象征主义的运用,永别了武器

Symbolism as Means to Reflect the Theme in A Farewell to Arms

Liu Xiaohui

Abstract: This thesis is dedicated to the discussion of symbolism in Hemingwa y′s A Farewell to Arms. Under the skillful arrangement of the author, the mountain and the plain ,the rain and the snow all carry on their symbolic meanings, which help to express the themes—war and love

Key words: themes; war; love; symbolism

1 Introduction

Ernest Hemingway (1899-1961), the Nobel Prize winner for literature in 1954, is one of the foremost American writers, an epoch-making stylist with a highly original talent. Throughout his life, Hemingway wrote a lot of novels and A Farewell to Arms is one of his early works. In fact, A Farewell to Arms is based partly on Hemingway’s own experience as a Red Cross ambulance driver in Italy in 1918. What described in the novel are both a farewell to war and a farewell to love.

As the title of the novel indicates, A Farewell to Arms concerns itself primarily with the war, namely the process by which Frederic Henry withdraws himself from World War I and leaves it behind. The novel reveals the development of Hemingway’s philosophy of l ife—the universe is a chaotic one. There is no God to watch over man, to dictate codes of morality, or to ensure justice. Ins tead, the universe is indifferent, sometimes even hostile to man’s plight. In the novel, this indifference is best exemplified by the war—an ultimately futile struggle of man against man. There are no winners in a war, and there are no reasons behind the lives that are taken.

A Farewell to Arms is one of the finest war novels, reflecting the widespread disillusionment with war and a world that allowed such barbarity. To Hemingway, the war is a botch cheerfully begins by men with romantic notions of glory and honor, but fights with savagery. And to the end, as soldiers risk their lives fighting the enemies, their leaders, safely away from the front, tell tales of valor, patriotism and duty. Few of them think about those soldiers who have become cynical and disillusioned with the war.

The novel is primarily a love story that chronicles the relationship between Frederic Henry and Catherine Barkley through courtship, consummation, reaffirmation and finally separation by Catherine’s death. Love can happen under any circumstances, even in the chaos of war, the love story between Henry and Catherine has something different from the others, because their love

first begins as a game. The fact that Catherine has recently lost a loved one in the war makes her almost desperate for someone to care for. She wants to distance herself from the pain of her loss. Likewise, Henry intends to get as far as possible from the talk of the war and looks for someone to pass the time with. So they quickly begin the role playing game, pretending they fall in love with each other. Henry thinks Catherine as “a little crazy” and does not care what he is getting into. He believes it is better than going every evening to the house for the officers. Their relationship is just a game, like bridge. As to Catherine, it is a rotten game. She calls Henry “darling”(Hemingway, 1992:30) to carry out her fantasy that her fiancéis still alive. In this way, they are well- matched. Henry treats seeing Catherine very lightly, but when he can not see her, he suddenly feels lonely and hollow. This psychological change of Henry reveals the change of his feeling towards Catherine.

A Farewell to Arms is a tragic love story. It develops with the themes of war and love, describing the fate and development of different characters. The war is cruel, absurd and it is indifferent to man’s plight. While the beautiful love brings people hope and helps them forget the painful experiences.

In literature, a symbol is a thing that stands for or suggests something else by reason of relationship, association, convention or accidental resemblance. This is especially true with a visible sign of something invisible. A symbol pulls or draws together a specific thing with ideas, values, persons or ways of life in a direct relationship that otherwise would not be apparent. A person, thing, place, action, situation can all be symbols.

Hemingway makes use of some very important symbols in this novel. Even as early as the first paragraph, he sets up two major symbols — the plains and the mountains — which will be in conflict throughout the story. Hemingway represents the plains as dangerous, miserable, dry, and barren. The mountains, on the other hand, represent safety, happiness, and good health. The military action that Frederic Henry witnesses takes place on the plains, and his escape, through the cleansing, baptismal ritual of jumping into the river, reaches its end in the secluded mountain chalet with Catherine. But when Frederic must take Catherine out of the mountains and back down to the city below the hospital where she is to give birth, disaster strikes again. Rain is another important symbol throughout the novel. Often the rain suggests impending doom; there is a storm the night that Frederic learns he must leave Italy at once to avoid being arrested, Catherine dreams that she is dead in the rain, and indeed at the conclusion of the novel, it is raining when Frederic returns to his hotel. The critic Carlos Baker in his essay points out, "The