There’s no doubt Ernest Hemingway was a bomb writer. He wouldn’t be known today, and people would still be flocking to read his novels today if he wasn’t. My favorite book written by him is “A Farewell to Arms.”
Hemingway wrote “A Farewell to Arms” from his experiences in World War I. It follows Frederic Henry as he goes to war. Henry meets both men and women as he makes his way through Italy. He sparks up a romance with a nurse, Catherine Barkley.
I loved every aspect of this book, but Henry’s relationship with Barkley. The 21st century woman in me wants to beat the crap out of Hemingway for the sexism he poured into this book. I’m not a feminist, but Barkley’s character was enough to piss me off. No woman should be a robot. “Yes sir,” “no sir,” “let’s do whatever you want to.” She doesn’t really say any of those things, but her meek attitude sucks, and so does Hemingway’s perception of women.
Now that the sexist rant is over, Hemingway is a beautiful writer. He shows all aspects of war — the fear, courage, drama, passion and friendship. I know I just complained about his portrayal of women, but some of my favorite quotes from this book are quotes from the love story. I always reblog the following quote on Tumblr.
“‘Maybe…you’ll fall in love with me all over again.’
‘Hell,’” I said, ‘I love you enough now. What do you want to do? Ruin me?’
‘Yes. I want to ruin you.’
‘Good,’ I said. ‘That’s what I want too.’”
I also love Bradley Cooper’s character’s reaction in “Silver Linings Playbook” to this novel.
“Pat: ‘What the?! Let me just break it down for you guys. This whole time you’re rooting for this Hemingway guy to survive the war and to be with the woman that he loves, Catherine Barkley.’
Dolores: ‘It’s four o’clock in the morning, Pat.’
Pat: ‘And he does, he does, he survives the war after getting blown up. He survives it and he escapes to Switzerland with Catherine. You think he ends it there? No! She dies, dad! I mean, the world’s hard enough as it is, guys. Can’t someone say, hey let’s be positive? Let’s have a good ending to the story?’
Dolores: ‘Pat, you owe us an apology.’
Pat: ‘ I can’t, for what, I can’t apologize. I’m not going to apologize for this. You know what I will do? I will apologize on behalf of Ernest Hemingway because that’s who’s to blame here.’”
I can’t say that I had that reaction, but I had one very similar.
Regardless of all the bad things — sexism — “A Farewell to Arms” is a beautiful story. Everyone should read it.