Hemingway A Farewell to Arms (themes, motifs, symbols)
Motifs
Motifs are recurring structures, contrasts, or literary devices that can help to develop and inform the
text's major themes.
Masculinity - Readers of Hemingway's fiction will quickly notice a consistent thread in the portrayal and
celebration of a certain kind of man: domineering, supremely competent, and swaggeringly virile. A
Farewell to Arms holds up several of its minor male characters as examples of fine manhood. Rinaldi is a
faithful friend and an oversexed womanizer; Dr. Valentini exhibits a virility to rival Rinaldi's as well as a
bold competence that makes him the best surgeon. Similarly, during the scene in which Henry fires his
pistol at the fleeing engineering sergeants, Bonello takes charge of the situation by brutally shooting the
fallen engineer in the head. The respect with which Hemingway sketches these men, even at their lowest
points, is highlighted by the humor, if not contempt, with which he depicts their opposites. The success of
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