论文总字数：26780字

摘 要

本文结合生态批评理论，探讨《永别了，武器》中战争对环境的破坏及给人类带来的深重灾难。从而揭示出战争的罪恶本质：战争只能给人类带来灾难，威胁人类的生命财产，破坏人类赖以生存的地球。对该小说进行生态批评解读可以帮助我们重新认识人与自然的关系，从而寻求保护环境的方法，实现人与自然和谐相处。

关键词：战争影响；生态批评；人与自然和谐相处

Contents

1. Introduction..........................................................................................1

1.1 Hemingway and A Farewell to Arms.................................. .................1

1.2 Ecological criticism..............................................................................1

2. Literature Review 2

3. An Ecological Criticism of A Farewell to Arms 3

3.1 The spoilt Nature under the war 3

3.2 The spoilt human beings under the war 5

3.3 The harmony between Nature and the human world............................8

4. Conclusion 10

Works Cited 12

1. Introduction

1.1 Hemingway and A Farewell to Arms

Ernest Hemingway is one of the greatest writers in 20th century. He took part in the wars several times. During the First World War, Hemingway volunteered to join the army with the hope to realize the value of his life. He was awarded the lieutenant rank and was sent to the Italian front as an ambulance driver. In order to save the life of a wounded comrade, his knee was badly hurt. Later, in a hospital, he met a nurse called Agnes who later became the prototype of Catherine. After recovery, Hemingway returned to the front as a soldier. It is these war experiences that later bacome his valuable life wealth, making him understand the essence of the war deeply and provide him with a continuous supply of writing materials. A Farewell to Arms is created at the background of the First World War, which illustrates the essence of war through the narration of Henry and Catherine’s love tragedy--- the war only brings grave disasters to human beings and puts threat to people’s lives and property. Besides that, the war also makes people lose their faith. With the influence of the war, people become callous. They show no respect for life, let alone the time they are willing to spend to understand the true meaning of life.

1.2 Ecological criticism

War destroys lives, and, at the same time, it does serious damage to the environment. Since the 1990s, a new type of cultural criticism has gradually risen in the United States -- ecological criticism. Ecological criticism literally seems to be a combination of ecology and literature, but in fact it is not. Although there are some ecology researches and scientifical data about the environment that have been cited in ecological criticism, scientifical composition does not occupy the dominant position. Actually, ecological criticism studies how human thoughts and culture will affect the natural environment, exploring the relationship between literature and environment. It is an extended critique of the culture by reviewing human literary(Zhu Xinfu, 2003: 139). Ecological criticism has a profound ideological root. Although, on the whole, the mainstream of western culture is that people believe in anthropocentrism and try to conquer, control and make use of the nature, we can still find a lot of discourse analysis about the ecological philosophy. These analyses were often neglected at that time. However, with the passage of time and the increasingly serious environmental pollution, they have become the most valuable ideological foundation of ecological criticism. “So far, ecological criticism has experienced three stages: The first stage mainly researched the way in which literature presented the nature and the environment. During the second stage, people put emphasis on the long-neglected works that described the nature and carried out a deep research about the history and the development, the creative achievements, the genre as well as the style of American literature related to the nature. The third stage is trying to create a ecological poetics. By emphasizing the concept of ecosystem, people want to promote the construction of the theory of ecological criticism.”(Glotfelty and Fromm, 1996: 3) The emergence as well as the development of ecological criticism is a good reflection to show people’s thinking about their relationship with the nature. Only with a profound understanding of this relationship, can people find an appropriate way to protect the environment and live in harmony with the nature.

2. Literature Review

A Farewell to Arms is one of Hemingway’s representative works which is also regarded as his semi-autobiographical novel. Many foreign scholars have conducted thorough analysis about this novel. In the thesis “Tragic form in A Farewell to Arms”, Robert Merrill studied the novel’ tragic form which was often neglected by other critics. Carlos Baker described Henry and Catherine’s love as Romeo and Juliet’s love tragedy in his book Hemingway, the Writer as Artist. In addition to these researches, There are also a considerable number of domestic researches about this novel which are mainly from the viewpoint of writing technique, symbolism, anti-war theme, view of gender, the love tragedy of the protagonists. For example, Bi Yujia analyzed the iceberg principle of this novel’s language characteristics in “Review of A Farewell to Arms”. Chen Fei discussed symbolism in the novel in her thesis “Natural Symbolism Used in A Farewell to Arms”. Huang Fang, Qian Rui studied the essence of the war with the breakthrough point of anti-war thoughts. In the thesis “Re-reading A Farewell to Arms From the Perspective of Ecological Feminist”, Peng Yaying made an exposition of Hemingway’s view of gender. Lin Xueqin and Zhuang Manman carried out collaborative research about the change of protagonists’ love view. Ye Shuxian analyzed the motivation of writing this novel in his thesis “Hemingway’s Writing Motivation and A Farewell to Arms”. Sun Yongjie expounded Hemingway’s attitude towards the war in “Analysing Hemingway’s View of War through A Farewell to Arms”.

This paper analyzes the novel A Farewell to Arms from another angle, namely, from the perspective of ecological criticism with an intention to arouse people’s ecological awareness. Through the study of how people’s ideology and culture affect or even destroy the nature, people can redefine their position in nature and try to find the proper way to protect the environment and live in harmony with the nature.

3. An Ecological Criticism of A Farewell to Arms

3.1 The spoilt nature under the war

Any battle, not only threatens people’s life and their property, but also brings harmful effect on the environment inevitably. Since the ancient times, people have been always opposed to wars. However, People usually put more emphasis on the cruel fact that wars swallowed material wealth and creatures of the world relentlessly and showed less concern about the damage which wars had done to the environment. In fact, the environment problem is objectively existent and the war has a long-lasting impact to the environment. With the development of human society, especially the emergence of biological, chemical and nuclear weapons, the problems of pollution caused by wars become more and more serious. Since then, people began to be aware of the problem and attach importance to the environmental situation. It is obvious that the nature has always been the victim of wars.

In the novel A Farewell to Arms, Hemingway explored the relationship between the nature and mankind through the description of the plain, the lowland, the plateau and the mountain(Ma Yunfei, 2008: 65). Nature serves as a source of symbols by which Hemingway reveals human emotions and feelings. Nature provides a harbor where people can get comfort and salvation. However, mesmerized by greedy desires, people wage wars regardless of their consequences. At the beginning of the novel, Hemingway showed us a beautiful scene of nature: “One summer we lived in a home, which had waters and hills out in front. The river was very clean. You could see through the stones at the bottom.”(Hemingway, 1999: 2) Hemingway portrayed a peaceful and wonderful picture with a few words. However, before the readers have the time to feel the beauty of the nature, Hemingway immediately showed us a bleak and desolate scene in the following description: “Soldiers often passed by our house, kicking up dust, which turned the trees gray. The mountains looked empty, except for some fruit trees at the bottom. Further up was where many battles were fought during the night.”(Hemingway, 1999: 2) Such a sharp contrast reflects the trauma that the war has brought to the nature. It is obvious that the author presented the contrast with an intention to indicate the truculency of the war and his re-reflection on the relationship between human being and the nature.

Henry’s recall of the granary in his hometown is also a kind of indictment. When retreating from the front, Henry stopped to have a rest at a haystack of the granary which had been abandoned and destroyed during the war. At that time, he thought back to his youth life and the granary which used to be the place for him to play games. Such psychological association triggered an illusion of being away of the wars and having a peaceful life which was like the one during his youth life. However, the granary had been pulled down now. Tress had been cut down with only a few stumps left. Witnessing the damage of the war to the granary, Henry became more tired of wars. The granary reveals a kind of Henry’s deep attachment to his childhood which will never be redeemed under the shadow of wars.

Surrounded in a scattered world, Henry expressed his emptiness and loneness. Under the surface of such anxiety was his deep reflection on modern society. No matter to the human society or the ecological environment, war only brings damages and does no good at all. War not only brings enormous loss to people’s lives and material property, but also leaves a far-reaching disaster to the earth. There is only one earth. Without it, we will have nowhere to survive. A peaceful world is the prerequisite to protect the environment while wars are the major contributor of destruction.

3.2 The spoilt human beings under the war

Besides the war, love is also a theme of A Farewell to Arms. These two themes intertwine and influence each other. However, in the shadow of the war, people regarded love as a game. Faced with pain, sorrow and death, people were eager to find another way to stimulate their numb nerve. With the development of the plot, the hero Henry’s love view also changed markedly. When Henry first met Catherine, he was attracted by Catherine’s beauty, not really falling in love with her. He thought it was just a game, which could fill his empty and lonely life. He did not even think that he would fall in love with Catherine. As he said “I knew I did not love Catherine Barkley nor had any idea of loving her. This was a game, like bridge, in which you said things instead of playing cards. Like bridge you had to pretend you were playing for money or playing for some stakes.”(Hemingway, 1999: 23) For him, Catherine was a tool to meet his physical and mental desire, only to bring some fun to his numb life. At the same time, although Catherine knew that Henry did not really love her, she was eager to dedicate herself to an unknown man just to make up the pain of losing her fiance. In the novel, Catherine once asked Henry the name of women that he had loved before. It is an implication that she had suspicion for Henry’s love. War makes people abandon the right concept of love as well as the meaning of true love.

During treatment in Milan, Catherine accompanied Henry day and night. His attitude towards Catherine began to change and his affection for Catherine gradually warmed up. However, it did not mean that Henry had totally fallen in love with Catherine. Catherine’s company and attentive care of Henry made him no longer feel lonely. Meanwhile, Catherine was more and more dependent on Henry as well.

Henry’s love view had a radical change when he experienced the cruelty of wars. He placed much more importance on Catherine and became more and more dependent on her. “It is this man who finally commits his whole life to one woman.”(Merrill 1974: 577) He expressed his love again and again, paid attention to her opinions and concerned a lot about her health. He wanted to marry Catherine and lived with her forever. However, the happy life in the neutral country–Switzerland, passed in an instant. In the end, Catherine died of dystocia. Henry’s spiritual pillar had collapsed since that moment. “We must except a similar worsening in their fate. And the death is the fate worse than the Caporetto retreat.”(Merrill, 1974: 575)

War changed Henry’s attitude towards love and made him become a man with a strong sense of responsibility. His love view became maturer which finally helped him win the true love from Catherine. At the same time, war changed Catherine’s fate, making her lose her fiance first and then her own life. Although she finally recovered from the pain of losing her beloved person and got the true love from another man, she still could not escape from the tragic fate. Under the shadow of war, love was also so powerless. People still could not get rid of the tragic ending caused by wars or gain salvation from love.

Henry is a passionate and ambitious young man. During the First World War, he volunteered to join the Italian Army as an ambulance driver. At the very beginning, Henry regarded himself as an outsider of the war and he believed that there was no direct relation between the war and him. He was blindly optimistic, thinking that he would never die in the war. He was cheated by the slogan of American government “save the world for democracy”. He believed that the war was justicial, glorious and democratic. Under the stimulus of the so-called “patriotism”, Henry was caught up in great illusions, with a hope to get promotion and achieve his value of life through his own efforts. He, like many other soldiers, fought bravely on the battlefield. Even though he heard complaints from his peers towards the war several times, he still felt that the war had its necessity. As Henry once said: “I know how terrible it is, but we don’t have any choice. Things will only get worse if we don’t beat the enemy.” (Hemingway, 1999: 30)

During a combat, Henry was badly hurt by a bomb when he was eating noodles in a trench. This accidental injury helped him win an unexpected honor -- the Red Cross medal. Henry began to realize a truth that those so-called heroes in the war might not be the really heroes who had received the honor by accident just like him. Since then, He began to have suspicions of the honor in the war.

Later, Henry witnessed a bloody scene in which the Italian soldiers killed their comrades brutally. Those soldiers from the frontline shot the Italian officers who were out of the draft. Henry realized that the war was only a slaughterhouse. At the critical moment, Henry had no choice but to jump into the river with a hope to escape from death. His anger, responsibility and obligations all vanished in the river. “That was when I decided I was finished fighting for the Italians, I had nothing against them. I was just finished.” (Hemingway, 1999: 122) From that point onwards, Henry determined to be far away from wars forever. He completely lost the confidence in the war and hoped that the war would end as soon as possible. Henry escaped from the war as well as the society. At this time, Catherine was his only spiritual support. They fled to Switzerland, but they could not really get out of the war. Catherine died of dystocia. Henry was plunged into deep despair and lost the faith of life.

People suffer from both physical and mental pain caused by wars. As a consequence, their values and outlook on life will be changed. Wars destroy people’s belief which is the strong pillar in life and make people dare not to face their own lives or change their destiny. People lose their faith because of wars. In this novel, most warriors were very energetic with fantastic dreams. In order to get rid of the dull life and the heavy family responsibilities, they joined the army for fame and position. . When they were badly hit and gradually knew the nature of the war, their values and beliefs were changed. People from all levels began to pursuit material enjoyment frantically. Some soldiers were addicted to playing cards, betting on horses and drinking alcohol to stimulate their numb soul and repel the fear caused by the war. In this book, Hemingway mentioned about alcohols more than 50 times. They use the alcohol to anesthetize their suffering spirit. They drink in the dugout of the war, on the bed of the hospital. They drink before, during and after the meal. They drink all kinds of alcohol, including wine, beer and whisky. As Henry considered it is a good thing, it can let him forget about the bad things. (Gege Runa, 2012: 44) Alcohol made them forget the pain and worries temporarily. However, they had to face the cruel reality when they finally sobered up. The war did not help people realize their dreams. On the contrary, they lost their pursuit of life completely and became the victims of the war. People with distorted values were indifferent to lives. They believed that life itself was a tragedy. Henry once compared life as a group of ants on the burning wood. “The final result for the ants are death...I remember thinking at that time that it was the end of the world and a splendid chance to be a messiah and lift the log off the fire and throw it out where the ants could get off onto the ground. But I didn’t do anything.”(Hemingway, 1999: 207) People no longer attached importance to the value of lives. They could have saved the lives of these ants, but they chose to ignore and stand aside. There were so many people dying every day and death had become quite common to them. They lost the pursuit of life and the world was filled with the atmosphere of death to them. It is the war that distorted their values and their soul.

3.3 The harmony between Nature and the human world

Human beings and the ecosystem are closed linked with each other by mutual effect and interdependence. The reproduction of human beings and the development of society depend heavily on the nature. Collapse of nature will inevitably lead to the destruction of human as well as all the other living things. Therefore, it is very necessary to return to nature and live in harmony with nature. People should learn to respect the nature and all the things around them. Some people kill animals, cut down trees illegally and discharge poisonous gas, water and rubbish randomly in order to satisfy their own interests. Such behavior should be strongly condemned and restrained. Through A Farewell to Arms, Hemingway reveals the evil nature of the war, which will eventually put a threat to the survival of mankind. When Henry was in the cruel reality, witnessing so much death, he began to yearn for an idyllic life, which was away from the bloody war. Only in this way could he get salvation from fear and emptiness. Nature was his refuge, in which there was no cruel reality, no war, and also away from the secular. In the embrace of nature, Henry temporarily got rid of the pain caused by the war and acquired a spiritual solace. The disaster resulted from wars forced people to rethink profoundly about their relationship with nature, and sum up the gain and the loss from the experience accumulated during the process of dealing with nature. In this way, people can make efforts to explore the method of protecting nature and realize the harmonious development between human and nature.

Hemingway loved nature, yearning to return to the original ecological environment. As he once said in an interview that to know and love nature is simpler than to understand the geological conditions of the rock or the chemical composition trees. However, it is nobler(Lu Qixia, 2011: 82).Hemingway spent all his life exploring the nature. With these experiences, he acquired a profound understanding that man and nature should rely on each other and form the web of life together. When Hemingway was young, he already knew how to camp, hunt and fish. As he grew up, he had more and more contact with nature. Hemingway increasingly believed that nature and man were equal. With these experiences, he could be keenly aware of the damage which was caused by human being and rethink about the problem comprehensively. Today, faced with severe environmental problems that have already put threat to the survival of mankind, we can find that the study of Hemingway’s ecological thought is profoundly significant.

People benefit a lot from the industrial revolution such as increased productivity, convenient transportation as well as their ability to conquer the nature. When it comes to the relationship between human being and nature, it is obvious that mankind has occupied the dominant position. Massive and disordered human activities will break the ecological balance. As a consequence, people have to face the ecological problems. In today’s modern society, with a rapid development of technology, people are now facing unprecedented serious environmental problems. Taking the invention of atomic bombs and nuclear weapons as an example, they threaten people’s lives and bring devastating damages to the environment. In Hemingway’s novel, A Farewell to Arms, he profoundly revealed the destruction of the war, calling for being away from wars and returning to the nature, pursuing an ideal life which was in harmony with nature.

Faced with today’s serious environmental problems, Human beings must reflect their behaviors deeply and reposition their roles in the nature. In order to establish a harmonious relationship with nature, people should bear it in mind to protect and respect the nature. Under the current environmental crisis, only when people return to nature, can they walk out of the difficulty finally. This needs the efforts to learn and understand the laws of the nature and reflect the relationship between mankind, society and the nature. When people regard the nature as an organic whole and mankind as a part of the nature, they can truly achieve the harmony between human and nature, realizing coordinated development of society.

4. Conclusion

There is a long-standing relationship between literature and nature. As a kind of literary and cultural criticism, ecological criticism has its unique value to show its artistic features and the main task, which is to redefine the human culture and the cultural critique through the literature review. In that way, people can explore how human’s idea, culture and the social development model will influence the environment and then they can decide their attitude and behavior towards the nature. Through A Farewell to Arms, Hemingway revealed the damage that wars had brought to the nature and the human being. He criticized the evil nature of the war. By the narration of the priest’s hometown, the rural life, the granary and the mountain, he showed his ecological philosophy and his thoughts about the relationship between the nature and the mankind. He hated wars and hoped to return to an idyllic and peaceful life to seek solace from the nature.

The harmonious development between the nature and mankind conforms to the trend of this day and age. It accords with the interests of the people from all over the world as well as the requirements of international development. Faced with current global ecological crisis which becomes increasingly serious, there is an urgent need for us to comply with the law of the development of nature which means we should develop and make use of the nature rationally. We should change the past way of thinking and lifestyle which is human centered, and overcome our pride and prejudice as human beings. It is the time to set up the consciousness that people should live in harmony with the nature. Only maintaining world peace and learning to deal with the relationship between human and nature properly can we live a healthy and stable life and make human society prosper.

Works Cited

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Hemingway, Ernest. A Farewell to Arms. Jiangsu: Yilin Press, 1999.

Merrill, Robert. “Tragic Form in A Farewell to Arms.” American Literature: 4(1974): 571-579.

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陆启霞. 《生态批评视野下的海明威生态矛盾观》. 广西青年干部学院学报. 2(2011)：81-83.

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