Style in A Farewell to Arms

Directions: Your task is to describe the writing style in the novel (mostly in passages that are not dialog) in two ways:

(1) Pick 3 or 4 pages at random, make sure they are not listed below, read them to see what the ordinary style of this book is like.

(2) Look up the passages listed below, confirm the descriptive note, add your own notes about which passages have a style in common.

Each of the passages listed below is unusual in some way, different from the flow of ordinary prose narrative.

page     passage                                                 your notes

fragmentary clauses or sentences:

6-7 eating spaghetti in the mess hall

37-38 imagining Catherine at the Milan
hotel with him: "because...because..."

232 although fragment on obligation
being ended

264 line 11: "...; locked the door and
put on the light." (barman's warning)

271 lines 2-3: "...; the waves striking
against it, rushing high up, then
falling back." (rowing to Switz.)

breathless passages:

13 whirlwind sentence to describe binge

75-77 declaring war & saying goodbye to
Rinaldi and the major: includes
sight drafts & need for nurses at
American hospital in Milan

99 Dr. Valentini's breathless monolog

197 longing for Catherine mixed with
rain and old poem:"Western Wind"

231-233 escaping in gondola car

249 return to Catherine at Stresa

320-321 biological trap & "What if she should die?"

330 "Don't let her die."

descriptions:

73 Abruzzi: the idyll of rural Italy

74 the hospital room

87 reading the evening papers: cumulative
sentence = "They left me alone...."

290 scene in front of the chalet

short sentences with one detail each:

33 stragglers from a regiment

163-164 return to Gorizia

227 cuts stars off his uniform and passes down the road

varied sentence structure:

203 stuck & two sergeants leave

289 the chalet above Montreux

and...and...and:

3 late summer in the village

4 troops passing

5-6 next Fall in Gorizia

114 taking down Catherine's hair

"absolutes":

10- meeting the major: "..., the window

11 open and the sunlight coming
into the room."

45 the river: "the line of ties and
rails running along it, the old
bridge..., the broken houses...."

268 barman holding boat: "..., it rising
and falling against the stone wall
and I helped Catherine in."

291 the vinyards in winter: "..., each
vine..., the vines dry...."

dialog:

38 spoken comments without quotation
marks

154-155 simpleminded dialog

297-301 ordinary dialog

Assembling a thesis: Assume that each departure from the ordinary style of the narrative is intended to call attention to itself. Also assume that "form follows function"; that is, assume that the variation in style in each instance above is for a purpose and appropriate to the content and context of the passage.

Select or group passages from the list above to demonstrate that there is a pattern to the variations in style, that they have a common denominator, namely: the style shifts when . . . . (finish the sentence and you'll have a thesis).

Copyright and Permission: This web on Ernest Hemingway's early novel was begun under a small grant from the VCCS, which holds copyright.  © 2001 by the Virginia Community College System.  This web was made by Dr. Eric Hibbison, Professor of English and Chief Chair, VCCS Regional Centers for Teaching Excellence (1998-2002). Materials in this web may be used free for educational purposes, but this web should not be behind a portal for which users must pay a fee without written permission from the VCCS.  If you're an educator using this web, please inform ehibbison@jsr.vccs.edu, especially if you'd like contact with other educators who are using this web.