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A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway - LSC Kingwood

 

Assignment guide 

 

The novel was first published in 1929.

 

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Ernest Hemingway served in World War I in the Red Cross Ambulance Corps.  At the age of 18, in June, 1918, he arrived in Europe and was wounded on July 8.  He spent nine months recuperating in Milan, sitting in cafes and bars and falling in love with his nurse, Agnes von Kurowski.  After the war, he moved to Paris where he began writing A Farewell to Arms.  He did not finish the novel there, but continued writing it as he traveled in America in 1928 and 1929.  Many of Hemingway's own experiences in the war are reflected in the novel.  Many of the characters are also based on real people Hemingway met and knew during his time in Italy and France.  When the novel was published, it helped cement Hemingway's reputation as one of America's greatest young writers.

 

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Characters

• Frederic Henry - An American serving as an ambulance officer in Italy
• Catherine Barkley - A beautiful English nurse serving in Italy in World War I
• Rinaldi - An Italian army surgeon

Setting

Italy and Switzerland during World War I

Topics to consider   

• A tragic love story compared by Hemingway to Romeo and Juliet
• The futility of love and war or love in the time of war
• exposing the false idealism in wartime and the futility and senselessness of war 
• Impressionistic realism
• Analyze one or more of the prominent characters
• Examine changes in the character of Catherine or Frederic
• Chaos in war
• How is religion considered in the novel

Style

First person narrative from Frederic's point of view.

Keywords

Childbirth | death and dying | doctor-patient relationships | hospitalization | love | nursing | trauma | survival | war and medicine | idealism and war| war heroes or heroism 

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BOOKS

Librarian Talk . . . About Books! Books offer helpful information about time periods, authors and the literary works. Use them to help begin your review of literature on Farewell to Arms . Apply online for a library card. Use your card to 1) Place a Hold on a book and have it sent to the library closest to you  2) Access journal and reference databases from home, and 3) Access Online Book Database (eBook Collection from EBSCO). The catalog is online. Online books (database paid for by our libraries) are available in the eBook Collection.  Use your library card to log in.  Create a free account to save favorite titles or your own notes on the books you read. More about...Finding Books (31 sec.)

Ask a librarian for help if you need it. Some good resource books in Lone Star College-Kingwood Library are:

• REF PN 41 .D5 - The Dictionary of Literary Biography - Volumes 4 and 9 contain information on Hemingway's life.
• REF PN 771.G27 - Twentieth Century Literary Criticism - Vol. 115 is the primary book for information about Farewell To Arms. This article is a great place to begin your search for a topic for your paper. Excerpts of articles will help you understand major themes and how literary critics viewed the novel.
• REF PS221 .T834 - Twentieth Century American Literature - Volume 3 has an article on Hemingway and some discussion of the novel.
• REF PN50 .L574 - Literature and Its Times - Places the novel into the time it describes.
• D521 .K57 - The First World War: an eyewitness history - a personal view of the war.
• D523 .G634 - Chronicle of the First World War - A two volume chronology of WWI.

Lone Star College-Kingwood Library also has a video set on WWI which gives viewers a pictorial feel for the war.  Look for it in the Circulating videos:

• D521 .G74 The Great War and the Shaping of the 20th Century.

A Farewell to Arms - a short segment about (4 min.) of a longer film (90 min.) on Hemingway called Ernest Hemingway: Rivers to the Sea.  This segment includes Hemingway's description of writing and archival footage of the ambulance corps in WWI. Both the video and the segment are located in Films On Demand, a database of videos on many subjects. This database is linked to the Research Databases page.

 

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JOURNAL ARTICLES

Librarian Talk about Finding Journal and Newspaper Articles! Electronic databases are purchased by the libraries for your research use. Use them to find articles in newspapers and journals, letters, reference books, illustrations, photographs and more. Home access to article databases is available with your updated library card barcode. If you need assistance finding an article contact the Reference Librarians and they will see that you get the article. They will need full bibliographic information - and your name and address. Send your phone number as well, so they can contact you if necessary. Use your library card to login to these online journal databases. More about searching databases (25 sec.)

Databases most useful for understanding and writing about A Farewell to Arms are:

• JSTOR Arts & Sciences - Use the Advanced Search page for the best results. Enter a keyword or keyword phrase in separate search boxes to locate articles containing those keywords. For best results put the full title in quotes. Because this database is entirely scholarly, the articles are the appropriate academic level.
• Project MUSE- Begin your search by entering the title of the novel in the search box in quotation marks.  Use the limiters on the left side of the screen to focus your search to Journals, full access (complete articles), or research areas. You can Modify a search to add keywords from your thesis - click on the + mark to add search boxes.  This database is also entirely scholarly, so all articles will be of the appropriate academic level for your research.
• Academic Search Complete  - A multi-subject database, with many full-text articles.  Be sure to check the box marked "Scholarly (peer reviewed) journals" in order to retrieve the appropriate level of journal article for your research. Suggested search terms: Hemingway AND farewell entered in this manner. Many of the articles you find in this database will be in ProjectMuse and JSTOR. The literary journal Explicator is full text in this database.
• Bloom's Literary Database Online  |  This database is a collection of many analytical essays discussing literature.  These essays, originally published in print form, are accessible now for research online. Find information about A Farewell to Arms, or read about Ernest Hemingway's life and entire body of work. 
• Literature Resource Center -  Full text articles from reference books and Twayne's Masterworks books.  Journal articles, some full text and some excerpted.   Use the title search to find information on Farewell to Arms and limit to "all words entered."  You will find overviews and other articles that are not critical essays. Ask for help if you can't decide which resources are suitable.

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INTERNET 

Librarian Talk about the Internet! The Internet can be a wonderful source of original documents. Browse the sites we have suggested below. Remember, you DO want to find reputable sites. Evaluate for: Accuracy - The information should be researched and show proof of that research.  Source - Look at the domain:  .edu   .gov   .org  .net are valid research sources. Your company's website is also a valuable resource. Authority - What are the author's credentials? (Don't quote from another college freshman's paper.) Coverage - Does the page have the information you need for your research? Objectivity - If a work is biased, use it - just make sure your professor knows YOU know. Offer both sides of issues, where applicable.  More about finding Internet sources (25 sec.)

The Ernest Hemingway Society   This web page is a collection of information about Hemingway and his work.  The society was founded in 1965 by Mary Hemingway, his widow .

Ernest Hemingway  These links are presented by Simon & Schuster, Inc, a publishing company.  The photos are great. There are some particularly good ones of Hemingway in his WWI uniform, and as a wounded soldier recuperating in Milan in 1918.

Hemingway biography from the Hemingway Resource Center.

Ernest Hemingway at 100 – a collection of articles, essays and other resources from the Kansas City Star.

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SUPPORT:  GETTING HELP FOR YOUR ASSIGNMENT

Librarian Talk about getting help! Support for a successful paper is more than finding the right resources. Putting it all together takes time and effort. Sometimes it takes additional help from the librarians or tutors. Please consider the following resources if you need additional help. Remember, the expert on the assignment is your professor. More about getting help (25 sec.)

Citing Sources Using the Library MLA Style Guide | Lone Star College-Kingwood Library guide. Examples of both paper and electronic citations.

Avoiding Plagiarism | Excellent information and guide on how to avoid plagiarism from the Online Writing Lab (OWL) at Purdue University.

University of Texas Copyright Crash Course | This helpful guide on copyright is suggested by Lone Star College-Kingwood Teaching and Learning Center.

Learning Center   |   Check our hours for in-house tutoring. 

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Page by Becky Bradley, Librarian, 5/7/03. Updated 7/2012 K. Gladden.