Theory in Hemingway's A Farewell to Arms

Lukács and Marxist Criticism Versus Brooks and New Criticism

Jul 4, 2009

Ernest Hemingway's novel A Farewell to Arms could be seen as an exemplar of Modernism and in conflict with Marxist thought.

In “The Ideology of Modernism,” Georg Lukács attacks New Criticism and Modernism, with their overemphasis of style and ideals of breaking free of the past, saying that they present us with “a false polarization which, by exaggerating the importance of stylistic differences, conceal the opposing principals underlying and determining contrasting styles.”

A New Critic such as Cleanth Brooks would be able to easily understand and interpret a novel such as A Farewell to Arms, while a Marxist critic like Lukács would argue against it since it disregards the issues most important to Marxism: history and content.

New Criticism vs. Marxism

In “My Credo: Formalist Criticism,” Brooks states that literary criticism is “a description and an evaluation of its object…[and that its] primary concern...is with the problem of unity.” He believes that the greater meaning of the literature is to be found within the actual piece, and not from analyzing the history around it.

On the other hand, Marx and Marxist critics believe that “it is not the consciousness of men that determines their being, but, on the contrary, their social being that determines their consciousness” (Richter). In other words, it is history and society that determines who a person becomes, which is an idea that embraces history as the very shaper of modernity.

Modernism and New Criticism, however, rejects this very notion, taking literature as a self-contained unit and rejecting any outside influence, such as history.

In A Farewell to Arms, the events that do seem to reflect historicism are left generalized, such as the bombing in which Frederic’s legs are injured, and could be seen as an event from any war that took place in the modern era.

Lukács and other Marxist critics would see this blatant disregard for history as “antirealism”—a state of affairs in which the most important foundations of humanity are completely ignored (Lukács). In a novel such as this, Lukács would say that society and its relation to the human condition, or the “ideology underlying a writer’s work,” is being completely neglected, and therefore are, by not displaying realism, in a sense corrupting humanity.

Hemingway's reflection of humanity in A Farewell to Arms takes on a sort of self-sufficient superficiality, completely disregarding any aspects outside of Frederic Henry's perspective. Lukács and other Marxists would disagree with this piece because they believe that "modernists exalt[]...the subjective and psychological at the expense of any portrayal of the dynamic movements underlying social change" ("Marxist Criticism").

In Hemingway's novel, historical events that change the world and shape nations are put in a secondary position to the concerns of one individual and his view of life, therefore placing the piece within the realm of defiance to Marxism and in compliance with New Criticism.

The Argument of Form

New Critics and Marxist also disagree on the importance of form in a piece. According to Brooks, "in a successful work, form and content cannot be separated...form is meaning." This is a complete turnaround from Lukács and Marxism.

In "The Ideology of Modernism," Lukács says that content determines form, and not vice versa. A Farewell to Arms could be seen as an example of anti-Marxist perspective because the novel is deeply concerned with the "subjective and psychological" mentioned earlier.

While watching the "column" of people evacuate during World War I, neither Frederic Henry or Hemingway himself show a desire to express the deeper human cost of the war, but rather focus on Henry's situation and the things he sees: he gets out of the car to look down the column, not because of its overall significance, but rather to see how long it will be until he and those with him can move on.

The whole form of the novel is deeply integrated into Henry's psyche, determining the form as the means of content in a New Critical style. If it were up to Lukács, the essence of the piece would not be Henry's problems, but rather the problems related to the world and the mass displacement of the people Henry sees. This, in turn, would form the novel in a completely different context, with the form of the novel reflecting the content within it.

Contextualizing the Novel

By looking a novel such as A Farewell to Arms through the perspective of different literary viewpoints, the reader can get an overall sense of intention, form, and influence from many different angles and perspectives. By placing a work in the proper context, more dimensions can come to light and be revealed, deepening the level of understanding of both the work in question and the humanity that it reflects.

The copyright of the article Theory in Hemingway's A Farewell to Arms in American Fiction is owned by Sandra Causey. Permission to republish Theory in Hemingway's A Farewell to Arms in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.