Grade recieved: 105 out of 100
Teacher Comments: I loved this. Very well written. 3/23/99
A Farewell to Arms starts with Frederick Henry putting himself into a war that he is totally detached from to distract himself from his life. Then he meets Catherine Barkely, and they play mind games with each other, but seem to fall in love in the process.
Personally, I believe that the couple does eventually really love each other. When they first meet, Catherine immediately says she loves Frederick, but only because she is so traumatized by the recent death of the fiance at the battle of Somme. She uses Frederick as a substitute for love, and to try to make up for the mistake she made of leading her old beloved on for years and never marring him, (with possibly with many more reasons than that.)
Frederick pretends along with Catherine because he wants to be in a relationship with her so that he can distract himself from thinking too much about who he is, and his feelings of love and life. When Fredrerick avoides a trip to Abrussi on his leave, and visits Milan, he does it because there are many distractions in large, crowded cities. As long as drinking, prostitutes, and waking up in unknown places distract him, he doesn't have to think. While he is technically on leave, he's really jumping from one distraction (the war), to another. That's why he is always so detached throughout the book. He never loved anything until Catherine came along; everything is a distraction to him.
His detachment from the war gave him the feeling of being invincible, he has no home, no love to return to, nothing worth hanging on to, so there is no need for the war to end for him. He was probably one of the only soldiers (at least in the book) to want to return to the war as soon as possible from the Milan hospital. He couldn't stand the thought of having six months of free, quiet time to think out his problems and what he wants.
At the hospital in Milan, I believe that Frederick already had feelings for Catherine, but it was still largely due to his need for a distraction while staying in a near-empty building.
Catherine said in the first half of the novel that, "There isn't any me anymore. Just what you want." At this point, Catherine is still trying to fool herself into thinking that she can make up for her fiance's lost. She's thinking that maybe if she gave up everything, that that will be love and she will keep him forever.
The priest from the mess had pointed out to Frederick, "When you love you wish to do things for. You wish to sacrifice for. You wish to serve." At the hospital at Milan, he first likes Catherine because she did what he wanted. However, he had not given up anything at all for her.
I believe that the two of them really fall in love during the couple of weeks before Frederick's departure back to the front. Frederick begins to think about Catherine during his free time, and during his escape from the front back to Milan.
The first thing that Frederick gives up for Catherine is risking his recapture by the Italians by seeing Catherine before fleeing with her to Switzerland. This time that they spend together on Swiss grounds is the first time that Frederick has moved from the plains (crowds of peoples, distractions) to the mountains (quiet living).
Catherine and Frederick live on the mountains and just spend all their time taking walks, talkin, drinking at inns, and sleeping. They didn't know anybody exept for Mr. And Mrs. Guttingen and a hairdresser. The couple, (usually and especially Frederick) used to surround themselves with people, and act recklessly. They are all each other has.
During this winter in Switzerland, Catherine grows stronger as a person does, and there are certain things that she wants. For example, she wants to cut her hair and have Frederick grow a beard. Frederick doesn't like either, but he doesn't object to either and grows a beard to please her.
During the labor, C�sarean, and the last operation, Frederick truly starts to worry about Catherine. "Everything was gone inside of me. . .I knew she was going to die and I prayed that she would not. Don't let her die. Oh, God, please don't let her die. I'll do anything for you if you won't let her die. You took the baby but don't let her die. . .Please, please, dear God, don't let her die." Frederick starts as a man with no religion and ends up praying to God because he loves Catherine so much that he would do and give up anything for her life. For once, Frederick knew what he wanted.
Frederick thinks to himself, "I felt no feeling of fatherhood." I think that he is almost angry with the baby for hurting Catherine so much in childbirth; I think that Frederick loves her that much. Also, he didn't even know the direction of his own life yet, how was he supposed to teach another human being?
The death of his newborn son and the chance of Catherine's death both bring him a new sense of mortality he didn't have at the front. "Now Catherine would die. That was what you did. You died. You did not know what it was about. You never had time to learn. They threw you in and told you the rules and the first time they caught you off base they killed you. Or they killed you gratuitously like Aymo. Or gave you syphilis like Rinaldi. But they killed you in the end. You could count on that. Stay around and they would kill you." In addition, there was the long passage about the burning ants on the log that he didn't save.
For me, it was very shocking when Catherine died. I had never expected that. The only thing that Frederick had in the world worth anything to him was taken away from him in one day. They had even made some plans. Catherine is to cut her hair and they would spend the spring with the Guttingens up in the mountains. They would visit Niagra Falls and the Golden Gate Bridge in America.
They would have gotten married when Catherine was thin again. It is so sad and moving to me that they never married. Catherine had started the relationship to make up for her mistake with her old fiance, but never marries Frederick either. The only difference this time is that Catherine is the one to die. While her old fiance had walked straight into the war and died, Frederick ran straight out for her.
I wonder if he'll go home to America and return to the things he did before Italy. If he does, he'll have a whole new appriciation for the time he has. He has probably found what he has been avoiding for so long.
It's hard to think of what Frederick will do now that he has lost Catherine. He comes out of their relationship, a man who has loved. If he saw the priest again, he would probably tell him that he has loved.