A Farewell to Arms Oral Presentation

The significance of Aesthetic beauty & Architectural constructions in "A Farewell to Arms" in regaurds to the American Dream.

The house is a tranquil retreat from the war. The walls provide a sense of security, while the bright vine, fountain, and trees "soften the edges" of the harsh walls. Without the plants the garden would be a prison not a retreat.

The american dream is really a general feeling of safety and security. The garden in Hemingway's novel is an obvious symbol of security. Frederick describes his feelings towards the garden in his place of residence as peaceful. Catherine and he also constantly retreat to the make-shift hospital's garden to carry on secret/ private conversations.

pronoun! I hope I used it right.

The american dream tends to refer to life rather than death. However, Fredrick knows he is a a high risk of death with being a soldier. He begins to realize that he has not accomplished all he had hoped to in his life. Henry begins to feel like one of the marble busts he seems to hate so much. His life is full, but its really only full of "impenetrable white stone." Catherine is the pick and hammer that will either carve a hole and fill it with happy memories or split him open, and in turn, "kill" him.

This is the first example of an arch in Hemingway's novel. Henry described it as an entrance to a circus. It is of course an entrance to the front lines. (a horrible bloody circus) In this particular case this case the tunnel/archway is a symbol of safety.

Here the archway is another symbol of safety and stability. Catherine has made it known that she is afraid of the rain by this point. she points towards the arch, because she feels it will protect Frederick from the rain. However, metaphorically and litterally speaking, the rain can never be stopped and it will end up destroying all Frederick loves.

In this example of a symbolic archway; the arch is actually representing the emotions Fredrick feels towards his life. He feels as though everything he knows and loves is slowly beginning to crumble and fall into a murky river that will wear down the pieces until there is nothing left.

This is the first example we see of rain from this point on rain is a constant and prevalent symbol in the book.

This is a foreshadowing to the scene where Miss Van

Campen sends Henry back to the front. his "American Dream" is washed away with the rain.

This is right after Frederick has to returns to the front lines. The water and mud that covers everything is a symbol of his depression beginning to over whelm his life. He wants to get married, settle down, and never return to the front lines. We see almost the opposite happen here.

Pisa Cemetery

Fredrick says that marble looks like a cemetery. He is obviously bothered by the fact that he is having to sit surrounded by marble heads.

marble busts:

"But marble busts all looked like a cemetery.There was one fine cemetery though-the one in Pisa."

background info:

Gorizia was the location of many battles fought in WW1. from reading we can inferr that chapter 2 starts directly after the 6th battle of Isonzo. (August 1916)

setting:

Archway #3

"There were many marble busts on painted wooden pillars along the walls of the room they used for an office. The hall too, that the office opened on, was lined with them. They had the complete marble Quality of all looking alike. Sculpture had always seemed a dull business- still the bronzes looked like something. "

In 1915 the chief of staff of the Italian Army, General Luigi Cadorna, had failed to break through the Austro-Hungarian lines during the Isonzo Offensive. By the summer of 1916 Cadorna was ready to try again and launched an attack at Gorizia, 15km inland from the Adriatic coast. The town was eventually captured in August 1916, giving Cadorna his only major success of the First World War.

"The river was high and the bridge had been blown up in the centre; the stone arch was fallen into the river and the brown water was going over it." (Hemingway, 209)

"The next year there were many victories. The mountain that was beyond the valley and the hillside where the chestnut forest grew was captured and there were victories beyond the plain on the plateau to the south and we crossed the river in AUGUST and lived in a house in Gorizia..." (Hemingway, 5)

Gorizian River

source: http://www.freepedia.co.uk/FWWgorizia.php

Archway #1

Marble busts & the American Dream:

How does a stupid garden pertain to the American Dream?

"The road was crowded and there were screens of corn-stalk and straw matting on both sides and matting over top so that it was like the entrance to a circus or native village. We drove slowly in this matting-covered tunnel and....." (Hemingway, 46)

Wistaria

Archway #2

Rain symbol #1:

setting:

"All right I'm afraid of the rain because sometimes I see me dead in it." (Hemingway, 126)

"He went back under the shelter of the archway...The carriage went up the street, Catherine pointed in toward the archway. I looked, there were only the two carabinieri and the archway. I realized she meant for me to get out of the rain." (Hemingway, 157 & 158)

"lived in a house in Gorizia that had a fountain and many thick shady trees in a walled garden and a wistaria vine purple on the side of the house." (Hemingway, 5)

Rain symbol #2

http://www.concierge.com/cntraveler/contests/dreamtrip2009/MUF_QYAa2I.JPG.html

"it turned cold that night and the next day it was raining....up in my room the rain was coming down heavily outside on the balcony, the wind blew it against the glass doors." (Hemingway, 143)

Rain symbol #3

"The wind drove down the rain and everywhere there was standing water and mud. The plaster of the broken houses was gray and wet." (Hemingway, 185)

The American Dream constantly appears in Hemingway's novel. The safety that the arches and other structures bring protects against the "rain" which threatens to wash away Frederick's hope of living the American dream with his Beloved Catherine.

"The American Dream"

James Truslow Adams in 1931, "life should be better and richer and fuller for everyone, with opportunity for each according to ability or achievement" regardless of social class or circumstances of

The idea of the American Dream is rooted in the United States Declaration of Independence which proclaims that "all men are created equal" and that they are "endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable Rights" including "Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."

source: birth.http://www.columbia.edu/cu/lweb/archival/collections/ldpd_4078384/