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Expository Essay On A Farewell To Arms

Essay, Research Paper


In


Ernest Hemmingway’s A Farewell to Arms, the protagonist, Frederic Henry is


both


dysfunctional and tragic. Throughout the story Henry lives up to this


description of shear


tragedy and dysfunction. The main elements that aid in


making him both tragic and


dysfunctional are: the fact that the love he and


Catherine shared at the end of the book


was doomed, this love was only "role-playing"


to him at first, and he went AWOL on the


Italian army.


The first detail


that contributes to making Henry a dysfunctional character is that


he uses


role-playing as a way of escaping the realization of the human mortality which


is


unveiled by the war. This role-playing begins on Henry and Catherine’s


third encounter.


After this meeting the two become increasingly comfortable


with their roles. It is as if


their whole relationship is a "game". Neither


one of them mistakes role-playing for a


truly intimate relationship, but both


recognize that it can be a useful device for satisfying


certain emotional


needs. This role-playing is a very dysfunctional characteristic of


Frederic


Henry.


The second point that makes Henry a dysfunctional character is that


he deserted


the Italian army. Not only was this illegal but it could have


cost him his life. Henry,


although an American, had made a commitment to th

e


Italian army, to protect and serve


Italy. This characteristic alone is enough


to make one dysfunctional, as it does to Henry.


In addition to being a dysfunctional


character, Henry is also a tragic character.


The love that Henry gains for


Catherine is pure tragedy. Although the relationship that


Frederic and Catherine


had started out to be only role-playing it turned into something


much more,


it became true love. This love was more than could be explained in words.


Their


love during an ugly war was not to be recreated or modeled even as much as


through


a baby conceived by their love. The baby could not be born alive because their


love


was beautiful yet doomed so that nothing could come out of it. "In a world


where the


abstracts of glory, honor, and sacrifice meant little to Frederic,


his physical association


with Catherine was the only thing he had and it was


taken away from him long before she


died."1


In conclusion, these three main


items aid in making Henry a dysfunctional and


tragic character. Henry had


fled his duty as a soldier, giving up on the country he had


confided in. Henry


was engaged in a relationship which started as a mere game, grew into


love


and ultimately ended in the tragic death of his precious wife and child. Frederic


Henry


is a tragic and dysfunctional character in a tragic and dysfunctional story.

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