Practice Blog

 Military victory is oftentimes portrayed as something that is obtained purely through skill. It is seen as a chance to win glory and honor in battle. However, in A Farewell to Arms, whether somebody lives or dies in war is portrayed as a random and indiscriminate event. Many of the deaths in World War 1 were caused by people the victim couldn’t even see. Gas, shelling, disease, famine and the awful conditions of the trenches killed millions. Survival in World War 1 was dependent on being lucky enough to not be killed by shells or catch a disease. A Farewell to Arms captures this reality perfectly. Frederic had his leg blown apart by a shell “while eating cheese”. There was nothing glorious about getting blown up while eating some mac and cheese; he wasn’t even fighting. Frederic didn’t get injured because he wasn’t competent, he was injured due to his own misfortune. The American soldiers who show up are also there due to being unlucky. Two are there from diseases that they had no way to prevent and one is there because he is an idiot. He wanted some sort of honorable memento to remember his glory days in the war but is injured because there is no glory to be earned.