Theme in A Farewell to Arms
Death
Directions: These passages all refer to death in some way. Your task
is to look up each passage, confirm the note, and add your own notes on what
some of these passages have in common. Feel free to supplement this limited list
with other references.
page
instance
your notes
4 cholera kills "only" 7,000
19 C.B. on death of her fiance
28 busts like a cemetery (compare
with 332:"like saying good-by
to a statue."
54 "a mistake to think you just died"
55 Passini's death
61 the hemorrhaging soldier
108 Fergy: "fight or die"
125-126 C.B. links death and rain
133 190,000 Italian dead
140 C.B.: 2,000 silent deaths
214-216 Aymo shot by friendly fire
218 expecting death but nothing happens
224-225 firing squad at the Tagliamento
249 killer world
261 a fool to mention death to Count Greffi
274 "Aren't you dead?"
319 C.B. claims to be past death
320 "What if she should die?"
323 "I won't die, will I?" (C.B.)
327 "That was what you did, you died." (baby)
327-328 ants into the fire vs. being
steamed: on saving others from death
331 the end
Assembling a thesis: How is death presented in this novel? Why? Is
there a way to group the passages listed above to show different attributes of
death? Is death in war different from death outside of war, for instance?
Summarize your notes and the answers to these questions in a sentence or two
and you will have a thesis on how death is depicted in this story.
[The photo
depicts the Argonne Cemetery in France, 1919.]
Copyright
and Permission:
This web on Ernest Hemingway's early novel was begun under a small grant from the
VCCS, which holds copyright. © 2001 by the