A Farewell to Arms
Essay
by Vicki Santana
Destiny
Life is a journey with endless turns. In Ernest Hemingway's war novel, A Farewell to Arms, Fredrick Henry's life had an endless amount of unexpected turns. Henry was an American ambulance driver for the Italian army in World War I. When he is wounded, he is sent to a hospital where he meets "the love" of his life, Catherine Barkley. What he still does not realize, however, is that people do not have the power to control the events of their life.
Right before he was wounded, Henry and his other ambulance drivers were in a dugout eating their lunch (cheese and spaghetti). While eating, they heard mortar shells explode nearby, but Henry was not worried. He felt like he was in complete control of the situation... "a noise like a railway engine starting and then an explosion."...but suddenly Henry and two other drivers were wounded, with Henry receiving mortar fragments in his legs and a concussion. His men drove him to the hospital while another driver died. No one had any control over this situation. Even though they were not soldiers the mortar shell happened to land close enough to kill or seriously wound them.
In another scene showing life's unexpected turns, Catherine, a young nurse who works at the hospital where Henry was sent, and Henry have become lovers and are escaping to Switzerland after Henry deserted the Italian Army. Catherine is expecting their baby and Henry takes her to the hospital where she goes into labor for 24 hours. The doctors perform a C section, but when they finally reach the baby, he has choked on his own umbilical cord and Catherine is also dying. Her baby had caused her to lose too much blood. Brave to the end, she says, "I won't die." but she does die. This shows she really does not have the power to control the events in her life and, moreover, the situation grew beyond anyone's control. Most of the time in life, if we put all of our focus in some goal, we can achieve it; however, there are always exceptions.
Events happen in life that no one can do anything about. People are born and people die; some people are born rich and some poor. Few can control their own destiny. Destiny is like a blind man - for him to walk a straight line is difficult, since many forces are at work against him before he reaches his goal.
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