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1984
135160 Views

Well, if this book doesn't make you want to tape over your laptop camera, we don't know what will.

1984 Summary
136167 Views

By the end of this video, you will be brainwashed. There's nothing you can do about it; we just wanted to let you know. We like to think we're bigg...

A Farewell to Arms
20538 Views

You might be hearing a chorus of farewells if you recommend A Farewell to Arms as the next read for your Fabulously Feisty Feminist Book Club.

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A Farewell to Arms 20538 Views


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Description:

You might be hearing a chorus of farewells if you recommend A Farewell to Arms as the next read for your Fabulously Feisty Feminist Book Club.

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English Language

Transcript

00:04

A Farewell to Arms, a la Shmoop. While many people bit the big one during World

00:10

War One…

00:12

…Ernest Hemingway managed to survive and use his experiences to pen one of his best-known

00:18

works, A Farewell to Arms.

00:21

It’s certainly a tear-jerker, but… some argue that it may be flawed. Is Hemingway’s

00:28

depiction of Catherine a bit… sexist? Let’s start with a quick summary of the

00:38

plot…

00:40

Frederic Henry is doing his part to help the Italians during the war when he meets Catherine

00:44

Barkley.

00:48

It's lust at first sight. After Frederic catches a mortar shell in the knee, he's sent to recuperate

00:53

in Milan... and by recuperate, we mean continue his pursuit of Catherine.

00:59

By the time Frederic is healed enough to be cannon fodder again, he's in love with Catherine

01:05

and… oops! She's caught a severe case of… pregnancy.

01:11

Frederic and Catherine end up having to flee to Switzerland so the Italians don't kill

01:15

him, and while you think it'd be all sipping hot cocoa and yodeling…

01:20

…Catherine goes into labor and dies, and the baby dies, and Frederic is left with nothing

01:27

but a bum knee. Many critics think Hemingway was something

01:32

of a misogynist, both in real life and in his writing.

01:39

Catherine isn't the only female character created by Hemingway who, while central to

01:43

the plot of a story…

01:45

…never gets to share her viewpoint and never seems to do anything other than act as a device

01:53

to spur the male protagonist to action.

01:56

And let's face it: Catherine's death is awful. She undergoes the terrible pain of labor…

02:02

with no epidural!... only to lose her baby and then die herself.

02:09

Perhaps this was Hemingway's way of saying she…and all of his female characters…

02:15

were expendable. They enter the story, affect change in the lives of their men, and then

02:23

get booted off the stage. And then there's the dialogue. Oy.

02:31

Gentlemen, try getting your girlfriends to read some of Catherine's lines and see if

02:35

you don't get a slap in the face.

02:38

She pretty much says, on multiple occasions, that Frederic is the be-all and end-all of

02:44

her existence and she is nada without him. Of course, to Hemingway's credit, Catherine

02:54

is a more complicated character than he needed to make her.

02:59

Not only does she demonstrate that she's extraordinarily brave by traveling to a war zone in order

03:06

to care for the injured, but she is also independent and capable of taking care of herself.

03:15

Also, her views on marriage are pretty complex, and while she may tell Frederic that he's…

03:22

her religion and all she's got, she doesn't exist just to do her man’s bidding.

03:31

What do you think?

03:35

Was Hemingway super-duper-sexist?

03:38

Or does Catherine's independence make up for her abrupt exit?

03:43

Shmoop amongst yourselves.

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