A Farewell to Arms, Ernest Hemingway - James F. Light (essay date Summer 1961)
James F. Light (essay date Summer 1961)
SOURCE: “The Religion of Death in A Farewell to Arms,” in Ernest Hemingway: Critiques of Four Major Novels, edited by Carlos Baker, Charles Scribner's Sons, 1962, pp. 37-40.
[In the following essay,originally published in 1961, Light discusses the four ideals of service in A Farewell to Arms.]
One way of looking at Ernest Hemingway's A Farewell to Arms is to see its close involvement in four ideals of service.1 Each of these ideals is dramatized by a character of some importance, and it is between these four that Lt. Henry wavers in the course of the novel. The orthodoxly religious ideal of service is that of the Priest, who wishes to serve God but who asserts as well the broader concept of service: “When you love you wish to do things for. You wish to sacrifice for. You wish to serve.”2 Another selfless ideal of service is that of the patriot Gino, who...
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