Need a Rewrite on short story week 5

Nikita Sutton

19 April 2020

Park University – Introduction to fiction

Unit 5: Short Paper

A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemmingway and To Build a Fire by Jack London

seemingly do not have a lot in common on first glance. Each story is about something entirely

different to each other and take place during different time periods. However, Frederico Henry in

a Farewell to Arms, and the man in To Build a Fire share some similar personality traits: a knack

for accepting their circumstances.

Federico Henry, the main protagonist in A Farewell to Arms, is an American Lieutenant

in the Italian Army during World War I. Federico has a sense of duty about him, and even when

he is injured in the line of duty, he makes every attempt to deter others from thinking he acted in

any heroic way. After his injury, Federico spends many months in a hospital in Milan. The injury

to his knees was severe and even though he was told by three doctors he would have to spend 6

months in bed recuperating prior to being operated on, he sought the second opinion of Dr.

Valentino, who operated on the knee just 24 hours after being seen by the three other doctors

who insisted he could not be operated on before six months. He spent much less time staying in

the hospital than what he was originally advised by seeking a second opinion. After he was

healed well enough, Federico was sent off back to the front line of the war even though he had

fallen madly in love with Catherine Barkley and she became pregnant during this time.

Throughout Fredico's "adventure", he did not complain about his circumstances. He

believed that it was his duty to serve and never complained about initially being injured, never

complained about his injuries, and never complained about having to return to the front line to

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serve even if it meant being separated from the love of his life. He stated what he went through

as a matter of fact, however, the way in which the story is written leads the reader to believe that

something suspenseful was to happen, eventually.

In To Build a Fire, the man has elected to travel to his destination despite the warnings he

was given. Regardless of the extreme weather conditions the man faces, he stubbornly journeys

on through the below freezing temperatures in hopes that he can get to his destination before the

cold overtakes him. As he goes, the man narrates his story, almost robotically. He reminds

himself several times that he was warned about the conditions he would face, still he does not

obsess over this. Instead, he tries to divert his mind from thinking about how cold it is. Never

once did the man think that he would die. He progressed through the story with the sheer

determination to get to his final destination so he could be reunited with his boys. This was his

solace, and he did everything within his power to get there. However, fate can sometimes be

unfair and instead, he went quietly into death. Yet, the important factor here is that the man,

never, once, complained about his circumstances.

In order to understand the text, it's important to understand the protagonists. In both

stories, there are two strong-willed men and they are both going through something quite

traumatic. One had to go through combating War and Love, while the other had to combat his

own mind in facing the extreme cold and the predicament he had placed himself. To the reader, it

seems that something bad will eventually happen to these men, but to the men, they do not think

about what will happen next. They exist in the present and deal with the present circumstances.

They cross each hurdle as they come and still do not complain; they just state their circumstances

as matter of fact and as nonchalantly as possible.

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The thought that more and more of his body is freezing soon sends the man running

again. After the last time he falls, the man sits quietly, reflecting on meeting his death

with dignity. He thinks that he has been running around ridiculously rather than accepting

the inevitable. He grows sleepy. He imagines the boys finding his body on the trail the

next day. He feels separate from himself, and looks at his body in the snow from the

boys’ perspective. He murmurs aloud to the old man at Sulphur Creek that he was right:

no man should travel alone in these temperatures. Finally, the man falls into a peaceful

sleep. The dog watches the man, puzzled by his inactivity, until, moving closer, it smells

death (London, 2019).

In To build a Fire, the story ends when the man is overtaken and succumbs to the cold. It makes

you wonder, how then, will Federico succumb to his challenges as well.

This study source was downloaded by 100000767103567 from CourseHero.com on 04-11-2021 19:58:20 GMT -05:00

https://www.coursehero.com/file/61170739/Unit-5-Short-Paperdoc/

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References

Hemingway, E. (1935). A farewell to arms. London: Wyman.

London, J. (2019, January 12). To Build a Fire. Retrieved April 20, 2020, from

https://americanliterature.com/author/jack-london/short-story/to-build-a-fire

This study source was downloaded by 100000767103567 from CourseHero.com on 04-11-2021 19:58:20 GMT -05:00

https://www.coursehero.com/file/61170739/Unit-5-Short-Paperdoc/

Th is

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o. co

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