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2016

Hemingway's Religious Influences in theWriting of A Farewell to ArmsKimberlee McMillin and John Fenstermaker

IntroductionIn A Farewell to Arms, Catherine Barkley’s life

addresses the dominant question in

Hemingway’s work: “How does one discover in a world of destabilized values and traditions the

way to live now?” Catherine maintained conservative Christian beliefs until her fiancé was

blown “to bits” in World War I. Following his

death, feeling guilty that religion had caused her to withhold full expression of their love, Catherine

finds the genuinely spiritual - foregoing her earlier religious training, even at the hour of her death -

in sacrificing all by committing emotionally to

loving Frederic Henry, the novel’s initially jaded and opportunistic protagonist. The religious motif

here, rare in Hemingway, centers the “love” and “war” threads - and focuses our research.

Materials and MethodsA Farewell to Arms has been challenged,

censored, and banned at various times,

beginning with its second monthly installment in

Scribner’s Magazine, June 1929. The popular conception that the novel is irreligious is

particularly unfounded. Our research explores/explodes this misconception by

examining the role of the spiritual in the novel,

drawing from a broad context that includes: Hemingway biography; his letters, with scholars’

commentary, from volumes 1-3 (1907-1929) of the Cambridge Edition of The Letters of Ernest

Hemingway; and criticism ranging from initial

reviews to later scholarly assessments (see below, “Works Cited”).

AcknowledgmentsI would like to thank Dr. Fenstermaker for his mentorship throughout this project.

Additionally, I thank Dr. Joe O’Shea and my UROP

leaders Ellen Waidner and Elise Griffen for assisting me through my first year of research.

CensorshipofA FarewelltoArms

The American Library Association finds that the most frequent challenges to A Farewell to Arms draw from among

“sex and debauchery, violent deaths and senseless brutality, and belief in a universe indifferent to human suffering.”

The latter category reflects on religion and the spiritual.

KimberleeMcMillin;Dr.Fenstermaker

DepartmentofEnglish,FloridaStateUniversity,TallahasseeFL

WorksCited

Baker, Carlos. Ernest Hemingway, Selected Letters. Chamberlin, Brewster. The Hemingway Log: A Chronology of His Life

and Times. Lawrence, Kansas: University Press of Kansas, 2015.Grissom, C. Edgar. Ernest Hemingway: A Descriptive Bibliography. New

Castle, DE: Oak Knoll Press, 2011.Hawkins, Ruth. Unbelievable Happiness and Final Sorrow. Hemingway, Ernest. A Farewell to Arms. New York: The Scribner

Library, 1957.

The Letters of Ernest Hemingway. Volume 3: 1926-1929. Ed. Rena

Sanderson, Sandra Spanier, Robert W. Trogdon. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2015.

Meyers, Jeffrey, ed. Hemingway: The Critical Heritage. London and

Boston: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1982.

Reynolds, Michael S. Hemingway: The American Homecoming.

Stoneback, H. R. Reading Hemingway’s The Sun Also Rises: Glossary and Commentary.” Kent, OH: Kent State UP, 2007.

Hemingway and ReligionChildhood: strong Congregationalist background; his father was a youth leader in

Agassiz movement (focused on the

presence/purpose of Divinity as seen in the natural world); his mother directed youth church

orchestra and composed/published religious music; Hemingway was a leader in church youth

club activities.

Young man: wounded among Italian soldiers in WWI and, on the battlefield, was supposedly

baptized as a Catholic or given his Last Rites

Married/Divorced/Remarried: his first

(Protestant) marriage was to Hadley Richardson in 1921; divorced 1927; married Pauline Pfeiffer

in 1927 in a Catholic ceremony, where his battlefield baptism was accepted; the Pfeiffer

family was staunchly Catholic.

Additional Catholic religious/cultural focus after 1924: he enjoyed the Spanish bullfight tradition

and frequently traveled to Spain. These latter

biographical details specifically contribute to the background writing of A Farewell to Arms

(3/1928-1/1929).

Hemingway’sReligiousInfluencesintheWritingof

AFarewelltoArms

Hadley Richardson and Pauline Pfeiffer

Ernest Hemingway and Pauline

Key West home where majority of A Farewell to Arms was written

Ernest, his son John, Pauline, and their children Patrick and Gregory

ContinuedResearchI am currently applying for a research grant to continue my research this summer, analyzing

primary and secondary sources for

Hemingway’s religious influences throughout the writing of A Farewell to Arms. This research will

take place at Florida State University.

Dr. Fenstermaker will continue his research throughout the summer and present his findings

at the 2016 International Hemingway Conference in Oak Park, Illinois.

Ernest and Pauline watching the bull fights in Pamplona, Spain

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