Caitlin Barnum
11/19/07
Ms. Robinson
Honors English 3
Hemingway vs. Henry: the Comparison of Similarities
What is the significance of a novel so closely related the life of its maker? Is it accurate information, or is there no significance at all? Hemingway wrote A Farewell to Arms based on his own life experiences throughout World War 1. The novel was influenced by Hemingway’s experiences in ways such as his time spent in active duty and his love for a nurse.
Although Hemingway was an ambulance drive, there are many other similarities between himself and his character Lieutenant Henry. In 1918 Hemingway was accepted as an ambulance driver by the Red Cross. He drove for ARC Section Four. Ambulance drivers during World War 1 played a very important part in the war. They had to risk their lives and go into the battle fields to retrieve wounded solders; all while as risk of becoming wounded themselves. In early June, Hemingway was placed in Fossalta, a small village in the middle of the heavy fighting. His job was to give out food to the army, but he was at high risk of getting hit. On July 8th, 1918 he was hit by Austrian artillery. He was injured in his knee and foot and had to return to Milan for operations on his wounded limbs. Because of his brave action of saving another soldier during this ordeal, he was promoted to First Lieutenant and awarded the silver medal of valor. By October, Hemingway was back with his regiment, but had jaundice and had to return to Milan for hospitalization. In Hemingway’s novel, A Farewell to Arms, Lieutenant Henry is also an ambulance driver during World War 1. Henry comes back to Italy, from being on leave for a few months and is sent right into the battlefield. While explaining to his fellow drivers what the plan was for the next few days, their tent is hit by a trench mortar shell. Henry is taken to Milan for his wounded legs and feet. He is also given the Medal of Honor for carrying one of his men to the hospital tent. While in the hospital in Milan, Henry gets jaundice and is kept longer. All of these things, which happened during Hemingway’s time in the service, also happen to Henry.
While in the hospital, Hemingway was very popular with all the nurses and enjoyed their company. He especially liked one young nurse from America, Agnes Von Kurowsky who entered the Red Cross Nursing Service in 1918. Hemingway claimed he was wildly in love. It was his first adult love affair and he hurled himself into his emotions of love and excitement. Agnes however was not fully involved. Hemingway expressed his love, and wanted badly to be married to her, but she claimed she was committed to her nursing career at the time. They saw each other on occasion, but wrote regularly after Hemingway left the hospital. Their affairs ended when Agnes wrote him a letter telling him there was someone else. Hemingway’s five month unconsummated love affair with Agnes was to live with him for the rest of his life. Hemingway later wrote a story summarizing his love affair with Agnes. One can see now where the idea for Henry’s love affair with Catherine came to be involved in the novel. Like Hemingway,
Henry is a wounded soldier in a hospital. His friend Rinaldi introduced him to a nurse, Catherine Ferguson, before he left again for battle. So when Henry returns to the hospital, the love affair begins. Although Hemingway’s Agnes left him, Catherine and Henry’s love grows and will continue for the rest of her life.
Some might say Hemingway’s experiences in the war had no relevance to the book. If one looks closely at the details that are provided, one can see how similar they are. And if one knew the story of Hemingway, one could hear him saying “We are both wounded a little” (56). Everything important or that stands out in Hemingway’s career show up in A Farewell to Arms. They are both ambulance drivers, “WE parked the cars beyond a brickyard” (46). They are also both wounded and receive medals of honor. “Because you are gravely wounded. They say you can get the silver,” Ranildi explains to Henry. These small but vital details are significant to the story in more ways than one. First off, Hemingway is able to go into great and truthful detail about the war, what cities they traveled through, and what actions were taken, all because he was there. We are able to relate to the story, and in some ways we feel we have an eyewitness view into the life of Hemingway by his use of a first person narrator.
Hemingway’s love story is slightly shifted from that of Henry’s. But there is a reason for that as well. Hemingway fell in love with a nurse, who broke up with him five months later. Henry falls in love with a nurse who went on to have his child, and died in childbirth. Catherine is madly in love with Henry, “I’ll be so thin and exciting to you and you’ll fall in love with me all over again” (305). It is possible that Hemingway made the love story of Henry and Catherine so he could have the relationship that he yearned for.
He turned his love with Agnes into a story with the out come he expected and wanted. From All Free Essays, one critic states, “Millicent Bell perceives the novel to be a “pseudo autobiography and a personal metaphor.”
Slight changes, such as Henry’s successful relationship, and a few wartime details, “allowed Hemingway to try and prove to the public that it was not himself and his own experiences in which he was writing about” But we can see that his experiences did greatly influence his novel A Farewell to Arms , through his relationships, and his time spent in the service.
