海明威在“永别了武器”中的反战思想

李配配

【摘要】永别了武器作为海明威的代表作是一部体现迷茫一代的反战思想的杰出作品。此论文的目的是从男主人公所经历的一些事件的角度去分析作者的反战思想。这篇文章同时也探索了反战思想在这部作品中如何以一种新的方式得到体现的。最后,此篇文章总接到战争就像是个屠宰场,在战争里是没有荣誉和勇气而言的。

【关键词】战争;反战思想;迷茫一代

In 1918 Ernest Hemingway went to war, to the “war to end all wars''. He volunteered for ambulance service in Italy, was wounded and twice decorated. Out of his experiences, he wrote A Farewell to Arms. It tells us about the tragic 1ove story about a wounded American soldier with a British nurse. This work is closely related to Hemingways adventure, especially his suffering in World War I. He is irrevocably committed to the Lost Generation. The generation was "lost" in the sense that they were disillusioned with the war-wrecked world and spiritually alienated from a U.S. that seemed to be hopelessly provincial, materialistic, and emotional barren. (朱春燕2005) The spirit of the Lost Generation has great impact on Hemingways literature creation,such idea can be found in his novel A Farewell to Arms, especially in the image of Henry—the shadow of Hemingway.

War is commonly associated with glory and honor as well as courage. However in A Farewell to Arms; we get a quite different understanding of the war. The antiwar idea can be seen everywhere. First, we can get a general idea of What Henry understands the war from his self reflection of the war. Here is the passage from the novel:

I was always embarrassed by the words sacred, glorious, and sacrifice and the expression in vain… and I had seen nothing sacred and the things that were glorious had no glory and the sacrifices were like the stockyards at Chicago a nothing was done the meat except to bury it… (FA, 184-5)

Here, his antiwar attitude is illustrated very clearly in Frederic Henry's response to the war. From his response to the war, we can know that the war is just like the place, where people are killed in a great number; there is no glory and honor as well as courage, but with so many death and casualty. People have no sense of safety and they live everyday in great danger. We can get from the passage that the author hates the war greatly. In fact, Hemingway, as a representative of the lost generation, he contributed to the world his greatest win which the disappointment, misery, wound, and the death of the generation came to be known to the later ones.

Meaning and order are wanted in the war. The war is a place in a world in which the winner takes nothing, and those who play by the rules only lose more and faster than others. (潘景丽2001)World War I was a war which had in fact deserted men, in the war the value of human being was defaulted. The life is not so meaningful as before. The following passage from the novel well expresses the author's idea:

If people bring so much to this world the world has to kill them to break them. So of course it kills them…It kills the very good and the very gentle and the very brace impartially. If you are none of these you can be sure it will kill you too but there will be no special hurry. (FA, 249)

From this passage, we know there is quite different rule in the war. Greatly affected by the war, the author became disappointed and saw that there was no rule and order. He observed that the bad guys exercise the bad action, but those persons did not get their punishments, instead they may get reward. In contrast, the good person will get no good result if they do not break the rule.

The antiwar idea can also be seen from Henry love with Catherine. We can get the impression from the book that Henry did not love Catherine at first sight. He just takes the companion of Catherine as a relaxation or some kinds of entertainment as the life in the war is very dull and boring. Of course, he fell in love with Catherine in the course of their long understanding. However his first concern is to seek something to escape from the horrible war when he tried to get along with Catherine at first of their encounter. The incident makes us get the boring and dull picture of the life in the war. (杨文光 2002) Actually, as time goes by, they fell in love with each other and they also get the happiness and spiritual comfort from each other against the cruel war.

The tragic death of Catherine and Henrys repose to his beloved is the most powerful outcry against the war. Here is the passage from the book. The passage shows how Henry responses when his beloved is dying.

I knew she was going to die and I prayed that she would not. Dont let her die. Oh, God, please dont let her die. …That was all right but dont let her die. Please, Please, Please, dear God, dont let her die.

The passage gives us a picture where a man begs towards God helplessly in face of his dying beloved. He cried again and again but there is no answer and finally his beloved died. After Catherine died, he did not shatter tears as the common people do, instead he said she was just like a statue and he just said goodbye to a statue. Although, he said nothing, we still can feel that he is almost desperate after the death of Catherine. Here, the author put the antiwar idea in the most obvious way. The war, like a slaughterhouse is best embodied in the two passages.

From the information analyzed above, we can easily get the antiwar idea in the novel. By illustrating the life attitude of his hero, Hemingway is in fact trying to expose his own reflections about war, which is like a slaughterhouse, full of blood and death. Such a war is even able to turn anyone into a coward in the battlefield, because it bears nothing glorious, divine, nor does it relate in any way with the word "sacrifice". Henry has become a typical hero to represent the antiwar idea in the works of the lost generation.

【Bibliography】

[1]潘景丽2001试析《A Farewell to Arms》中亨利的形象 钦州师范高等专科学校学报 第16卷第4期

[2]杨文光 2002 [M] 海明威永别了武器的思想及写作艺术

[3]朱春燕2005 “迷惘”的主题 — 评析《永别了,武器》昆明冶金高等专科学校学报 第21卷第4期