Blog Entry # 5: Personal Review

Overall, I had fairly positive feelings about this novel. I thought that Hemmingway’s use of rhetoric, syntax, and diction added an effective tone to the piece. These concepts allowed me to feel like I was actually involved in the plot with his use of imagery in describing scenes and events. The concept of emotion and how it was developed by rhetoric provided a clear insight to what the characters were feeling while they were enthralled in love and war. Although I felt strongly about the success of this novel, I also believed that it did have a few weak points and perhaps a somewhat poorly structured syntax at times. There was an overabundance of dialogue that made reading fairly tedious at times and made it hard to follow who was speaking, but all in all, the good outweighed the bad. The most effective aspect of this book that stood out to me was Hemmingway’s use of imagery in setting the scene for events. It is not often that one reads a novel that is as descriptive as this one and I thought that this novel was made unique by it’s imaginative tone. This novel is clearly one of great description that effectively conveys the plot to the reader.

Blog Entry #4: Text Connections

A frequent occurrence in A Farewell to Arms is the use of alcoholic beverages to null the hardships of war. The narrator, as well as the other characters in the story, drink wine and other alcoholic beverages on a regular basis in the novel. Their reasoning for this frequent consumption is that alcohol provides an escape from the horrors of warfare that they witness every day. When eating dinner after being called up to the front, Rinaldi tells the priest to “take a little wine for his stomach’s sake” (Hemmingway 173). This shows that alcohol plays a key role in the nullification of the mental and physical pain that the men endure while enthralled in conflict. This concept can be connected in a worldly view to many of today’s occurrences. In our world today, many people consume alcohol on a regular basis to “escape” from reality and hardship. In relation to the situation of the narrator, these individuals also become dependent on alcohol to alleviate their grief, and physical pain. It is apparent that the narrator’s reliance on alcohol to assuage his troubles can also be connected with the concept of alcoholism in our present era.

Blog Entry # 3: Syntax

· “There was fighting for that mountain too, but it was not successful, and in the fall when the rains came the leaves all fell from the chestnut trees and the branches were bare and the trunks black with rain.” (Hemingway 4)

· “At the start of the winter came the permanent rain and with the rain came the cholera.” (Hemingway 4)

· “The war was changed too.” (Hemingway 6)

· “The snow slanted across the wind, the bare ground was covered, the stumps of trees projected, there was snow on the guns and there were paths in the snow going back to the latrines behind trenches.” (Hemingway 6)

The fairly common usage of syntax by Hemingway in the novel greatly adds to his descriptive style. While maintaining a simple yet informative sentence structure, Hemingway efficiently uses syntax as a tool for the set-up and development of the plot. For example, the descriptive statement: “At the start of the winter came the permanent rain and with the rain came the cholera” (Hemingway 4), provides a view for the opening season of the story while maintaining a basic sentence structure. Hemingway also diverges from the basics with an occasional lengthy sentence that provides an effective portrayal of imagery: “There was fighting for that mountain too, but it was not successful, and in the fall when the rains came the leaves all fell from the chestnut trees and the branches were bare and the trunks black with rain” (Hemingway 4). With a fusion of both forms of syntax, Hemingway is able to effectively substantiate upon his style by providing a descriptive view of the novel’s plot.

Blog Entry # 2: Diction

· “smell of blasted clay and freshly shattered flint” (Hemingway 24)

· “They were sweaty, dusty, and tired.” (Hemingway 33)

· “They all squabbled about divisions and only killed them when they got them” (Hemingway 134 )

· “water spread like sheen over the pebbly bed” (Hemingway 44)

· “the stump twitched and jerked as though it were not connected.” (Hemingway 55)

· “Tears came down her plump cheeks” (Hemingway 196)

· “The retreat was orderly, wet, and sullen” (Hemingway 188)

In A Farewell to Arms, Hemingway uses a selective yet fairly simple form of diction to convey his tone towards the novel. This tone can best be described as one of sentiment and sensation. He chooses words that bring emotion to the text and effectively describe the feelings that are present in the mind of the narrator. For example, with the usage of phrases such as “orderly, wet, and sullen” (Hemingway 188), Hemingway is able to depict the sorrowful tone that is a result of the loneliness and destitution of war. He is also able to describe the sorrow that comes with the concept of love with the incorporation of word choice such as, “tears came down her plump cheeks.” In this case, the simple yet descriptive form of diction conveys the sorrow that the narrator and his wife feel at the moment. As a result of his discriminatory diction, Hemingway efficiently portrays the sentimental tone of the novel in a realistic way.

Blog Entry # 1: Rhetorical Strategies in A Farewell to Arms

· Simile: “You look healthy as a goat” (Hemingway 99)

· Imagery: “There were big guns too that passed in the day drawn by tractors, the long barrels of the guns covered with green branches and green leafy branches and vines laid over the tractors” (Hemingway 4)

· Invective: “Go to hell” (Hemingway 13)

· Repetition: “sure that this was all and all and all” (Hemingway 13)

· Alliteration: “racks of rockets” (Hemingway 23)

· Allusion: “Napoleon victories; any Napoleon. I wished we had a Napoleon” (Hemingway 36)

· Hyperbole: “But millions of fools like you don’t know it” (Hemingway 66)

· Euphemism: “with malaria, a nice boy, also thin” (Hemingway 107)

· Assonance: “I don’t drink and I don’t run around. I’m no boozer and whorehound” (Hemingway 123)

· Cliché: “had bitten off more than they could chew” (Hemingway 133)

· Homily: “That is why the peasant had wisdom, because he is defeated from the start. Put him in power and see how wise he is” (Hemingway 179)

In the novel, A Farewell to Arms, Hemingway uses a variety of rhetorical strategies to develop his style. These include simile, imagery, invective, repetition, alliteration, allusion, hyperbole, euphemism, assonance, cliché, and homily. In a broad perspective, these rhetorical strategies substantiate a single concept: imagery. Hemingway’s use of rhetoric allows him to create a vivid image of war and love, an image that the reader is able to indentify with. For example, when describing the opening scene for the novel, Hemingway states that “there were big guns too that passed in the day drawn by tractors, the long barrels of the guns covered with green branches and green leafy branches and vines laid over the tractors” (Hemingway 4). In this instance, the utilization of imagery places the reader in the shoes of the narrator, and allows him or her to identify with the plot. Hemingway’s style can be viewed as one of objective, an objective that focuses on allowing the reader to relate to what is occurring in the story. These rhetorical strategies are crucial to developing this style in a clear and effective way.