Kirsti Ference
Ms. Robinson
Honors English III
20 November 2007
To Think or Not to Think: A Farewell to Cogitation
An Analytical Essay on A Farewell to Arms
Just about anyone you ask would agree that war is heinous and inhumane, yet wars are fought continuously. If no one wants to fight a war, how do they come to exist on such a large scale? The answer is in manpower, and the key to manpower is the blind obedience of millions of men with the ability to look on the cruelty of war without contemplation. Although these traits can be found in all situations, those fighting in a war tend to lean the most towards conformity and a lack of contemplation. Lt. Fredrick Henry, the main character in Ernest Hemmingway’s A Farewell to Arms, shies from thinking for himself as a safeguard from society, an escape from reality, and a desire for comradeship.
One of the key underlying purposes of Henry’s lack of cogitation is to avoid the rules, religion, and blame of society. Henry shares the public consensus of the corruptness of war. By avoiding contemplating the meaning and consequences of his actions and those of other soldiers, the protagonist attempts to shed any blame or guilt from society about the war. Even the idea of carrying a pistol brings guilt to Henry’s heart, a guilt he handles by not thinking about it and having “no feeling at all except a vague sort of shame when [he] met English-speaking people” (29). As in many of his attempts to solve his problems by ignoring and even conforming to what would normally plague him, Lt. Henry’s guilt is not completely resolved by his efforts.
However, Henry’s avoidance of meditating on a deeper meaning is more successful when used as an attempt to avoid the religion thrust upon him by society. Although he once prays in a desperate attempt to save Catherine, Henry generally has a derogatory view of religion. For example, when Catherine gives him a Saint Anthony for luck before leaving for the front, Henry does not ponder the saint’s religious importance but rather “forgot about him” and “never found him” (44).
Not only does the main character avoid thinking for himself in order to avoid the pressures of society, but also to avoid the feeling of loneliness. To Henry, the easiest way to make friends is to conform, at least outwardly, to their opinions. Instead of scolding them like most officers, Tenente Henry allows his men to voice their radical opinions. He wishes to be accepted by them as a comrade and does not even object when Passini says, “He likes it…we will convert him” (51). Henry outwardly acquiesces when two of his men, while they are retreating, say, “We’re all socialists…You come, Tenente. We’ll make you a socialist too” (208). However, most of these relationships are shallow because Henry’s conformity is external. This outward conformity is especially shown when Henry expresses the effect of its loss by saying, “I had been in uniform a long time and I missed the feeling of being held by your clothes” (243). One of Henry’s few true relationships is with Rinaldi, and he even seeks to maintain this friendship by avoiding introversive thinking. He tells Rinaldi, “You are better when you don’t think so deeply” (170). Henry’s efforts to be friendly to everyone by conforming indirectly help him to ward off the grim reality of war. When the major warns him to “wait until the shelling is over” to bring his men food, Henry hardly realizes the risks but simply says, “They want to eat” (53).
Likewise, the lieutenant directly escapes his pit of misery by avoiding inner thought. Thinking too deeply only disheartens him. While having a philosophical conversation with the priest Henry says, “Now I am depressed myself…That’s why I never think about these things” (179). Thus, Henry’s solution is to avoid reality by not thinking about it. While observing a pitiful and exhausted regiment marching from the front, Henry simply “sat in the high seat of the Fiat and thought about nothing” (33). At the dire moment when Henry is injured, he takes extreme measures to avoid the shock and pain. Not only does he forgo thinking about what is happening, but Henry’s conscious self seems to leave his body completely in a cry for help. In the lieutenant’s words, “I felt myself rush bodily out of myself and out and out and out and all the time bodily in the wind. I went out swiftly, all of myself” (54). Henry goes on to admit the importance in war of shrinking from excessive thought by saying, “I knew I was dead and that it had all been a mistake to think you just died” (54). Henry’s fear that by thinking any farther ahead than the moment he will worsen the cruel reality that surrounds him is clearly evident in this passage.
Later in the novel, when he deserts to Switzerland, Fredrick Henry does not attempt to escape his present reality, but the past reality he faced in the earlier books of the novel. In an effort to do this, Henry unsuccessfully attempts to change himself, externally but especially internally. Changing his outward appearance and demeanor is simple enough, but in order to change his internal self Henry must avoid all thought, especially philosophical or contemplative, of the war or anything else that does not concern what he is doing at that moment. One of the simplest things he does to change his appearance is grow a beard, yet he cannot even internally grasp this new person as himself. In response to his new appearance Henry says, “I could not shadow-box in front of the narrow long mirror at first because it looked so strange to see a man with a beard boxing. But finally I just thought it was funny” (311). Since the war has been his life for years and is almost all that defines him, Henry begins to avoid thinking at all. He cannot discard the uncivilized soldier for a refined tourist simply by changing his dining habits, but must also void himself of all thought. In his own words, “They made me feel civilized…I sat on the high stool before the pleasant mahogany, the brass and the mirrors and did not think at all” (245). However, Henry’s attempts to escape reality through internal change are unsuccessful. In the end, he simply leaves behind the war and a dead Catherine as a void, passionless shell of a man.
In A Farewell to Arms, the protagonist, Lt. Fredrick Henry, resorts to conformity and a lack of cogitation in order to shirk the pressures of society, loneliness, and the grim reality of war. Although his attempts are outwardly successful, once even convincing himself “Maybe there wasn’t any war,” Henry’s decision to not think for himself only leaves him hollow and languid (245). Thoughts, opinions, and philosophies define who a person is. Leave cogitation behind, and you are simply another mindless being conformed to the routine and expectations of society.
