A Farewell to Arms - Ernest Hemingway

The thing that stood out to me with A Farewell to Arms was the progression Henry went through. Over the course of the book, I saw him as going from being a young man to an old one.

When the book starts, he's just a kid, nothing is serious, nothing is well thought out. He tells Catherine he loves her when he doesn't, because it makes her more likely to make out with him. After his injury, he seems to fall in love with her, or maybe he's just looking for someone stable to hold onto. But he does seem to love her, wants to be her husband, is willing (I wouldn't say "eager") to be a father. By the end, he's alone, left to bury a wife and child. In someways, he's old, having outlived his loved ones. Maybe Count Greffi is the same, though he doesn't give the appearance of one weighed down by the loss of those dear to him. Still, to have reached 94 years of age, he must have lost someone.

There's also the shift in Henry's attitude to the war. There was his discussion with his drivers just prior to his injury. They all think it would be better for Italy to stop fighting, no more dying or killing. He disagrees; defeat would be worse than continuing the war. He envisions the Austrians charging into Italy, attacking homes, trying to force the Italians to fight for them. His drivers counter that how can you make people fight for you? They'll just run once the battle starts, then you can either waste bullets on them, or on whoever you wanted them to fight (who is presumably taking advantage of the chaos). And as for their homes, let each man defend his own. For them, nationalism isn't anything worth thinking about. They don't see their lives as changing much whether it's Italians or Austrians who run the country*.

After his wound and return to the front, Henry seems to have come around. He's "gentle" about the war, as the priest describes it. There isn't any real fire to fight or win, just get it over with so he can go back to Catherine. Maybe the difference is less that he nearly died, and more that he has someone he could lose because of the fighting. Although then I have to wonder if the injury, that brush with mortality, was what intensified his feelings for her. Then the disaster of the retreat, the military police executing people, essentially, for not looking Italian enough, or officers for begin separated from their men. It's the point where the whole thing becomes not about defending the lives of the citizens - because if it was, they'd be establishing trenches to halt the advance - and more about salvaging military pride by scapegoating. And what the hell point is there to being part of that? So he's gone. He volunteered to help the Italians, wasn't drafted, by his own admission things ran smoothly without him, so no reason not to check out. I think he entered it on a lark, out of some ideal that no longer holds true in the face of what he experienced.

This isn't connected to the rest of this, but I was a little stunned to read the doctor advising Catherine to drink beer because it would keep the baby small. Well, the idea of encouraging an expectant mother to drink in general was strange. I realize they probably didn't know about Fetal Alcohol Syndrome back then, but it's still startling. As for Catherine herself, I have a hard time pegging her. She tried to keep Henry at arms length initially, probably because she recognized he wasn't serious about her, but also because she was concerned herself about becoming attached to him, because of the first fiance she lost. Once she falls for him, though, she seems determined to be whatever she thought he wanted her to be. Is it because she didn't marry her first fiance before he died, so she's afraid she caused his death somehow? So she molds herself to what she believes Henry wants, because somehow that'll keep him alive? She's very mercurial, but I can't tell whether that's just Hemingway's attitude towards women, or just a reflection of him. A lot of his characters are like that, shifting quickly between happiness and anger, or brooding, which sounds similar to the author himself.

I wonder about the Count character. He reminds me a bit of the baron from The Sun Also Rises. The much older character, one who survived his own battles, and is wealthy enough and confident enough in himself to live as he pleases. The baron enjoyed meeting new people, drinking, being with women, but none of it seemed too important to him. I'm not certain if that makes him in reality, what Barnes, Brett and the others were trying to be. They play at being affluent, living the high life for the sheer enjoyment of it, but really, their personal lives are disasters, they live beyond their means. So is the baron the real deal, or is he a cautionary tale? Does he have nothing else in his life, and so he tries to fill the emptiness the same as them? Or is he really just living as he pleases, with no worries? There's a line between the two, but I'm not certain which side he falls on.

As for the Count, his pleasures are considerably simpler - billiards figures prominently - but he seems largely content. I don't know if he's a sign of where Henry might end up in several decades. The fact that the Count now finds himself slipping into Italian naturally, rather than German or English seems significant in light of Henry being an American with no strong ties to his family back home. he met an Englishwoman in Italy, fled to Switzerland with her, and lost her there. During their time there, he didn't do any work that I could discern, he just passed the time with Catherine. But Henry is religious, and the Count is not, is actually disappointed he didn't become devout as he aged. Maybe because death doesn't bother him, is that why he he thought he'd become religious, he'd fear approaching death? I notice Henry prayed more after his injury, and especially after Catherine was pregnant and the delivery grew closer. When things beyond your control grow near, you turn to something beyond yourself is the point. The Count either doesn't have any such concerns, or he abandoned them, and so it doesn't work for him.

'This was a strange and mysterious war zone but I supposed it was quite well run and grim compared to other wars with the Austrians. The Austrian army was created to give Napoleon victories; any Napoleon. I wished we had a Napoleon, but instead we had Il Generale Cadorna, fat and prosperous, and Vittorio Emmanuele, the tiny man with the long thing neck and the goat beard.'

* This reminds me of those Mussolini biographies that noted that, contrary to his claims, Mussolini's policies did very little to affect the lives of the average Italian citizen, especially in rural areas. Their culture and lives didn't change much to reflect his Fascist ideals.