Frederic Henry's Struggle Toward Existential Being

Frederic Henry is not an existential hero! He is a man who is lost in a world that has no remorse. It is a harsh place where tragedies occur for no reason. He fails at almost every chance to become an existential hero because of this. Using Simone DeBeauvoir’s "Hierarchy among man" I will show how Lt. Henry is not able to recognize his freedom and will his own existence while allowing others the same. He faces the existential abyss many times but never makes it to the status of existential hero. "Henry recognizes what he ‘wants’ to do, but also that this takes a power of will which he does not have." (Wylder,85)

Fred Henry is a naturalistic hero. Faced with death he gives in to the world. He knows that

The world breaks everyone and afterword many are strong at the broken places. But those that will not break it kills. It kills the very good and the very gentle and the very brave impartially. If you are none of these you can be sure it will kill you too but there will be no special hurry. (Hemingway,249)

Henry’s "outcries against the unfairness of the world." (Wylder,95) show that "he is willing to blame the world or the system or fate, but seldom himself." (Wylder,67) He disposes of his anxiety by blaming the world for the horrible things that happen. The world has no meaning and mankind is at the mercy of Nature.

Lt. Henry views the universe as being an "indifferent universe in which human beings have no more privileged place than ants." (Gurko,89) This is clearly seen when he describes the ants scurrying around on the log. After Fred places the log on the fire he has the chance of being their savior. This thought is brought about when he is waiting to hear about Catherine. He knows that he is just as helpless as those ants and that the universe is as caring as he was towards the ants.

It is at this moment that Henry has one of his "rare bouts of reflection." (Gurko,97) What does this moment of reflection reveal? Nothing, it confirms his belief that life is unjust. During this moment of reflection he is faced with the existential abyss. But instead of being able to live a free life he gives in to the anxiety of the naturalistic world. The reader can almost hear Lt. Henry stating his mantra, "they get you in the end." In the face of anxiety he gives in and fails to make his existence. Lt. Henry feels "he is dominated by forces over which he has no control." (Wylder,85)

Sartre claims that "Man is condemned to be free." In existentialism there is a belief that man is free to will his existence. This means that when a man realizes his freedom he must also realize that his subjectivity is what is real. He has the freedom to give his life meaning. He is not born with certain personality traits. A man is not born as a coward or hero but is capable of making himself that way. When he is faced with this existential reality a man sometimes wishes to deny his freedom. It is this existential abyss that a man must face and to will his own existence while allowing others to do the same in order to become an existential hero. Frederic Henry is never capable of reaching this point.

In the beginning of A Farewell to Arms Frederic Henry is just another soldier. He is not even a soldier; he is an ambulance driver! We do not know why he is involved in the war. He seems to be as indifferent to the war as he is towards life. This indifference shows when he comes back from leave and asks questions about the war in a matter of fact way. Henry is not concerned with the war but mentions it as if it were his duty to do so. Throughout the first part of the novel the war is merely a background setting. It is in the first section that we see the relationship with Catherine develop.

Everything starts to change once Henry meets Catherine. As the relationship progresses we see Henry progress from an indifferent creature to a man who will risk everything to be with his love. We assume that when Henry joined the war effort he did so for no particular reason. "He may have enlisted in a burst of enthusiasm that he has since regretted." (Wylder,73) Or he could have joined because of a moral conviction that by doing so he would be fighting for what was right. No matter why Henry has joined the ambulance unit he has still given himself to the war. His life has meaning in the war. As the novel progress we see that Henry shifts from giving himself to the war to giving himself to Catherine in the name of love.

Through his shift from war to love Lt. Henry has quite a few changes in character type. We can track Henry’s ascension up Simon DeBeauvior’s "hierarchy among man." (DeBeauvoir,42) Her system of classifying people is based on an existential philosophy of a "genuinely free man." (DeBeauvoir,61) Throughout the novel he progresses towards becoming an existential hero and then fails after Catherine’s death.

From the start Lt. Henry is a ‘sub-man’. A ‘sub-man’ is a man who tries to forget himself and his freedom. "His acts are never positive action but only flights" (Debeauvoir,43) that allow him to forget his freedom. He wants to avoid making any choices in life and he does not wish to spend much time facing the existential abyss. So the ‘sub-man’ loses himself in society. He adapts the values of the world around him in order to avoid responsibility. By joining the war effort Frederic Henry is able to forget that the world is unjust and he is able to function in everyday life. Once he is in the war he no longer needs to make any choices. All he has to do is follow orders.

Henry moves from the ‘sub-man’ to the ‘serious-man’ as the story progresses. The serious-man’ is a man who gives up his subjectivity in order to strive toward an objective. "The thing that matters to the serious man is not so much the nature of the object which he prefers to himself but rather the fact of being able to lose himself in it." (DeBeauvoir,47) By doing this he is able to avoid any real choices. When he is wounded Henry goes to help a wounded man. He denies being called a hero. This is because he knows that he is not a hero. He was just doing what people where supposed to do. He had no moment of reflection and therefore he made no real choice. Henry knows this and that is why he knows that he does not deserve any medals. He is a soldier and did what a soldier is supposed to do. What he did was for the good of the war effort. He gave up his own subjectivity in order to help the objective and he did this without having to choose or take responsibility for what he did.

During the retreat Lt. Henry makes the crucial shift from ‘serious-man’ to the ‘adventurer’. The adventurer is a man "who thinks he can assert his own existence without taking into account [the existence] of others." (Debeauvoir,61) This is an important shift as it shows that Lt. Henry is capable of willing his existence. He has acted on his choice by straying from the retreat in order to take his men and vehicles along a safer root. As an ‘adventurer’ he will do and use anything in order to fulfill what he has chosen. He uses his men and he uses the Italian soldiers. In order to obtain his own freedom he needs these people and is willing to use them as a means to an end. Henry acts on his choice and accepts responsibility yet he has not willed his own existence independent from others. He has not yet conquered the abyss because he does not allow the freedom of others.

When Lt. Henry decides to save himself at the bridge scene he becomes a ‘passionate’ man. He makes the choice to run and knows that there are dangers involved. From this point on in the novel Frederic Henry is as close to a genuinely free man as he can get. He has faced the existential abyss, recognized his subjectivity and acts on his choice. Fred faces the abyss again when he must flee to Switzerland and he succeeds in acting as a ‘passionate’ man. But there is something that holds him back from being an existential hero. He acts not only for himself but also for Catherine. As an ‘adventurer’ "he falls, with [the] pretext of independence into the servitude of the object." (Debeauvoir,62) Any choice he makes at this time involves a reliance on their love. When he is fleeing in the train he is thinking about Catherine. "I was not made to think. I was made to eat. My God, yes. Eat and drink and sleep with Catherine."(Hemingway,233) He treats her as some sort of object that he must obtain.

If the novel were to end with Fred and Catherine in the Swiss Mountains than Henry would be a hero. But when Henry is faced with the potential death of Catherine and the baby he slips away from being a free man. During his moment of reflection Lt. Henry battles with his dread of life without Catherine. "But what if she should die? She won’t. She’s all right. But what if she should die? She can’t die. But what if she should die? Hey what about that? What if she should die."(Hemingway,321) His inner dialogue shows his reliance on her and he knows that "She can’t die" because it will shatter who he is. He is losing Catherine and his identity along with her. His identity is that of a man in love. He needs Catherine in order to have this identity. When he sees his child he does not notice that he is dead. He is too involved in the thought of losing his identity that he does not give importance to anything else.

All hope of Henry being a free man disappears when Catherine dies. He has lost his identity and any hope that he had that life was not unfair and that what he had would not be taken away. His hope is like saying goodbye to Catherine after she is gone; "it [isn’t] any good." (Hemingway,332). He leaves his hope and freedom to go into the rain. Throughout the novel rain has been a symbol of death. Here the rain is the death of his hope. It is the death of his identity and the death of his freedom. It is this last moment of anguish that breaks Henry for good.

He denies his subjectivity and decides to blame his situation on Nature. He will not try to will his existence again. He was broken at the beginning of the novel and he is shattered at the end. Henry gave freedom a chance and he comes to the conclusion that you can’t defeat Nature. The reader is not certain of Lt. Henry’s future but we assume that he has been broken and that he will never reach the status of a genuinely free man. Instead he is recognized as a naturalistic hero. He has confronted the abyss and was close to willing his existence as well as other’s but Nature breaks him. He is a sad hero who has allowed the world to break him. He does not have the will to struggle against it.

 

 

 

Works Cited

DeBeauvoir, Simone. The Ethics of Ambiguity. Carol Publishing Group, 1996.

Gurko, Leo. Ernest Hemingway and the Pursuit of Heroism. New York: Thomas Y.

Crowell, 1968.

Hemingway, Ernest. A Farewell to Arms. New York: Macmillan Publishing Co., 1986.

Sartre, Jean-Paul. Existentialism. New York: Philosophical Library Inc., 1947. Pp. 27.

Wylder, Delbert E. Hemingway’s Heroes. Univ. of N. Mexico Press, 1969.

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