Chapter 1: There were mists over the river and clouds on the mountain and the trucks splashed mud on the road and the troops were muddy and wet in their capes; their rifles were wet and under their capes the two leather cartridge-boxes on the front of the belts, gray leather boxes heavy with the packs of clips of thin, long 6.5 mm. cartridges, bulged forward under the capes so that the men, passing on the road, marched as though they were six months gone with child.
18 comments:
At first glance this paragraph seems to be a description of the beautiful landscape and the miserable soldiers. But by the end of the book I realized its importance. It foreshadows Catherine’s pregnancy and her child’s death. It creates a connection in the readers mind between pregnancy and danger or death. It is an ironic but in this case an appropriate comparison. This quote also is a good example of Hemingway’s writing style in the way that he shifts mood suddenly in his writing. In this quote he is describing the landscape being lush with trees and crops and then describing the miserable soldiers. Later on in the novel it happens again when Henry and his unit are in a bunker enjoying themselves with food and drink. Then out of nowhere they are bombed and Henry is gravely injured. These are two examples of sudden mood shifts in this story.
After reading the novel, I now realize that the description of the soldiers walking is a clear foreshadow of Catherine's pregnancy and her child's later death. Hemingway also uses irony in this passage with a life, death scheme. Earlier in the passage it mentions the tree trunks were black with rain and the country was wet, brown, and dead, but as the passage progresses it starts to talk about the men getting ready for battle and walking as if six months gone with child. This passage shows Hemingway's creative writing style and his clever use of foreshadowing.
The first time I read this passage, Hemingway paints a picture of the beauty within nature which had been disrupted by man and war. The soldiers are marching through what should be thought of as a peaceful place but with guns and trucks carrying war supplies. They bring hatred to nature and now they are in miserable conditions. Irony is found between the differences of the peace in this picturesque nature—with a mist over the river and clouds on the mountain—and human animosity.
It is peculiar to compare men appearing to be pregnant to having anything to do with war. This comparison, when looked at closely, is ironic. First of all men cannot bring new life into this world while only women can. Men take away life by means of war. These men who march with cartridge-boxes under their capes give birth to death. What is even more unexpected about the situation at the end of the novel is when Catherine, unintentionally, gives birth to death. After reading the novel, I realize this passage is a clear foreshadowing of Catherine’s pregnancy.
Austin Cain said...
At the beginning of this chapter there is a lot of description about nature and its beauty. There are references about orchards, fruit trees, and rich crops which imply life but as the chapter progresses Hemingway writes about the awful conditions and how everything is essentially dead. This passage also foreshadows the death of Catherine's baby at the end of the novel. When Hemingway states, "gone with child" this comparison of being pregnant and going to war is very ironic because having a baby brings life and happiness to the world while going to fight always is followed by destruction and sadness.
When I first read this passage I did not think it was of any importance but I did believe it showed us Hemingway’s unique writing style. At the beginning of the passage Hemingway describes the beauty of the landscape but as the passage progresses we are shown how it is disrupted and destroyed by war. This passage also clearly foreshadows Catherine’s pregnancy and her child’s death. Hemingway’s phrase “gone with child” also shows the irony between sadness of war and the joy a pregnancy. Being pregnant brings life into the world and war takes life away. We are also shown the reality of war and how nothing is what it seems. It set the tone for the rest of the novel.
This is another effort by Hemingway to show how bad war is. he gives you all these conditions that troops were going through.This description of the troops shows how defeated they are. Their equipment is trashed and they are getting splashed with mud and water and they just seem to be defeated nobody cares about them.
When I first read this passage it seemed to solely describe the setting and show the reader Hemingway's writing style. In this passage Hemingway paints a picture for the reader using his descriptive words. He lets the reader see the beauty in nature despite the horrible conditions described. It shows how awful the war is, and sets the tone for the rest of the novel. This passage exemplifies the soldiers' perseverance. They are soaked and worn out, but they kept marching. It also shows us that even though a war has destroyed most of the world, it cannot destroy everything. A war is not bigger than nature. The clouds, creek, and mountains still exist. The last phrase "six months gone with child" seemed to be used only for irony. It is ironic that soldiers, who take life away from people, would be described as giving life. Later we see that this phrase is also used to foreshadow Catherine's pregnancy.
Hemingway's use of diction provides the reader with a clear, crisp image of the setting. Although the image that is created for the reader is admirable, the underlying meaning of this passage is dangerously foreshadowing. The beauty that is reflected in the nature relates to the beauty Henry soon finds in Catherine. Not only is she beautiful in structure, but beautiful in every sense of the word for both he and she are very much alike. As he begins to describe the soldiers and their artilleries, how they look as if they are "six months gone with child," this describes the beginning of the war, and also foreshadows Catherine's pregnancy. I find it peculiar that Hemingway relates the appearance of bulging artillery to the fragility of an infant in his mother's womb. This in itself has a cardinal meaning: the correlation between death and Catherine's baby. Overall, the initial chapter paints a picture for the reader of the present and a prediction for the future. This passage is an excellent example.
When I first read this, I didn't think it had any significance at all. I thought it was just there to describe the landscape and show what the soldiers had to carry in such extreme conditions. However, now that I'm looking back, this passage has a whole lot of significance. The reference to pregnancy is slipped into this passage with such ease, and if I wasn't analyzing it for this blog, I probably wouldn't have even caught it. This passage relates pregnancy with war (which causes death), and pregnancy causes death at the end of the novel.It foreshadows the pregnancy and subsequent death of Catherine and her baby boy. This use of foreshadowing shows Hemingway's talent. The beginning of the passage (when it is talking about the beauty of the nature), is showing that a sacred place was being invaded by man and war. This also foreshadows the fact that Catherine's pregnancy, which is a beautiful and sacred thing, would be ruined by death.
On a different note, the phrase "gone with child" can be taken literally. When Catherine dies after giving birth, she is gone and so is her child.
As I read this description i did not realize its importance and the foreshadowing of the child. It wasn't until I read this post on the blog did I realize the significance of it. It starts out describing a beautiful scene in the mountains and continues to get darker describing soldiers in a war. It grows from life to death. It ends with the somber comparison of the bullets the soldiers are carrying that are made to end life with the look of a woman six months pregnant with a baby that symbolizes the start of life while also foreshadowing Catherine's baby and it's death.
The image given with this quote deceives the reader for the upcoming passage. When looking at the image I suspected the quote to be one of Hemingway’s elaborate scenery descriptions. It turned out to be a description with scenery, but painted with the impact of war. Hemingway does this throughout the entire novel. He paints a beautiful, intricate image of the Italian countryside or any other peaceful place and then he incorporates the war which crushes the entire image. In war that is exactly what happens, though. Like many of my other classmates, I didn’t understand the “gone with child” and its significance until after I finished the novel. It does foreshadow Catherine’s death, but more than that the irony between life and death in war. As Gillie pointed out, pregnancy brings life and joy and war brings death and sorrow. This irony is always present through Hemingway’s lively descriptions of the surrounding nature and scenery, as well, because of the active war present in it.
This passage paints a clear contrast between the peaceful, natural landscape and the miserable conditions that it presents to the soldiers trying to brave it. I agree with previous comments in that the passage also sets up an ironic metaphor in which the soldiers, the harbingers of war and, therefore, destroyers of life, are described as pregnant, a condition in which is associated with the production of life. It’s symbolic that the bullets push out their uniforms, as would a fetus growing inside a mother. The bullets are symbolic of death and the soldiers are being portrayed as each capable of producing death. The “pregnant” soldiers parallel the eventual pregnancy in Henry’s peaceful life. I disagree with some previous comments that say the pregnant soldiers foreshadow Catherine’s pregnancy; the quote sets up the parallel but doesn’t clue the reader into any future “wife” of Henry’s, let alone a pregnant one. Hemingway uses one long sentence utilizing polysyndeton and various comma-separated descriptions to describe the condition of the soldiers, the terrain they brave, and the interactions between the two. The flowing and meandrous yet direct and deliberate structure and flow of the sentence accurately reflect the journey of the soldiers.
I really loved this passage. I think that Hemmingway does an excellent job of painting a picture in the readers mind in the first chapter, and sets the scene for the rest of the book. Connecting all the descriptions with commas and and’s lets the reader experience all that’s going on all at once, as opposed to gradually, as it might be if it were split up into separate sentences. Also, as Gage said, the way this passage is written illustrates the movement of the soldiers. I don’t think that the soldiers six months gone with child foreshadow Catherine’s pregnancy. I just thought that Hemmingway was trying to compare the heaviness the soldiers felt and the way in which they walked under the weight of their gear to the way that pregnant women walk. I don’t think that this passage was so much about giving you clues for the rest of the book or vital plot points, but to place you with the soldiers in the mist and mud as they trudged off to war.
This paragraph is made to show the beauty of the land and where the men are walking. When it says "they marched as though they were six months gone with child" it shows how hard it actually is for them out there. When you are six months pregnant and have a big bulge I'm sure that it's hard to do many things like in war when you have to carry all of your things around it's difficult. At the end of the novel though you realize that this is foreshadowing Catherine's pregnancy and death of her child.
Pride Snow
This passage starts with a detailed description of the setting, describing the landscape with “mist over the river and clouds on the mountains”. Then it completely changes gears and talks about the soldiers slugging across the muddy road while water is being splashed upon them and their clothes and supplies hang heavy on their backs. The soldiers had to deal with being in this beautiful, picturesque part of the world, but instead of enjoying their time there they were fighting for their lives, while trudging up and over mountains and mud while their equipment made them look like they were marching “six months gone with a child”.
Hemingway describes the landscape of which World War I was fought in. He descriptively paints a picture that physically and emotionally places the reader in the scene of the story. I think you can take "six months gone with child" in two different ways. You can take it as foreshadowing Catherine death while giving child birth. The other way you can take it is being so tired of marching and carrying six month worth of child weight on you.
Post a Comment