Letteratura angloamericana, appunti in inglese

Catherine, he learns she’s pregnant. At the same time he is diagnosed with jaundice and accused by

Miss Van Campen, the superintendent of the hospital, of contracting the illness through excessive

drinking. His leave is therefore revoked and he is sent to the front as soon as he’s healthy. Catherine

and Henry swear mutual love and devotion as they part. At the front, Italian forces are losing

ground and there’s a bombardment. Henry leads his team to pick up people in need of evacuation,

they then decide to take secondary roads but one of the trucks gets stuck in the mud. When the

engineers refuse to help, one of them gets shot. They decide to continue on foot but they are

mistaken for enemies by the rear guard of the Italian army and have to seek refuge at a farmhouse.

The following day chaos has broken out, soldiers are protesting the defeat and they execute officers

on sight. Henry is taken by the battle police but he manages to flee in a river. When he deems

himself safe, he boards a train for Milan, thinking he is now free of his obligation towards the war.

He reunites with Catherine in Stresa and the two escape to Switzerland. They settle in Montreux

and live a happy, peaceful life, although Henry sometimes feels guilty for abandoning his comrades.

One day Catherine goes into labor but after many complicated hours she delivers a stillborn baby

and, later during the night, dies of a hemorrhage. Henry stays at her side until the end but he does

not manage to say goodbye.

Lieutenant Frederic Henry: he’s the novel narrator and protagonist. He is quite stoic in the face of

war. He’s courageous in battle but he doesn’t believe in the abstractness of glory and

heroism(ch27).

He was emotionally blank until he met Catherine and felt real passion again.

Catherine Barkley: she’s incredibly beautiful with gorgeously-described hair. She plays a game of

seduction with Henry to get over her dead fiancé but soon she falls in love with him.

In modern days, feminist groups have expressed their dissatisfaction with Hemingway’s depictions

of women. They believe the writer gives women stereotypical features that makes them fall under

two categories: overly dominant or overly submissive. Catherine goes from working in a hospital to

being contented with becoming a mother and leading a life centered around maintaining a home.

However, especially at the beginning, Catherine appears to be very smart and the one in control of

the game between her and Henry.

Themes: the war, how Henry removes himself from it, the description of violence and chaos which

justify more violence (the shooting of the engineer). A Farewell to Arms does not condemn the war,

Hemingway considers it an inevitable by-product of a dark, murderous world.

Contrast between love and pain: Catherine and Henry begin their relationship to distance

themselves from pain (ex-lover and the difficulty of war). They find temporary solace and calm in

each other. Later Henry’s feelings for Catherine will outweigh any consideration for the ideals of

honor and glory, allowing him to flee without too much guilt. The tragedy at the end symbolizes the

writer’s idea that in this world even the purest love can only be temporary.

-Masculinity (Rinaldi, Dr.Valentini)--→ womanizer, self-confidence, boldness.

Rising action: their flirtatious games and the sworn love before Henry goes back to the front

climax: Henry capture during the Italian retreat

falling action: Henry’s farewell to arms and his escape towards Catherine

-In Our Time: The book, a collection of short stories about the years before, during and after

WWI, is published in 1924. The protagonist of many of the stories is Nick Adams, a young boy

which goes to war and comes back a changed man. =>

Chapter VI : Nick is hiding behind a church wall so that the gun-fire cannot hit him, although he

has already been hit in the spine. Rinaldi was luring nearby. Nick observes a lot of dead Austrians

near them, he thinks the battle was going well for them so he believes the medics would arrive soon.

Nick comments that they have made a separate peace, for those who are not patriots. The sarcastic

comment and tone indicate that he believes war is futile, like many others. The phrase “separate

peace” will also feature in A Farewell to Arms (ch33)

A Very Short Story: the narrator thinks about his romance with an Italian nurse while he was

in the hospital. She took night duty for a long time to stay with him. Everyone knew about them and

they wanted to get married, but didn’t have enough time to fill in the right paperwork. After the war

he decided to go back to America but they fought and she stayed back to open a hospital. She got in

a relationship with an Italian battalion, who however didn’t marry her.

We don’t know the name of the narrator but it might be Nick again. The story explores how the war

makes men change and develop romantically and emotionally, not always for the better.

Chapter VII : a young soldier is under a bombardment of a trench, he prays, promising to tell

everyone about God if he survives. The soldier lives and rebuilds the trench but he never discusses

God with anyone. Hemingway wants to prove that in war any type of support is needed, so even

atheists or skeptics will turn to God.

Soldier’s Home : Krebs goes to war and he comes back later then everyone so, when he tries to

tell war stories, no one is interested anymore because they have already heard too many. He lies to

get people to listen, but eventually he stops doing that. The town has not changed much and Krebs

isn’t interested in courting the women, as he thinks it involves lying and complicated issues. Krebs

likes the way the girls look like and likes watching them but not talking to them. At some point

Krebs’s mother talks to him and tells him he really should find himself a job, like the other boys his

age. He thinks he can’t love anymore, not even his mother. He decides to leave the house to avoid

confrontation.

Big Two-Hearted River : (1) It’s the story of Nick Adam’s return to his old fishing terrain

after the war. The town of Seney was completely burned down. After sleeping, Nick started toward

the river and when he got there he set up camp. Nick’s return represents the difficulty to settle down

after war for soldiers. The home could also be burnt out and demolished symbolically--→ nothing is

carefree or innocent after war. Nick is also happy about his newfound freedom, although for small

things. The black grasshoppers represent the soldiers hardened by the tough environment of the war.

(2) Nick awoke, had breakfast and then started fishing. He caught a small fish which he released

and then failed to catch a big one. After some time he finally managed to catch one.

This part deals with Nick trying to enjoy himself with simple things, being happy about being alive.

-A Moveable Feast (1964): Hemingway recalls his experience as a struggling writer in Paris.

In the 20s he was part of the Lost Generation and left the us to live abroad. Between the notable

figures mentioned we find other artists such as Gertrude Stein, Ezra Pound and F. Scott Fitzgerald.

In this book, the writer reveals some of his feelings for his fellow artists, such as his deep affection

for Fitzgerald, whom he considers naturally talented. In one of the essay Hemingway portrays Stein

as a good friend but criticizes her sloppy writing, possibly because he was offended about Stein’s

comment about his macho-posturing. Furthermore Hem writes about his and Stein’s discussion

about homosexuality. The chapter “Shakespeare and Company”, Sylvia Beach's legendary

American bookshop in Paris. In the chapter “Ezra Pound & Bel Esprit” Hemingway writes

positively about Pound but indirectly makes fun of T. S. Eliot.

WORLD WAR II (Sep 1, 1939- Sep 2 1945)

T.S. ELIOT (1888-1965)

Little Gidding th

(Four Quartets) was the last to be written in 1942/1943. It is named after a 17

century Anglican monastery famous for its devotion, here the king Charles I found refuge when

hunted by his Puritan enemies. The poem starts with the description of a sunny winter’s day, where

there is the contrast between death and fire. In the monastery man can encounter the “intersection of

the timeless” by listening to the words of the dead.

Then there is a lyric on the death of the four natural elements that have appeared in the previous

quartets. Then we see the poet walking at dawn, he meets the ghost of a former master, the two

speak and the ghost gives the poet the burdens of wisdom.

The poet realizes that the dead have left us only “a symbol”, a perfected one but only something

abstract. The final section brings the spiritual and the aesthetic together in a final reconciliation.

Perfect language becomes poetry. In LG part II Eliot includes his imitation to Dante’s encounter

with Brunetto Latini in Inferno: Eliot meets a dead master who warns him that human effort is vain

unless restored by the “refining” fire.

Language: close to everyday speech. Certain section are inspired from liturgical language. The

fourth section is a formal piece.

Symbols: Roses stand for divine love, mercy. Fire is the flame of divine punishment and the

purifying flame. EZRA POUND (1885-1972)

(1948)The Pisan Cantos (84) : When he wrote this, Pound was living in Italy, earning his

income by making radio broadcasts. Pound often spoke against the American involvement in the

war (WWII) and also had antisemitic opinions. Because of this he was arrested by the Italian

Partisans in 1945.

He was then detained in Pisa, where he was borderline tortured for about three weeks. After being

transferred, he began writing the Pisan Cantos, although he’d probably already began while in the

cage. Canto 84 is the last one and it starts with the delivery of a letter from Dorothy Pound,

detailing the death of young English poet J.P. Angold at war. Then there’s a passage about Pound’s

visit to Washington in 1939, when he tried to stop American involvement in the conflict. Nearly at

the end there’s a conversation between Pound and a little Italian girl, where she reveals the

American soldiers are no better than the German ones.

“Hugh Selwyn Mauberley”(1920): It’s a poem made of 18 short poems grouped into 2

-

sections. The first “Ode for the Choice of His Sepulchre” is an autobiography and the

second introduces the reader to the character of Mauberley, a struggling poet.

This work addresses Pound’s alleged failure as a poet. The poet criticizes his earlier works

and his form and style, however the rest of the poem appears to be in the poet’s defense.

Pound attacks modern society and its materialism and consumerism, he also criticizes WWI

and post-war civilization. The second part (Mauberley) is a satiric work and shows the

fruitless attempts to resuscitate poetry.

J.D. Salinger (1919-2010)

Nine Stories (1953) is a collection of short-stories.

For Esmé - W