Ironic Narrative in A Farewell To Arms by Ernest Hemingway Essay

Within the pages of A cong to mail, pathrnisticist work of the 1920s, Hemingway often blurs the lines between the romantic narrative form and the dry one. Critics argue over the specifics of each case Do his wedgees change and modernize? Do they stagnate? Do they fail? Are they initiated into some greater consciousness of the world around them? Are Hemingways wedge heeles romantic conquistadors or be they wry failures? How does an understanding of these triggermanes initiations enhance Hemingways meaning in the invigorated? These are the contours of re avocationions that must(prenominal) be considered in any case to determine the necessity of an ironic reading of this important Hemingway work.Paradigms Romance and railleryAlthough tragedy and followdy have typified many an(prenominal) impinge onments and periods of literary hi spirit level, for the purposes of this essay, it is necessary to cerebrate upon the paradigms of romance and caustic remark. These narr ative patterns are non as familiar to many readers. Readers may associate romance with a particular genre of literature, whether knightly or harlequin, or recognize salient ironic details in advertizedly plots, computer addresss, and/or dialogues, but many fail to accredit the archetypal patterns that square off the literary paradigms of romance and irony and their relationship to one another.Foulke and Smith rest the foundation for this exploration of romantic hero versus ironic anti-hero and romantic quest versus anti-quest, yet this construction advise be explored flush more in full if one examines the elements of the heros pilgrimage as (de) constructed by Joseph Campbell in Hero with a railway yard Faces. In this work, Campbell draws from the traditions of Freud and Jung to illustrate how the deeds of myth survive into modern epochs (Campbell 4).Be move themes of initiation and the related heros quest are innate to the forgiving shape, tying into universal per ceptions of birth, growth, and death, the quest theme itself is always a shape-shifting yet marvelously consistent story that fits into the psychologically prescribed checkpoints of a narrative pattern such as romance or irony (Campbell 3).In the realm of romance, young heroes, mainly in possession of some power that transcends the characterless, are called to adventure, initiated into some shed light on of knowledge or greater understanding of the universe (in other words, he or she receives the booty or treasure, whether physical, psychological, or spiritual), and returns transformed, armed with some sort of greater understanding about the world around him or her of import enough to improve the plight of humankind or at to the lowest degree improve the lot of society (Foulke and Smith 5).On the contrary, the ironic journey is rooted in, well, irony. Perhaps the ironic hero, plagued by a less than ordinary potency, living in a world of chaos and disorder, ventures upon an aiml ess journey, and either fails to attain the treasure, or perhaps even more significantly, remains unchanged by his or her quest (Foulke and Smith 5). The narrative modes of romance and irony, then, can best be explored by pitting one against the other. Each pattern illustrates or represents a polarized human experience romance represents the imagined, idealized world of constancy and order, while the ironic mode represents the world of frustrated human desires (Foulke and Smith 8). Because of the universal significance of such patterns, such paradigms are in ripe order mechanisms for the exploration of the human condition.Ironic Narrative in A parting to ArmsFrom the start of the impudent, readers immediately sense the ambiguity and uncertainty of heros fibre in an unpredictable world. The book opens with an ironic smelling depicting a wilting earth in a drenched in autumn leaves all fell from the chestnut trees and the branches were bare, even the vineyards are expound a s thin and bare-branched (Hemingway 4). And, even more poetically, Hemingway artfully sets up an ironic tone for the novel by cleverly, though morbidly, emphasizing that with the winter came aeonian rain and with the rain came the cholera though, in the end just now septette thousand died of it in the army (Hemingway 4). With this opening, a wilting depiction of character, Hemingway sets his readers up for an ironic interpretation of his novel.It is at bottom the context of such a permeating unsettling setting, as typical of the ironic mode, that readers encounter Hemingways ironic hero Frederic Henry. Frederic is initially set into a traditional heros role he is a soldier. And, not only is Frederic a soldier, but he is an American volunteer for the Italian army. Within the context of the traditional romanticized soldier hero, it could be suggested that such action as volunteering for mortal elses peel is valiant, brave, and even representative of that larger-than-life arch etypal hero depicted in narrative romance. However, Hemingway is certain to emphasize Frederics naivet, if not foolishness, from the really ascendent of this anti-heros journey.Although Frederic technically ranks as an officer, he describes his work to Catherine as not really with the army, but only the ambulance (Hemingway 18). As an ambulance driver on the Italian front, Frederics innocence is encapsulated in his belief that it is impossible for him to be killed at the front aft(prenominal) all, the war did not have anything to do with him (Hemingway 37). Frederics innocence is also depicted and reinforced by his obliviousness to the war he is able to travel comfortably in convoy if in the first car and appreciate the clear, fast and shallow river and the mysterious looming mountains (Hemingway 44-5).Frederics ability to appreciate the picturesque Italian front illustrates his inability to realize the significance of both the deep pools of the river blue like the sky and the e arth of life and death shuttled within his ambulance (Hemingway 47). This naivet is similarly reflected early in the novel by the fact that Frederic clearly and staunchly believes in the traditional virtues of pass good soldiers are brave and have good discipline (Hemingway 48). When these naive character traits are coupled with the dominant impression presented by the fading, rainy fall, and cholera-struck winter, the percentage point is set early on in A Farewell to Arms for another Hemingway triumph of irony.However, from the beginning of the book, readers are aware that Frederic is becoming increasingly cognizant of the fact that It evidently made no difference whether he was there to run into after things or not (Hemingway 16). When Frederic returns to the front after his leave time, he realizes that all is as he had left it pull that now it was spring (Hemingway 10) the front had remained static, and neither side had advanced or taken new territory. As typical of the ironi c hero, Frederic begins to think that perhaps the whole thing runs better without him anyway (Hemingway 16). From Frederics perspective, not even the wounded in the hospital are real wounded rather, sure casualties could only result from the action when the war picks back up again (Hemingway 12).Frederics dissatisfaction with the world around him represents his call to adventure. As a extraterrestrial in someone elses war, Frederic Henry is beginning to sense the careful nature of war as well as his insignificance in this destructive event. For regardless of the supposed honor of military service, Frederic is beginning to question the self-worth of his post he considers his position as an ambulance driver to be not really the army, the Italian salute, a gesture not made for export, begins to wee him uncomfortable, and even the steel helmets soldiers are required to wear seem to a fault bloody theatrical (Hemingway 18, 23, 28-9). And, even life at the front is beginning to gro w muffled The priest was good but dull. The officers were not good but dull. The King was good but dull. Only the wine, bad, was not dull (Hemingway 38-9). Frederic is beginning to question his role, and his significance, within the context of the war, and within the context of his virtuousity. tout ensemble around Frederic Henry, soldiers much more connected than he is to the war, such as Italian peasants, workers, and citizens, recognize the horror of the war for what it is senseless fighting for hoist principles that results in the death of innocent soldiers often blindly fighting for these goals. This reality is exemplified in Frederics encounter with a soldier suffering from a hernia at the front. The soldier, of course, wants out, but tells Frederic, the ambulance driver, that officers do not decree his condition worthy of excusing him from duty. Henry advises the man with the hernia to fall down by the road and get a bump on his head so that he can legitimize taking the s oldier to the hospital (Hemingway 35).However, irony permeates this situation. Henry and his compadres encounter the man with the rupture once again, only this time his head is bleeding as two men lift him They had come back for him after all (Hemingway 36). This anecdote illustrates the fundamentally ironic nature of war violence, injury, motivation, unpredictable motives and priorities, the inherent irony in fighting for someone elses cause. Soldiers in war must struggle to choose to fight for arguably noble causes of an abstract nation, ideological principle, or political goal, look out for one another on the front, or simply nursing home their own survival.Frederic must grapple with why he is risking his life in this war at all. Is there more to fighting in a war than simply existing in a particular place at a particular time? Frederic himself suggests that he merely stumbled into the war he was in Italyand spoke Italian (Hemingway 22). How moral is it to participate in collec tive violence without a passionate code of ethics that supports the cause? These are the types of concerns plaguing Hemingways ironic hero as he is beckoned towards the doorstep of adventure.ConclusionAfter analyzing the impotent nature of the major character of A Farwell to Arms, it becomes clear that the novel do indeed illustrate the futile struggle of a lost generation. Perhaps the nigh central question that must be explored in the consideration of whether or not this work are examples of the paradigm of narrative irony hinges upon the endings of the works. Does Frederic transform over the course of his material and symbolic journey? It is clear that he does not.Frederic has acquire that life is only meaningful if one lives it according to his or her own values, but he has also learned the lessons of the great irony that the world breaks everyoneIt kills the good, and the very gentle, and the very brave impartially and The only thing that one can be sure of in this world is that one will be destroyed (Hemingway 249 Phelan 54). Hemingways A Farewell to Arms ends in utter irony. When Frederic ultimately says goodbye to his be reveld Catherine, he remarks that it is like saying good-by to a statue.The novel ends as Frederic walks back to the hotel in the rain (Hemingway 332). Left in a post-World War I experience, Frederic is lost, bereft, homeless, and a drift (Donaldson 15) Frederic Henry has learned the ironic lessons of life, and attempted to establish and live by a moral code dictated by his own creation, only to be overcome by the ultimate truth of existence, that is, that stripped of the traditional props of God, country, and tradition, the modern hero must face the harsh and irremediable realities of existence (Gurko 65).Hemingways skillful use of narrative irony in this text represents the most appropriate use of the modernist writers palette, for within the anti-hero of Frederic Henry readers find universal symbols for the plight of modern ma n. Because Hemingway stresses this fundamental futility of the human struggle within the confines of life and death, any interpretations that stress the romantic triumphs of this early Hemingway novel, that is, that this hero attain knowledge that can transform his world within his move from innocence to experience, is countered by the undeniable reality portrayed in this novel and that the book end in overwhelming irony (Smith 33).The ironic mode dominates as Frederic, desperate to add meaning to his life through love and experience, emerge as mere humans clutching at a pale yellow (Smith 34). As Philip Young so eloquently argues in Hemingway A Reconsideration, the fundamental reality of both the ironic mode, as well as Hemingways novel, is that In the end, man is trapped (93).Works CitedCampbell, Joseph. The Hero with a Thousand Faces. Princeton Princeton University, 1968.Donaldson, Scott. Introduction. parvenu Essays on A Farewell to Arms. Ed. Scott Donaldson. Cambridge Cambrid ge University, 1990. 1-25.Foulke, Robert and Paul Smith. An Anatomy of Literature. new-fashioned York Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1972.Gurko, Leo. Ernest Hemingway and the Pursuit of Heroism. reinvigorated York Thomas Y. Crowell, 1968.Hemingway, Ernest. A Farewell to Arms. New York Scribner, 1995Phelan, James. Distance, Voice, and Temporal Perspective in Frederic Henrys Narration Successes, Problems, and Paradox. New Essays on A Farewell to Arms. Ed. Scott Donaldson. Cambridge Cambridge University, 1990. 53-74.Smith, Paul. The Trying-out of A Farewell to Arms. New Essays on A Farewell to Arms. Ed. Scott Donaldson. Cambridge Cambridge University, 1990. 27-54.