the world. Frederic’s thoughts of good people dying, foreshadows the ending of the novel when Frederic loses his reason for living. This unforced glide from contentedness into pessimism seems to reflect the inevitable inability of such positive forces as love to neutralize the grim reality of life. From this point on, Henry and Catherine seem to be running from a force that means them harm and that, soon enough, catches up with