Reading Hemingway's Farewell to Arms by Roos Michael Kim;Lewis Robert W.; & Michael Kim Roos

Author:Roos, Michael Kim;Lewis, Robert W.; & Michael Kim Roos
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: The Kent State University Press

In any case, this quote, taken from Shakespeare’s Henry IV Part 2, Act III, Scene ii, closely pertains to Frederic and Catherine’s story, and in being the words not of a Caesar but of a common soldier, a recruit of Henry IV, wonderfully named Feeble, it reveals Hemingway’s view that the nature of war may be both philosophically and simplistically perceived. White hunter Robert Wilson uses Feeble’s lines in Hemingway’s short story “The Short Happy Life of Francis Maccomber” (CSS 25). Mark Cirino has an extended discussion of this reference in Thought in Action (chap. 7n16).

Hemingway also alludes to Feeble’s lines in Across the River and into the Trees, where Richard Cantwell and the Gran Maestro at the Gritti Palace Hotel remember “the men who decided that they did not wish to die; not thinking that he that dies on Thursday does not have to die on Friday” (59). See Cirino’s commentary on this passage in Reading Hemingway’s Across the River and into the Trees (63–64).

122:5 “I don’t know … inside the head of the brave”: Catherine’s assertion forces Frederic to back down and admit that they are speaking of something that is very subjective—inside the head—which can never be verified.

122:12–13 “I’m like a ball-player that bats two hundred and thirty and knows he’s no better”: Frederic is confident in this bit of self-knowledge, subjective as it is. He knows (possesses a justified belief) that he is not brave. Sport again illustrates his self-knowledge: a baseball player with a .230 batting average is not very good, mediocre at best. It means that, not counting bases on balls, the hitter reaches base safely no more than 23 percent of the time. Good hitters should reach base at least 30 percent of the time. Note that Frederic uses an objective statistic to quantify his subjective awareness of his lack of bravery.

122:14–17 “It’s awfully impressive.” … “But still a hitter”: Being British, Catherine does not know baseball and its esoteric statistics. However, she knows enough to understand correctly that the major leagues must have many “mediocre” hitters. Frederic may be correct that he will never be a Babe Ruth or a Hall of Famer, but he can still be in the game. The duel between knowing and not knowing is settled, at least for the time being, with that comic truce followed by lighthearted banter to close out a troubling chapter on a lighter note.

122:32–33 “For three years … the war ending at Christmas”: There are two important points to make about this line. First, Catherine acknowledges how her view of the war has grown much more realistic than her “childish” fantasies that it would end at Christmas. She has matured into an adult, in other words. The second point is that she associates this childish fantasy with Christmas, one of the most important religious holidays, if not the most important, of the year. For her, at least, the implication is that religious belief is a childish fantasy.

122:34–35 “our son will be a

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