Ch. 41: "Quote 72: 'But after I got them to leave and shut the door and turned off the light it wasn't any good. It was like saying good-by to a statue. After a while I went out and left the hospital and walked back to the hotel in the rain.' pg. 332"
14 comments:
This ending to the novel flows very smoothly with the rest of the story. It follows the depressing rhythm of the storyline—the horrors of war, the absence of a loved one, the suspense from desertion, and now the death of all a man knows. I believe Henry began a new life while in the army. Leaving all of his friends and family behind followed by confiding within Catherine, he began a new wartime life. Unfortunately, as he deserted his army and left the war as a whole, he began to lose his wartime life with his pregnant “wife,” Catherine. After surgery Catherine and the baby are both dead which concludes Henry’s life during the war. The simile to Catherine’s dead body as a statue made me feel like she was just an object now, no more a part of life, that could be forgotten about in time. Following this, Henry walks out into the rain and moves on with his life.
This final passage of Hemingway's novel is very fitting because Frederic Henry has become accustomed to death and is too emotionally drained from war to even expend any emotions to the death of Catherine and her still born. Fredric has been desensitized from death and even a reaction to the death of a loved one because of war. This is depicted by saying that the love of his life was merely a "statue" and he could just leave and move on with his life without being heavily affected.
I completely agree with Greg on this. This man has been through it all, he has been great friends with death on his journey. In the war, he dealt with death everyday. Now that this is happening to his close ones really is eating away at him. This whole idea of him not loving the ones close to him is not true. He loves them, but he is used to it. The war has changed him.
This passage shows us that Frederic may have gotten use to people dying around him but he is not used to people he was close to or that he loved dying. That is one thing in life you will never be prepared for. When you lose a loved one a part of you dies inside. A big part of Frederic dies because he lost both Catherine, the love of his life, and his stillborn child. He described Catherine as a statue because she did not look the same as she did when she was alive. It didn’t look like her to him and all he could remember was her lively face. Although he does not show emotion at her death, I don’t think he doesn’t care. I believe he is just in shock and doesn’t know what to do. Once again rain is used during a sad situation in the novel.
This is a very sad, but fitting end to the novel. Hemingway uses a statue to describe Catherine's dead body. This contrasts the typical scene of Catherine and Frederic together. Throughout the novel she has always been lively and happy around Frederic and now she can't even respond. This goes back to the idea brought up many times in the book about death and the fact that can't escape it. Frederic has witnessed this throughout the war and now he sees the love of his live and their child dead. The was has hardened him so that he is accustomed to death. I think that is why he has such a calm response. The rain in this passage is significant in two ways. First, Catherine has always been afraid of the rain and dying in it and now it is raining after her death. Second, rain is linked with sad moments in life. This shows that this is not an easy time for Frederic.
I agree with William about how this sad ending flows accordingly with the rest of the tones and themes of the novel. I believe that Catherine was part of the life Frederic created during the war. During that life, he had become cold, hard, and distant. Now that he has left the war, the other parts of his life that he created during wartime will detach from him as well. He has left the war, and now Catherine will slowly be leaving him as well. He is used to the people around him dying. Catherine's body looking like a statue depicted Frederic's feelings toward her death: cold and hard, like a statue. In my opinion, it is quite horrifying how calmly he responds to her death, yet it is expected seeing as all the things he has been through has shaped his personality this way. Catherine is dead and now the rain is falling so morbidly to the earth. He has moved on because he is used to this feeling.
The statue comment is the opposite of what Henry and Catherine's relationship was like before she died. But Catherine is no longer alive,she is now a statue, so Henry has to move on. This definitely affects Henry, but since he's used to death, he has had to learn to move on and get past it. I think it is ironic that it was raining when Catherine dies because that was her nightmare- that she would die in the rain. Subsequently, part of Henry dies, which is what Catherine was also afraid of.The picture relates to this passage because Henry had to walk away from the darkest time in his life (notice he's walking away from the shadows) and try to start again.
The ending shows how hopeless you are to stop someone from dying and that you have to carry on. After Catherine and the baby die, Frederic has nothing left to do but go back to the hotel and carry on. It also is chilling because it links back to an earlier passage in which Catherine is afraid of the rain and she ends up dying while it is raining. The ending also continues the idea that death is inescapable and that the world will eventually break everyone. Catherine and the baby both died and Frederic lost everything he risked his life for and loved and is left with nothing. He is the last one to be broken and there is no other way to end the novel while keeping to that theme.
I agree with Bannock and the idea of death being inescapable. Just how Frederic said, “The world breaks every one and afterward many are strong at the broken places. But those that will not break it kills.” This is exactly what happens with Catherine. She was strong throughout her pregnancy and fought through her labor. Though she fought she wasn’t broken, but in the end it killed her. Frederic’s words unfortunately ring true. Hemingway’s likening of Catherine to a statue contradicts her personality. She was lively and when death struck she was stone cold. Also, the rain at the end is a great way to finish the novel. To me, pain, suffering, and loss were the biggest themes in the novel and those themes were linked to the rain. Catherine’s fear of the rain and seeing herself dead in it made it all the more perfect for Hemingway to end the novel with it raining. It seems that Frederic’s life has been surrounded by death and for Hemingway to end with Frederic walking in the rain ties together the idea that death is inescapable not just for Frederic, but for everyone.
To me it seems like Frederic is just completely emotionally drained at this point. His closest friends died, his baby died, his wife died, and, on top of that, his barn burned down. Frederic doesn’t really have anything worthwhile left in his life now that Catherine is gone. He’ll probably just live out the rest of his life at a bar, all alone until death gets him too. I think that Frederic walking away in the rain is a reference back to the quote that we analyzed for chapter 19, which illustrated how helpless Frederic and Catherine really were against nature and the war. I think that this ending ties into the idea that nature is indifferent to the will of man. Death was just one more part of nature that Frederic and Catherine were helpless to.
This final passage in the novel sums up Frederic's entire life. Just when everything seems to be looking up for Frederic something goes wrong whether its returning to war or losing a loved one. Frederic seems to stir up a hurricane of events that eventually lead him walking in the rain. Like Bannock said it's chilling to think that earlier in the novel Catherine visions her death in the rain. This foreshadow can also relate to Frederic because after everything he has been through he really has nothing to live for, he too is dead.
Henry is obviously accustomed to death at this point, and has realized that after a person has expired, any goodbye said to them does as little as would talking to a statue. This goes back to the theme of death being the ultimate finality, something that cannot be unwritten. It's also the ultimate certainty in life, and Henry has become very familiar with it throughout the novel. Catherine's likening to a statue is a good metaphor for the finality of death described here. A statue is generally solid, solid enough to stand tall and true throughout life. This is certainly an appropriate description of death as well, death is the one certain truth throughout life. As he walks into the rain, the pathetic fallacy hinted at earlier by Catherine's fear of rain becomes clear. The rain did, in fact, correspond to the grim circumstances that Henry faced, seemingly defying naturalism. The rain was earlier associated to death by Catherine, and it is certainly a fitting prediction in this case.
Pride Snow
This final passage makes me very sad for Henry. He has gone through many struggles in his life during the war. He has seen death time and time again, and when it takes his most prized and valued possession, he barely reacts. Because of the war he has been completely desensitized and shoes almost no emotion when his loved ones die. This shows how brutal war is, and how much it can change a man.
Hemingway refers to the statue as Catherine. She is dead and lays there motionless. Frederick shows almost no emotion towards her death. The war had to change his way on the way he saw death. He is so use to seeing it time and time again it almost becomes natural instinct to just walk away with no attachment. Hemingway applies rain to this sentence to represent death as he has the whole book. Catherine was the one afraid of rain and kept seeing Frederick die in it, but in reality she is the one who dies while its raining.
Post a Comment