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Florida State University Libraries
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2016
Hemingway's Religious Influences in theWriting of A Farewell to ArmsKimberlee McMillin and John Fenstermaker
IntroductionIn A Farewell to Arms, Catherine Barkley’s life
addresses the dominant question in
Hemingway’s work: “How does one discover in a world of destabilized values and traditions the
way to live now?” Catherine maintained conservative Christian beliefs until her fiancé was
blown “to bits” in World War I. Following his
death, feeling guilty that religion had caused her to withhold full expression of their love, Catherine
finds the genuinely spiritual - foregoing her earlier religious training, even at the hour of her death -
in sacrificing all by committing emotionally to
loving Frederic Henry, the novel’s initially jaded and opportunistic protagonist. The religious motif
here, rare in Hemingway, centers the “love” and “war” threads - and focuses our research.
Materials and MethodsA Farewell to Arms has been challenged,
censored, and banned at various times,
beginning with its second monthly installment in
Scribner’s Magazine, June 1929. The popular conception that the novel is irreligious is
particularly unfounded. Our research explores/explodes this misconception by
examining the role of the spiritual in the novel,
drawing from a broad context that includes: Hemingway biography; his letters, with scholars’
commentary, from volumes 1-3 (1907-1929) of the Cambridge Edition of The Letters of Ernest
Hemingway; and criticism ranging from initial
reviews to later scholarly assessments (see below, “Works Cited”).
AcknowledgmentsI would like to thank Dr. Fenstermaker for his mentorship throughout this project.
Additionally, I thank Dr. Joe O’Shea and my UROP
leaders Ellen Waidner and Elise Griffen for assisting me through my first year of research.
CensorshipofA FarewelltoArms
The American Library Association finds that the most frequent challenges to A Farewell to Arms draw from among
“sex and debauchery, violent deaths and senseless brutality, and belief in a universe indifferent to human suffering.”
The latter category reflects on religion and the spiritual.
KimberleeMcMillin;Dr.Fenstermaker
DepartmentofEnglish,FloridaStateUniversity,TallahasseeFL
WorksCited
Baker, Carlos. Ernest Hemingway, Selected Letters. Chamberlin, Brewster. The Hemingway Log: A Chronology of His Life
and Times. Lawrence, Kansas: University Press of Kansas, 2015.Grissom, C. Edgar. Ernest Hemingway: A Descriptive Bibliography. New
Castle, DE: Oak Knoll Press, 2011.Hawkins, Ruth. Unbelievable Happiness and Final Sorrow. Hemingway, Ernest. A Farewell to Arms. New York: The Scribner
Library, 1957.
The Letters of Ernest Hemingway. Volume 3: 1926-1929. Ed. Rena
Sanderson, Sandra Spanier, Robert W. Trogdon. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2015.
Meyers, Jeffrey, ed. Hemingway: The Critical Heritage. London and
Boston: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1982.
Reynolds, Michael S. Hemingway: The American Homecoming.
Stoneback, H. R. Reading Hemingway’s The Sun Also Rises: Glossary and Commentary.” Kent, OH: Kent State UP, 2007.
Hemingway and ReligionChildhood: strong Congregationalist background; his father was a youth leader in
Agassiz movement (focused on the
presence/purpose of Divinity as seen in the natural world); his mother directed youth church
orchestra and composed/published religious music; Hemingway was a leader in church youth
club activities.
Young man: wounded among Italian soldiers in WWI and, on the battlefield, was supposedly
baptized as a Catholic or given his Last Rites
Married/Divorced/Remarried: his first
(Protestant) marriage was to Hadley Richardson in 1921; divorced 1927; married Pauline Pfeiffer
in 1927 in a Catholic ceremony, where his battlefield baptism was accepted; the Pfeiffer
family was staunchly Catholic.
Additional Catholic religious/cultural focus after 1924: he enjoyed the Spanish bullfight tradition
and frequently traveled to Spain. These latter
biographical details specifically contribute to the background writing of A Farewell to Arms
(3/1928-1/1929).
Hemingway’sReligiousInfluencesintheWritingof
AFarewelltoArms
Hadley Richardson and Pauline Pfeiffer
Ernest Hemingway and Pauline
Key West home where majority of A Farewell to Arms was written
Ernest, his son John, Pauline, and their children Patrick and Gregory
ContinuedResearchI am currently applying for a research grant to continue my research this summer, analyzing
primary and secondary sources for
Hemingway’s religious influences throughout the writing of A Farewell to Arms. This research will
take place at Florida State University.
Dr. Fenstermaker will continue his research throughout the summer and present his findings
at the 2016 International Hemingway Conference in Oak Park, Illinois.
Ernest and Pauline watching the bull fights in Pamplona, Spain
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