Blog Topic 1

Rhetorical Strategies

·Imagery: "I had gone to no place where the roads were frozen and hard as iron, where it was clear cold and dry and the snow and the peasants took off their hats and called you Lord and there was good hunting" (17)

·Symbolism: "You have that pleasant smell of a dog in heat"(29), "We always touch our stars if anybody mentions getting killed"(110)

·Hyperbole: "I went out swiftly, all of myself and I knew I was dead and that it had all been a mistake to think you just died"(53) "I could cut off my tongue"(124)

·Rhetorical Question: "Who is the father, then, the Holy Ghost?"(73)

·Sarcasm: "What does he do there? Swim?"(81)

·Foreshadowing: "I'm afraid of the rain because sometimes I see me dead in it."(113)

·Paradox: “War is not won by victory”

The style of A Farewell to Arms is largely informal and pedestrian; it is the emotions of an ordinary man. Thus, rhetorical strategies are rarely used except for the vivid descriptions. The few devices that are employed serve as symbols, which Hemingway ironically places through the writings of Henry. When Catherine says she is afraid of the rain because she sees herself dead in it, the reader is left agitated of the possible implications of such a severe statement. This statement is effective because it is mentioned in later parts of the book though it is not given an explanation until the last line. The terse statement that war is not won by victory epitomizes the emotional truths of a seemingly physical event. A victory may satisfy a country, but it does nearly nothing to those who serve in it. Henry must endure many problems of unfulfilled love, drinking, and bad health. Hemingway effectively portrays war as a symbol of the problems of Henry. His style is informal yet open to interpretation.