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When I finished FTA I was of course stunned by the death of Catherine and the
baby and Henry's sudden solitude. What happens now? I felt, as I so often do
when I finish a book that I want to go on forever. This is infinitely more
difficult with a book that has no conclusion, and FTA leaves a reader not only
emotionally exhausted but also just as alone as Henry and with nowhere to go.
The entire work was aware of where it was going and what was going to happen
next, and then to stop the way it did was unfair. Now, I've read enough essays
while deciding which would be the topic for my class presentation that I know
many people see that the unfairness of life and the insignificance of our free
will are apparently the most important themes in the book, but I don't agree. I
also don't agree that it is a war story or a love story. Exactly what it is,
though, is not clear to me. Can't art exist without being anything? There isn't
always an explanation for everything. War and love are obviously important
themes in the book, and the relationship between the two is explored by
Hemingway and, somewhat, by Henry. In the first two Books we are in the war and
the war is overwhelming. In the last two Books we are in love. And, just as the
first two Books are peppered with love in the time of war, the last two Books
are tinged with war in the time of love. The third Book is the bridge between
the two 'stories' and it is not surprising that it centers on the escape. It is
during the escape that Henry resolves that he is through with the war (a war in
which he really has no place) and decides that all he wants is to be with
Catherine. Until the third Book Henry doesn't seem to be agonizingly concerned
with matters of right or wrong in the war and it seems, in fact, separate from
him. Even when he is injured it doesn't appear that he is really a part of the
war which surrounds him. He maintains a distance from it and this distance isn't
really closed until Aymo is killed by his own army, he discovers that Bonello is
only staying with him out of respect, and he is almost killed as a spy. After
this he resolves to desert the army and be reunited with his love, Catherine.
Henry is no dummy and he could easily tell that everything was not all correct
with Cat, which leads to the question of his love for her. You must admit that
Cat is a bit...well... flaky when they first meet. She loses that persona soon
enough, although I couldn't help but distrust her integrity until somewhere in
the middle of the fourth Book. It is also difficult to believe wholeheartedly in
his love for her until much later in their relationship, and it leaves me
wondering if he is leaving his involvement in the war because of his unfailing
love for Cat or if Cat and any feelings he has for her are just excuses to
escape the insanity of the war he experiences in the third Book. When he is with
Catherine, they are in another place, untouched by the war, both symbolically
(in the tent of her hair) and literally (in Switzerland). [It seems like I don't
ever say anything earth-shattering, or even critical, in these response papers,
and I'm not sure if I'm supposed to do that. The line, The war seemed as far
away as the football games of some one else's college, is beautiful.]
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