6-1-01

A farewell To Arms by Ernest Hemingway is a novel we just finished reading in English. The novel is very interesting although many people would disagree. The reason some of you may not like it is because at the beginning its very descriptive making it boring for some. Its very descriptive overall but at the beginning he gives a description of his surroundings which include the effects of the war. This is partially why I like the book because he gives shows the effects of the war in the setting.The way he writes makes you imagine everything clearly. One thing that was stressed in our class was his use of the ice burg technique. This is when something is told with as little words as possible. Basically 20% of what he's trying to say can be taken from the book but the rest for you to think about or find between the lines. This is best shown in his short story Hills Like White Elephants but it is also used in the novel. The novel is about Henry who is an American ambulance driver for the Italians in WWI. During the war he meets Catharine who is a nurse. Both do not want to find love at first but it could not be helped. Catharine is a strange character. She is very crazy throughout the novel and says things that also sound crazy. The main reason she is strange is because she is very subservient. She only wants henry to be happy and she has the need for his approval on everything she does. For example she immediately wants to clean a drink for him after it has spilled and she insists on getting a new one. Many people believe this is just part of him being sexist I almost agree in some sense because Catharine is too good of an example. The book is partially anti war which is why Henry and most of the characters in the book hate the war. It is also shown when henry goes AWOL and moves to Switzerland with Catharine. I do not want to give away too many details because some still haven't finished the book. It isn't a happy ending but because most of the book had a dark sad tone it was expected. I did not want to give too much plot summery but overall I will say that I liked the book very much. It was interesting and it has two genres of romance and action that appeal to allot of people.