Ch. 34: If people bring so much courage to this world the world has to kill them to break them, so of course it kills them. The world breaks every one and afterward many are strong at the broken places. But those that will not break it kills. It kills the very good and the very gentle and the very brave impartially. If you are none of these you can be sure it will kill you too but there will be no special hurry...
Ch. 40: Now Catherine would die. That was what you did. You died. You did not know what it was about. You never had time to learn. They threw you in and told you the rules and the first time they caught you off base they killed you. Or they killed you gratuitously like Aymo. Or gave you the syphilis like Rinaldi. But they killed you in the end. You could count on that. Stay around and they would kill you.
13 comments:
Both of these passages show how remorseless the war can be. You can't outrun death in the war. It doesn't matter where you go. I love how Hemingway shows us that no matter what death will strike. He even gives us examples of these with characters that were close to Frederic. These passages also leave the reader with a harsher taste of war. The tone of both of these passages is despicable and sinister and that is exactly how Hemingway wanted the reader to envision it.
Both of these passages set out a very dark outlook on life. You live, and you die. You are brave, but the world must, and will break you. Even if it means death. The last sentence of the first passage speaks for the sinister people who are not gentle by saying it kills them but has no hurry. This relates to the war and the people who have no mercy, slaughtering as they please. They will be broken as well.
The second passage complements the first by backing up the fact that death is imminent. It has now come to Catherine. It strengthenes the story when Hemingway writes how death may come: quick and painless like Aymo or the slow rot of Rinaldi’s syphilis. Hemingway’s goal was to disturb the reader as the mood of the war would do to anyone.
The overarching theme in both of these passages is that no matter who you are or what you do it is impossible to avoid death. Death is inevitable and is mandatory no matter how courageous one might be. The passage form chapter 34 foreshadows the death of Catherine. Henry, from the chapter 34 passage, is talking about death more in a way that every person should die and the best people die first. In the passage from chapter 40 Henry changes his opinion to more that no one deserves to die and that it happens at random. Fredric gives his closest friends, Aymo and Rinaldi, as examples.
After first reading these passages I noticed how dark and depressing they were. But I soon realized that they are just showing us the harsh reality of death. You can’t escape it no matter how nice or how much good you do in the world. Our purpose in life is to live and then die. You may not know what is going to happen in the next five minutes but you do know that somewhere along the line you will meet death. You may not want to, but you have no option.
Each of these passages talks about the reality of death. It is awful. There is nothing good about it and no way to escape it. Courageous people may not break when life throws tough situations at them. They may be able to handle those situations, but they cannot handle death. Death does not care who you are or what you have accomplished. Everyone is guaranteed to die. The second passage talks about Catherine's death. Henry was very close to her and we see a more human way of expressing the thought from the first passage here. Henry has learned from experience that a time will come for everyone. People will die different ways, but they will certainly die.
Each of these passages talks about the reality of death. It is awful. There is nothing good about it and no way to escape it. Courageous people may not break when life throws tough situations at them. They may be able to handle those situations, but they cannot handle death. Death does not care who you are or what you have accomplished. Everyone is guaranteed to die. The second passage talks about Catherine's death. Henry was very close to her and we see a more human way of expressing the thought from the first passage here. Henry has learned from experience that a time will come for everyone. People will die different ways, but they will certainly die.
Each of these passages talks about the reality of death. It is awful. There is nothing good about it and no way to escape it. Courageous people may not break when life throws tough situations at them. They may be able to handle those situations, but they cannot handle death. Death does not care who you are or what you have accomplished. Everyone is guaranteed to die. The second passage talks about Catherine's death. Henry was very close to her and we see a more human way of expressing the thought from the first passage here. Henry has learned from experience that a time will come for everyone. People will die different ways, but they will certainly die.
The disheartening nature of these passages reflect on Frederic's past situations. I believe that soldiers are extremely tough, both physically and emotionally. But seeing here that Frederic faces the difficult reality of the moment, it deeply saddens me. Life is intricate. You are guaranteed to die but not guaranteed to live. The world is both a beautiful and deadly place, as the picture given so gracefully illustrates. Not everyone faces the same thing, but everyone faces some difficulty. Life throws whatever it can at you, and there is no assurance that you will survive it. Not everyone dies the same, but everyone dies. Especially in war, this statement rings true time and time again. It has taken a major toll on Frederic, and that is the image I believe Hemingway intended on creating for the reader.
The theme in both of these chapters is how inescapable death is and how the world will break everyone including the gentle and the innocent. No matter what everyone is going to be broken and die. In the first passage it talks about how no can escape the fact you realize things are hopeless and that death is unavoidable. It seeks out an breaks everyone. The second is more specific and gives examples such as his two friends and how they were broken. Even if you just stay around they will still break you.
These two passages show the true reality of death, as well as life. In life, people are tested throughout everyday tasks and some people will break down. If they are to succeed or fail, it is up to them to become stronger. It depends on how someone handles situations that determine the strong and the weak. Whether someone is strong or weak death will always prevail in the end; it is only a matter of when and how. I like how Yathrib says, “You are guaranteed to die but not guaranteed to live.” In both passages Frederic is saying how unfair death is. Death took away Catherine and other of his close friends. He realizes that Death cheats people of years which isn’t a surprise being surrounded by warfare. People shouldn’t complain about it because who ever said life was fair?
The first passage makes it seem like the world is the one who kills and breaks people and that it is out to get the brave and courageous so that they can’t bring anymore good into the world. It reflects a very us-against-the-world mentality. The second passage seems less angry and more at peace with the reality that all people die in the end. I’m still not quite sure who ‘they’ are in the second passage. Saying that “they killed you in the end” seems more violent and personal than simply saying ‘you die in the end’. Over all I think that these passages illustrate how fleeting life really is, and how in terms of death, everyone is equal and their lives come to the same conclusion.
In the first quote, Hemingway describes how those who learn from the world benefit from those who hide under the pretense of bravery. It is a way of describing a basic theme of life; those who adapt to situations become better suited to live. This is essentially what the first passage is implying, that it will take those who are stronger because of their past “breaks” much more to ultimately perish. This is an extreme form of implying that those who learn in life are better suited to keep living it. It is a bit cynical in implying that those who are good can’t be “broken,” and, therefore, must be killed, however. Good intentions do not necessarily reflect weakness, though Hemingway may be speaking in an attempt to say that people can only be guaranteed their own benefit when they take a hedonistic approach to life. The second passage links to the first one in that it discusses the nature of life. It is a realistic point of view, one discussing the temporary nature of life. A life is always temporary, and, without fail will end. Hemingway is referring to how everybody comes into the world with the ultimate and definite purpose of dying. It’s a fact often shirked by human emotions. This relates directly to the story in that Henry’s love for Catherine overpowered the knowledge that she, like he, would one day die. Rational thought would say that his attachment to her was irresponsible and something that would ultimately cause him pain, yet love prevailed. It was only after her death that Henry truly realized the temporary nature of life.
Pride Snow
These passages both are describing the reality that death is inescapable any way that you look at it. The first one in particular has, as Lucy said, an “us-against-the-world mentality”. No matter who you are, how brave or courageous you may be, the world is out to get you in any way that it can, and there is no escaping that, especially in war. The second passage is not necessarily about the fight against the world but the fact that in the end we all die the same death. It might not be in the same way, but we all come to earth, live our lives as we please, and then leave.
Post a Comment