The Interpretation of the Lost Generation from the Tragic Love Story In A Farewell to Arms

1、从永别了，武器中的爱情悲剧认识“迷惘的一代”the interpretation of lost generation from the tragic love story in a farewell to armsabstract: after the wwi, a large number of young writers emerged in the stage of american literature, most of them brought tremendous scars both physically and mentally, which became their nig

2、htmare in later life. they opposed the war, cursed the war, but couldnt bring out the right way to get rid of the war, so they got lost. we called them the lost generation. in that stage of literature works, ernest hemingways a farewell to arms which was about the war experience and the tragic love

3、affairs of american youth in italy during wwi was regarded as a representative work of the lost generation and reflected their desperate and pessimistic spiritual world accurately. reading this novel, we not only understand the great man hemingway more deeply, we also perceive the spirit of “the los

4、t generation” and have a better understanding of that particular period of the western society.key words: the lost generation; a farewell to arms; war; love tragedy 摘 要: 一战结束后，美国文坛上涌现了大批的年轻作家。他们中的大多数在战争中都遭到了生理上和心理上的伤害，这一切都成为他们日后生活中的噩梦。这群经历过一战的年轻人痛恨并反对战争，但尽管这样，他们还是找不到对的方向躲避战争，所以他们迷惘了。因此称这些人为“迷惘的一代”。在

5、那一代人的文学作品中，海明威的一部描写了一战意大利战场上的一个美国青年的战争经历和他的悲剧爱情故事的小说，永别了，武器，堪称“迷惘的一代”的经典代表作。它真实的反映了迷惘一代的消极与绝望的精神世界。在读此著作中，我们不仅可以更深刻的了解到海明威这个伟大的作家，我们还可以从中获取更多有关那个特殊年代的西方社会的知识。关键词： “迷惘的一代”；永别了，武器；战争；爱情悲剧contentsi. introduction.1ii. background.1a. hemingways love and war experiences in wwi and wwii.1b. henrys love and

6、 war experiences in wwi and wwii.2c. the comparison of attitude towards the love and war between henry and hemingway.31. the comparison of henrys and hemingways war experience.32. the comparison of their love experience. 5iii. theme of love.7iv. the war-the root of tragic love story.8a. disillusionm

7、ent of dream81. the analysis of lost generation from the lines in a farewell to arms.8 2. the analysis of lost generation from the symbols in a farewell to arms9b. the changes of henrys character in hemingways a farewell to arms.101. henrys former character.10 2. the influences of war experience on

8、henrys character.103. the change point of henrys views11v. conclusion.11works cited.12i. introduction after the world war i, a large number of young writers emerged in the stage of american literature, most of them brought tremendous scars both physically and mentally, which became their nightmare i

9、n later life. they opposed the war, abused the war, but couldnt bring out the right way to get rid of the war, so they got lost. we called them the lost generation. “hemingways book paints the image of a whole generation, the lost generation. this included the young english and american expatriates

10、as well as men and women caught in the war and cut off from the old values and yet unable to come to terms with the new era when civilization had gone mad”(chang 222). in his works, a farewell to arms which is about the war experience and the tragic love affairs of american youth in italy during wwi

11、. this work was written by ernest hemingway who is regarded as a representative of the lost generation. not only in this work, the sun also rises and the great gatsby did reflect the orbit of this stage of youth. from that, we consider that the lost generation, as a matter of fact, is an inevitable

12、outcome of this cruel, numb world.ernest hemingway (1899-1961) is an american novelist awarded 1954 nobel prize laureate for literature. he participated in world war one as a volunteer. in addition, he took part in the spanish civil war and world war two as a correspondent. in his later years, he wa

13、s physically ill and mentally depressed. he committed suicide in 1961.his main works like in our times, the torrents of spring, the sun also rises, a farewell to arms, for whom the bell tolls, and the old man and the sea. “he is one of the foremost american writers, an epoch-making stylist with a hi

14、ghly original talent. like no other writers of his time, he has become a symbol not merely of literature and books, but of a particular way of living and dying” (baker 106). his name is often associated with war and courage, with love and violence, with beauty and death. ii. backgrounda. hemingways

15、love and war experiences in wwi and wwiiin a farewell to arms, hemingway turned his personal war experience into the whole experience of the generation in world war i. with the publication of the novel, hemingway wined wide critical acclaim and strengthened his position as the spokesman for what ger

16、trude stain had called “a lost generation”. the author ernest hemingway participated in two world wars. the wars left more than 200 scars on him. the wars made his ideal vanish like soap bubbles, which made him suspect on traditional moral standard and values. he felt perplexed and disconsolate, and

17、 even lost the goal of life. the war left the author wounds in physiology and psychology that could not heal. this masterpiece is a monologue of the author, an expression of the emotion. one “injured” work that must belong to one wounded author. a perplexed person must have a perplexed memory too. b

18、. henrys love and war experiences in wwi and wwii henry is a typical representative of this kind of perplexed person. henry, like many other ardent youths of the america, with belief of “peace” “justice” and “free war” that the capitalist class propagated, participates in the war, and becomes a tool

19、 which the capitalist class fights for their own interests. but in the war, which is like a slaughterhouse, there is no justice; there is only blood and destroying to hundreds and thousands of lives. henry, in front of blood, death and destroying, became thinking about the aim of the war, and the re

20、ason to slaughter. however, nothing can be found but fain of perplexity. “the capitalist class inveigles people to do a killing job for their interests. peoples lives become insignificant in the war, and just this cheap life were defrauded by the capitalist class” (fan and liu 339-40). the fear of d

21、ying was far away from ideal and reality, which makes them uneasy and painful. they are unable to extricate themselves from the plight, but only to be cynical. he anaesthetizes his spirit with alcohol and women. he lies to the nurse catherine whom he knew for just a moment. “i love you” is just thre

22、e words coming from his mouth without any other meanings. he thinks that it is only one game, just like a bridge game. in order to get rid of his own spiritual agony, henry falls into that so-called “love”, and attempts to ease his depression and hesitation in such a passive way. as he comes to the

23、front, there is no any other experience more vividly than in the war. he understands the war further. during the war, henry, like other people, is unable to escape from disaster. he was wounded by an enemys mortar when he is eating cheese with an ambulance driver in the air raid dugout. the bomb lea

24、ves many wounds on him, and many people around him lost arms or legs. he finds people are dying in painful and struggling in front of his eyes. “the war leaves him permanent scars, but at that very moment, he still cannot see through the war yet”(tao 117). when he is sent to the battlefield first-ai

25、d station he still cannot forget to tell others to keep an eye on the ambulance. c. the comparison of attitude towards the love and war between henry and hemingway1. the comparison of henrys and hemingways war experiencehenry is transferred to milan for further treatment. during the time in hospital

26、 in milan, he sees the rich looking for fun in horse - racing and dinner. he feels their extravagant and wasteful life in milan, which is a sharp contrast with the blood battle field where wounded soldiers can be seen at any place. henry has to examine the purpose and meaning of the war closely agai

27、n. to his surprise, his unexpected experience: wounded when eating the cheese in the air-raid dugout, is thought to be a kind of heroism that should be displayed in war period, and ridiculously which brings him silver “bravely medal. at that moment he sees clearly the sham of military sacredness and

28、 honor .he gets the duplicity of the war. there are no sacredness and honor that he imagines in the war. there are just blood and massacring. “he detests the war; his attitude toward the war develops into a kind of conscientious thinking and understanding” (wang 147-48). he does not confront with wa

29、r face to face but escape. instead, he turns to bright chase of love with the disappointment of war, which is thought by him as a sanctuary of spirit. he places his hope for life on catherine. to him catherine is a source of courageshe is beautiful, pure and she shows the utmost solicitude to henry.

30、 she devotes everything to him without hesitation. from then on henry recaptures all his hope of life from nightmare to sweet love. the war makes him lose heart, but he has not degenerated. henry leaves hospital in wound, and returns to the front, but he encountered the crushing defeat of italys arm

31、y on the way. though henry is disappointed to the war, he rejoins his unit and accepts a new task on timeto transport the equipment of the hospital to the destination. but unlucky henry is arrested and will be executed on the spot. looking at this absurd, confused and false world at the moment, henr

32、y is desperate completely to the war. all his hopes and faiths collapse at that moment. he sees clearly the true features of the warthey are only the capitalist class fighting tool and victims of interests. henry is determined to forget the war. he asserts his own responsibility; and has already had

33、 nothing to do with the war. he chooses action of resisting bravely. this resistance action demonstrates his strong personal point to the war, and at the same time, it is the authorernest hemingway personal viewpoint.in the novel, hemingway does not give a direct reason that frederic henry is involv

34、ed in the war. but in a significant scene, henry talks to an ardent italian patriot and then comments to the reader. not only henry himself dislikes the war, rinaldi, one of his fellow officers, ever says to him, “this war is terrible. come on. well both get drunk and be cheerful. then well go get t

35、he ashes dragged. then well feel fine”(hemingway 14-15). obviously, his words mirror the mental state of the generation at that time. when the italian retreat from amoretto, henry, though he dislikes the war, has not lost his loyalty to the army and still carries out his task, and he even shoots a s

36、ergeant who tires to run away. ironically, at the end of a wooden bridge, henry is mistaken to be a “german agitator in italian uniform”. “at the critical moment, facing the threat of death, henry betrays his duty as a soldier, plunges into the river and escapes. henry awakes in the harsh reality, a

37、nd realizes that war is cruel and meaningless” (peter 26). in the novel he bitterly compares human beings to ants around the log on the top of the fire which “finally fell off into the fire”, which implies the view of life that hemingway elaborated throughout his career as a writer. many consider a

38、farewell to arms the best american novel upon world war i. the purposely-ambiguous title obviously means the renunciation of war.hemingway was hit by a burst of shrapnel in the front .for a while it seemed that both legs might have to be amputated but expert surgery and good nursing saved them, alth

39、ough one leg continued to trouble him intermittently for the rest of his life. during his six months stay in hospital hemingway fell in love with an english nurse (who later served as a model for the heroine, catherine, in a farewell to arms) and they became engaged. when the war ended, hemingway st

40、ayed in italy for a few more months, which was spent largely in an unsuccessful attempt to revive his wartime romance. the english nurse got married with another man later. this made hemingway feel he was betrayed. the wartime love affected hemingways attitude toward the love and his attitude toward

41、 women at the rest of his life. catherines death was a consequent which perhaps came from his dislike and disregard of women. hemingway had got married four times in his life. his first wife, hadley richardson was a few years older than he. she was a fine pianist, and widely famed as a beauty. the m

42、arriage lasted for six years and they had a son later on. hemingway left his wife and son and got married with pauline pfeiffer, a wealthy young woman, in the spring of 1927, less than a month after hadley had unhappily agreed to a divorce. during the late thirties and early forties, his marriage to

43、 pauline, with whom he had two sons had been deteriorating. yet they still spent most of their time in key west, havana. there in 1937 he met an already well-known young reporter, martha gelhorn.2. the comparison of their love experiencehemingway and martha joined forces as reporters and lovers in s

44、pain, and pauline finally agreed to a divorce which became effective in 1940. hemingways third marriage was a big trouble from the beginning. they spent their honeymoon in china, covering the sino-japanese war for two different newspapers, and returned to cuba together, but their quarrels became inc

45、reasingly frequent. he was therefore more than ready to fall in love again, this time with another young journalist, mary welsh. they were married in 1944 and she proved perfectly willing to devote herself entirely to her husband and on their frequent visits, to his three sons. through his wives the

46、 image of the english nurse can be seen. for example, the first two wives of his were both a few years older than he, as the nurse was. hemingway found the destination of his love on mary at last. maybe only a woman like mary could placate the harm that hemingway had got. but, while hemingway always

47、 had a picture of the english nurse in his brain, it would be impossible to believe that there was a real love between him and one of his four wives. it can be assumed that his truthful devotion is his first love and the great sense of loss that followed led to his series of games of romance as his

48、last spiritual backing and the last hope in his life. and a person can survive only by relying on himself instead of on another one. “so when he praised courage and bravery in his novels, he was, in fact, trying to cover his internal weakness, and this weakness was closely associated with his too mu

49、ch free choices and abandonment of women and with his despite and reliance of women” (phillip 26 ). at last, his uncontrollable mood of spirit, which had come from his unrestrained choices of women, betrayed his longing for a happy life and led to his suicide. it was obvious that, at this time, no o

50、ne could save him from the spiritual collapse. thus, his attitude toward the love not only did harm to his wives and children, but also brought his life to a disastrous and unforgivable end, because we should remember that suicide is a sin. henry met catherine barkley, an english nurse, in the front

51、 by chance. over there they began their first contacts. but at that time henry did not really love catherine. it was just like a game. during a bombardment henry was wounded in the head and legs and was then moved to a hospital in milan, where he met catherine again. because of his physical injuries

52、, he now began to love catherine. both of them found that the united love could be against the blows of life. they spent an idyllic summer together while henry recuperated after a successful operation. that autumn catherine announced that she was pregnant, but refused to marry him, fearing to resign

53、 her job and to be sent back to england. henry arrived back at the front only to find that the combatants had grown more cynical than ever. after german soldiers joined in the austrian attacks for several days running, the italian army retreated miserably. in the retreat, henry was captured by itali

54、an military police and threatened that he would soon be killed as a german spy because of his foreign accent. he was obviously betrayed by the italian army he was serving. so he felt completely desperate and deserted. he joined catherine in stresa. henry turned to hate the war and wanted to find pea

55、ce and happiness in love. overjoyed, they led a short happy life until one night henry was warned off because the local military police suspected him as a runaway officer and were on their way to arrest him. henry, therefore, was forced to flee with catherine to switzerland on a rainy night. then th

56、ey moved to lausanne in the winter, awaiting the birth of their child in peace. but the baby was stillborn and catherine died in the childbirth. henry had a farewell to dead catherine at last. he established a connection with the world in his love affair with catherine and the love was the spiritual

57、 prop for henry. once catherine died, he collapsed - the war destroyed the love, and took away the happy life. it is natural to conclude that the title implies the heros farewell to the war, but there is a second critical judgment about the title. henry in the last lines of the novel stated that his

58、 farewell to dead catherine was like a farewell to a statue. “arms” may logically be assumed to refer to the feminine arms, that is to say, the love of catherine. she made the plea to henry not to share their love with other women he would have in his life. from this appeal of hers, henry would possibly have to choose to be a widower, because catherine urged him to bid a farewell to the love. then, what