Preview

Code Hero In Ernest Hemingway's A Farewell To Arms

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
949 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Code Hero In Ernest Hemingway's A Farewell To Arms
Hemingway’s literary masterpiece A Farewell to Arms is the perfect place to show and celebrate the kind of man that people could connect and look up to. The kind of man that Hemingway chose to celebrate was his own code hero by exhibiting his traits in three different men Rinaldi, the priest, and Henry and ultimately chose to not make his own main character this code hero.
The priest is celebrated as he exhibits many traits of the code hero. When Henry first describes the priest in chapter 2 he says, “The priest was young and blushed easily and wore a uniform like the rest of us but with a cross in dark red velvet above the left breast pocket of his tunic” (6). In his attire, the uniform is symbolic for the discipline that the priest has.
…show more content…
In chapter 4 Rinaldi takes Henry to meet his interest Miss Barkley however when Henry and Miss Barkley were done saying their greetings he saw that, “Rinaldi was talking with the other nurse.They were laughing” (15). His casual nature with women is a classic trait of the Hemingway code hero. He is celebrated because he is also seen in a good light as he is Henry’s fatherly friend he even helps Henry get to the British villa in chapter 7 when he was drunk (34). After he made sure that he was all right he told Henry goodnight and when asked why he would not come inside Rinaldi answered “‘I like the simpler pleasures’”. This shows Rinaldi’s free-spirit another trait that both him and the code hero possess. The villa is symbolic for domestic life and him not coming in means that he is rejecting that kind of commitment in turn for a freer …show more content…
He does love to drink but he has no discipline in it and gets carried away. For example, in chapter 22 when he gets jaundice because of drinking so much. He has his honor stripped away even though he sounds nonchalant about it when he says, “Nothing happened except that I lost my leave” (127). Miss Van Campen had to find many empty bottles of alcohol in his armoire and he explains that, “They were mostly vermouth bottles, marsala bottles, capri bottles, empty chianti flasks and a few cognac bottles” (125) the great quantity of alcohol shows that he has so little self-control that he couldn’t stop drinking the thing that made him sick in the first place. When Catherine goes into labor he goes to a cafe. There the server wishes him good luck and he replies, “‘Give me another glass of wine’” (270) he is starting to succumb to the pressure and tries ease it with more alcohol. When he sees his son he reflects, “I had no feeling for him. He did not seem to have anything to do with me. I felt no feeling of fatherhood” (277) this shows how he is starting to crack under the pressure especially when he replies with a “No” when he gets asked if he’s proud of his son. In the end, Henry may be what Hemingway would call a manly man, however he does not live by a code and most would not look up to him because in the end it’s most of his undisciplined actions that bring him the most pain.
A Farewell to Arms celebrates the

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    The hemingway code is defined by Ernest Hemingway himself as "a man who lives correctly, following the ideals of honor, courage and endurance in a world that is sometimes chaotic, often stressful, and always painful." In one of hemingway's books, “A Farewell to Arms,” the main character Lt. Frederic Henry exemplifies the qualities of the Hemingway code. Throughout the book, he is actively takes on large challenges and responsibilities while not undergoing self pity. He is an American who enlists in the Italian military during the first world war being the main commander of an ambulance, which is a very risky action that could contain major consequences.…

    • 221 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Best Essays

    Vernon, Alex. Soldiers Once and Still: Ernest Hemingway, James Salter & Tim O'Brien. Iowa City: University of Iowa, 2004. Print. Vernon's criticism and interpretation of O'Brien's works.…

    • 4171 Words
    • 17 Pages
    Best Essays
  • Good Essays

    Ernest Hemingway illustrates in his book, Farewell to Arms, the character of Frederick Henry; an ambulance driver, who is put to the ultimate test during the madness and atrocity of WWI. His experiences at the front pose a challenge only a Hemingway hero can affront successfully. As the epitome of a code hero, Frederick is a man of action,self-discipline, and one who maintains grace under pressure but lacks certain characteristics a person should possess. Throughout the book, Hemingway expresses a variety of themes which include death, traditional values, and courage.…

    • 1261 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    (Page 232) “Anger was washed away in the river along with any obligation.” Henry believes the river ride purified him and provided the basis for rebirth. The river was a form of baptism and redemption. Henry believed the river provided absolution of commitment, duty and anger. Henry feels he is forced to become a deserter and he has no plans of returning to the army. (Page 232) “I had taken off the stars, but that was for convenience. It was no point of honor.” Stars on a uniform represent competency and duty. Henry cut off the stars to disguise himself, but he also is throwing away his responsibilities and his identity. “I was not against them. I was through. I wished them all the luck….It was not my show anymore.” He clearly has no intention of going back to the war. He doesn’t hate the people in the war; he just opposes the war itself. Henry even wishes those left in war the best of luck. Hemingway expresses his distinct feeling through his characters. It is easy to correlate the actions of Henry in this chapter to the title of the book, Farwell to…

    • 1701 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Among the many definitions of a hero, Hemingway’s is a rather profound take on the usually glamorized figure. Using the character Santiago in The Old Man and the Sea, Hemingway crafts the supposed epitome of his code hero, as Santiago is described as “salao, which is the worst form of unlucky”(1). In a short description, the code hero typical lives a life of consistent misfortune as…

    • 591 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Cited: Hemingway, Ernest. “Soldier’s Home.” The Bedford Introduction to Literatures Ed.Micheal Meyer. 8th ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2008. 185-90.…

    • 992 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    A "code hero" is someone who acts on his own despite what the people around him say or do. Ernest Hemmingway, the author of the novel A Farewell to Arms, not only sees a code hero as someone who acts on his own, but who also acts in a very masculine manner. Lieutenant Frederic Henry, the main character in the novel, is considered to be a code hero. Through Frederic Henry's behavior, actions, and traits, he fits the description of a code hero.…

    • 372 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Throughout Ernest Hemingway’s career, the characterizations of his protagonists remained consistent. The classic “Hemingway Hero” is either a code hero or a wounded hero. The coded hero attempts to find meaning in a meaningless world by living according to a personal code. The wounded hero is, as the title obviously reveals, a hero who has been injured physically or psychologically. The two heros come and enter into a student-teacher relationship. The code hero is the teacher who reinvigorates the wounded hero by initiating him into his code.…

    • 1323 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Hero is a simple-sounding two-syllable word, which many people freely use to name and describe others. But, how many people really know what a hero is? One of the most know codes for defining a hero would be Ernest Hemingway 's code, which can be seen in his novels. "The code hero is a man who lives correctly, following the ideals of honor, courage and endurance in a world that is sometimes chaotic, often stressful, and always painful." (CodeHeroDefinition). Ernest Hemingway uses Santiago, the main character in The Old Man and the Sea to symbolize his code hero.…

    • 683 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    In A Farewell to Arms, Frederic Henry is characterized initially by a sort of detachment from life-though well-disciplined and friendly, he feels as if he has nothing to do with the war. These feelings of detachment are pushed away when Henry falls in love with Catherine and begins to realize the hostile nature of the world. In this way, Henry serves the function of a character that becomes initiated in Hemingway's philosophy of an indifferent universe and man's struggle against it. Due to the untimely death of a fiancé previous to the events of this book, Catherine is initiated into Hemingway's philosophy, and exemplifies the traits of the Hemingway code hero throughout the novel. She is characterized primarily by her disregard for social conventions as well as an unfaltering devotion to Henry. Catherine is defined as a code hero because of her honor, courage, and endurance in pain.…

    • 1699 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Hemingway’s novel A Farewell to Arms discloses how Henry struggles with his fate as a code hero. Henry’s role as the code hero means he will continuously face death, but be judged on how he handles it. Throughout this story Henry attempts to balance his obligations to the war with his fatal flaw of love. Although Henry has a duty as a soldier, he deserts the chaos of war to be with Catherine. Henry displays many attributes, but the most prominent are how he is pragmatic, authoritative and dependable.…

    • 561 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    For hundreds of years, writers have used religion as a principle issue and point of discussion in their novels. Hawthorne expressed his views in The Scarlet Letter, Garcia Marquez did the same in One Hundred Years of Solitude and in other writings, and even Ernest Hemingway used his writing to develop his own ideas concerning the church. This is fully evident in his novel A Farewell to Arms. Even in a book in which the large majority of the characters profess their atheism, the ideas of the church materialize repeatedly as both characters and as topics of conversations. Religion is presented through reflections of the protagonist "Lieutenant Henry," and through a series of encounters involving Henry and a character simply identified as "the priest." Hemingway uses the treatment of the priest by the soldiers and by Henry himself to illustrate two ways of approaching religion in a situation in which God has no place, and employs these encounters between the priest and other characters as a means of expressing religious views of his own.…

    • 2063 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Better Essays

    From the very first time Hemingway embarked on his historic writing journey, he exhibits through his written works and actions how a “hero” should conduct himself/herself. Hemingway often partook in hunting, fishing, and could be seen attending Spanish bullfights. Hemingway uses these experiences, and the ones he gained from World War II to enhance his already superb writing. Admirers often praise Hemingway for how he believes a man should live his life, and how he also emulates this belief in his characters by “tying the life of the hero…

    • 3970 Words
    • 16 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Farewell to Arms

    • 852 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Throughout high school, relationships come up left and right. With those relationships, tension is just waiting to come, fights already starting. War is just the same, fight after fight until someone dies, or gets hurt. In “A Farewell to Arms”, Frederick Henry is in a similar relationship that is being torn apart by war with Catherine Barkley. Frederick Henry is an ambulance driver who is at the front in a relationship with Catherine, a British nurse. At the front, their relationship short, and horrid, while away, their relationship flourishes. This change in Frederick Henry’s relationship shows Ernest Hemingway’s thematic message that war is dehumanizing, and ruins your life.…

    • 852 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    American Heroism

    • 1445 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Heroes are not born, they are made. This statement is clearly shown throughout Ernest Hemingway’s A Farewell to Arms and Howard Hawks’ Sergeant York, two texts that successfully demonstrate the evolution of an American hero during the First World War. These texts seek to prove that there is a key area of learning that an individual must master in order to become a true hero. Thus, through the character development of Frederic Henry in A Farewell to Arms and Alvin York in Sergeant York, Ernest Hemingway and Howard Hawks demonstrate that the prospective American hero must learn to love, and to put the wellbeing of others in the foreground in order to achieve true levels of heroism. This will be demonstrated through an in-depth comparison of Hawks…

    • 1445 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays

Related Topics