Quick note: MAJOR spoilers ahead, early viewers beware! You have been warned!
Question 1
In chapter 34, when Frederic and Catherine are staying at the hotel together, Frederic remarks to himself:
“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.”
Do you think that we could see this quote as a possible allusion to/foreshadowing of Catherine’s soon-to-be fate? Was death in a “special hurry” to meet Catherine, as she is regarded as being among the ranks of “the very good and the very gentle and the very brave” by Frederic? Why or why not?
Question 2
We have spoken fairly in-depth about our views on the symbolism of rain and water throughout this story. The theme quite actually does not stop until the very end of the last chapter where it is forced to do so upon the closing of the last sentence. The last line of chapter 41 reads as follows:
“After a while I went out and left the hospital and walked back to the hotel in the rain.”
In the context of Frederic leaving the hospital after the deaths of both Catherine and their son, and taking into consideration some of the ways in which we suppose the rain is meant to reflect his emotional state, do you view the rain he walks out into to act more as a cleansing force for him or as a sign of his despair? Or, do you see it as being of other significance? In any instance, why?
Question 3
As the second appendix of the novel states, Hemingway wrote 47 different endings to A Farewell to Arms. Although some are more complete than others, each one offers a different take on the end direction of the novel. At the canonical conclusion of Frederic Henry’s story as we know it, do you feel that the ending lived up to your expectations? Additionally, do you feel as if Hemingway should have gone with one of his several other endings for Frederic’s story instead? If so, which one(s) do you find to be a more suitable ending? Do you feel that your chosen alternative ending(s) would do the story better justice? How?
1-Great question. I think this sentence is exactly what you claim, a foreshadowing of Catherine’s sad fate. I am not the biggest fan of Lt. Henry and I feel like Catherine is the more noble of the two characters. She is the brave and the good and I do believe that death was always waiting for her.
2-It is my feeling that the rain in this text is always a symbol of doom, despair, and death. If you remember Catherine predicted her own death (page 110): “I’m afraid of the rain because sometimes I see me dead in it.” I can’t speak for Hemingway but I believe what he’s telling us in this ending is that Frederic was given a fate worse than death, emptiness. He’s lost his family and is very much alone.
3-I think Hemingway chose the most amazing ending! I have read AFTA before and was always fond of the book, but as I got older, I really appreciate the genius of his simple ending. Catherine’s death comes quietly, without fanfare and gore, a contradiction to the chaos of war. She dies trying to bring a new life into a very broken world. Her character throughout the book is noble and steady and Hemingway gives her a dignified death. I think anything overly dramatic would have undercut the importance of her characterization as “the good and the brave.” There is a “terrible severing” that happens to us when our partner dies and I think the numbness and pain the survivor initially feels is perfectly captured as Frederic walks back to the hotel alone in the rain.
I love the third question. I think it was interesting that Hemingway had so many different endings for this story. I found the official ending was fitting with the rest of the story. One being the death of the baby, Henry never acknowledges nor is ever excited about the baby. He only talks or thinks about Catherine. So when the baby dies, it’s not surprising (given Henry’s “great” personality) that he doesn’t care. Then when Catherine dies, it’s hard to tell if Henry is devastated or if he just “moves on.” Catherines death was also foreshadowed near the end of the story. As Catherine mentions that her doctor is worried about the birth of the baby because of his small hip bones. The symbolism of the rain was probably my favorite. As the rain or water has had a strong presence throughout the story. As Catherine disliked the rain and Henry walking into the rain from the hospital.
I really like your second question, because I’d been primarily reading that last line as a callback to Catherine’s own “fear” of the rain – maybe in terms of a retroactive justification for that fear, maybe in terms of the connections we make between weather events and senseless tragedies (the war, the death). That said, the phrase “cleansing force” reminds me of the way that water as a whole has been functioning over the course of this novel. In last class we talked about the river Frederic escapes through at the end of Book Three acts as a symbolic baptism, or a symbolic death, or a cleansing, or a pathway to apathy. Possibly the body of water that Catherine and Frederic cross on the way to Switzerland is functioning in something like the same way, as a crossing or as an abandonment of the responsibilities or legal dangers Italy holds. So when rain falls on Frederic, could it be the passage towards forgetting, or apathy, or another symbolic death (something like Nelly’s?). It might be worth considering the rain not just as a continuity of rain in this novel but as a continuity of water as a whole.
I liked your second question since I sort of hated the ending. Truthfully I saw it as almost a form of resignation and despair. Especially considering his prayers to God begging for him to not allow Catherine to die. I found this interesting as he essentially had abandoned his idea of traditional religion to be replaced with another form of it, but in this state of mortality he feels so powerless and in that manner approaches God. In terms of a “cleansing force” I think it perhaps could also be seen as him walking away from this past life that he lived with Catherine (all of the plans that they had with one another) and entering into a new one. Though I am not too sure about that thought. In regards to your third question, I think I appreciate the open endedness of the ending as the others feel either really bleak or very forced to change the trajectory of the novel. The ending that Hemingway went with illustrated well the detachment Fredrick felt from the corpse of Catherine as he sat with her for a while before departing from her.