While reading book two of A farewell to Arms I noticed a consistent theme of the lack of care
toward people. At the beginning of this section Henry is being transferred to
an American hospital. On the way there he politely asks the men carrying him to
be gentle, who promptly respond with “Son of a bitch who isn’t gentle!” (82).
The fact that then men mocked him for merely asking a question, shows obvious
lack of concern on the part of the men and the fact that they are also medical
staff makes matters even worse. The job and duty of someone involved in medical
services is to aid the wounded, especially in time of war. Also later on Henry
requests for a barber, so that someone could shave him. During the shave the
barber was extremely hostile and Henry did not understand why until he was
finished. As fate would have it, the barber had thought that Henry was an
Austrian officer and was prepared to slit his throat. All of which the porter
who had fetched the barber found hilarious and “was trying to keep from laughing”
while explaining to Henry that he almost died (91). Later that afternoon, his doctor finally
arrives, but stops after extracting a few needles due to his “fragile delicacy”
(144). The following day Henry has his
surgery to fix his knee. Later on he is diagnosed with jaundice which a nurse
then accuses him of hurting himself to prevent going back to the front line
after a heated exchange the nurse files a report to deny his extended leave, which
ends with his leave being terminated. What shocked me was the lack of concern
of Henry’s well being. He himself doesn’t seem to care too much about his
health, as he drank so much that he developed jaundice and the nurse’s
accusations do not help either.
I agree that a continuing theme of the novel is the poor treatment towards others. It seems that most of the other characters Henry has come into contact with care more for themselves than looking out for their piers, even when that is part of their profession, such as the doctors. I believe this hostility is due to the tensions of war and depressive attitudes of their own situations ever improving. The example Hemingway used with the hostile barber treating an obviously injured stranger so poorly due to his own guess that Henry was from the opposing side of war, just further represents the damage the war has socially. I think that the war is to blame for both the lack of care from one person to another and the lack of care for ones own health.
ReplyDeleteI agree that during a time of war, people are careless towards other's wellbeing. With so much horror and grief it is almost seen as trivial to help someone who is injured when hundreds of other soldiers are dying on the battlefield. Either way I found it very interesting that Henry was treated as poorly as he was. It seemed as if the nurse was deliberately attempting to sabotage him.
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