Farewell to Arms Code Hero

Code Hero

In the novel, Farewell To Arms by Ernest Hemingway, it opens up with World War I raging all over Europe. A young American student, Frederic Henry, offers his services to the Italian army. While in the hospital in Milan, he falls in love with an English nurse, Catherine Barkley. Later on, Catherine discovers she is pregnant with Frederic's child. As for Frederic, in order to save his life from being killed by Italian officers, he deserts his post and goes away to a hospital in Milan to take Catherine and go somewhere to begin a new life. Her and Frederic go to Switzerland but can not live happily, for a fresh tragedy awaits them. Throughout the novel, Hemingway fulfills the idea of a "code hero", someone who acts on his own despite what the people around him say or do. Hemingway 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 is considered to be a code hero. Through Frederic Henry's behavior, actions, and traits, he fits these characteristics. Three ways in which Frederic shows that he lives by the idea are that he bears his miseries well in public, but in private he does not; nighttime is difficult for the hero because it symbolizes the darkness and loneliness man will face in death. Finally various love affairs have gone badly for Frederic Henry throughout.

One way Hemingway showed his idea of a "code hero" in Henry was through his portrayal of how he bears his miseries well in public, but private he does not. An example of this characteristic would be how he thinks "wine is a grand thing" but "it makes you forget all the bad" (Hemingway, 154). Henry is able to control the amount he drinks when he is out with his friends. However, when he is lonesome, he drinks a lot. Typically, when people consume a great amount of alcohol, sometimes depression could be a reason. Henry even states that he is "...depressed (himself)" (Hemingway, 179).

Another way Hemingway presented his idea of a "code hero" through Henry is how nighttime is difficult for the hero, for it symbolizes darkness and loneliness man will face in death. For instance, during the night, Henry and Catherine are out on the balcony chatting until it starts to rain. Catherine asks Henry if he would still love her no matter what and when he tells her yes, she says how it's "good because (she's) afraid of the rain" (Hemingway, 125). When she is asked for the reason why she is afraid she explains how "sometimes I see me dead in it" (Hemingway, 126). In this quote, Hemingway seems to be foreshadowing Catherine's death, that happens later in the novel, after she gives birth. Another example would be during the night when Catherine gives birth but both she and the baby die afterwards. Before Henry exits the hospital, he attempts to get the nurses