Farewell to arms
Farewell to armsWorld War One. The first great tragedy of humanity. That is of course excluding love and life. Combine all three and you find one of the most masterfully written novels about life, love, and war that could only be written by Ernest Hemingway. Born July 21, 1899 in Oak Park, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago, Hemingway started his literary career when he was hired as a reporter for the Kansas City Star. During the war he joined the volunteer American Red Cross as a ambulance driver in 1918. After being seriously wounded in the line of duty he was decorated with two Italian medals and joined the Italian infantry. His experiences with journalism and war create a excellent symbiosis to exploit the writers rule, only write about what you know, which makes Farewell to Arms a remarkable novel.
Personal experiences alone don’t always make a good story however. Ernest Hemingway’s ability to achieve a roller coaster of emotions from chapter to chapter is remarkable. The basic feeling of hope and despair take turns throughout the novel but the idea that life is a futile attempt at salvation is stressed at all times. The emotional seesaw that Hemingway puts the reader through is an invigorating experience but even more stimulating since he can maintain the overtones...
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