The Scarlet Letter As A Romantic Novel-Revision Notes

The most apparent flaw in my essay was my inability to formulate simple, concise thoughts; instead, wordiness and confusing, lengthy sentences overwhelmed the paper. I tried to eliminate “the” and “as,” because they often indicated and unnecessary text. Duplicate sentences were restructured, such as a consecutive pair that both began with participial phrases, and some sentences were rearranged to clarify the comparison of The Scarlet Letter to American Romanticism. A passage in the second paragraph regarding Hester’s social ascentions was irrelevant her characteristics as an American hero, and was eliminated. Generally, the essay needed syntax revisions so the points made could be more easily understood. I would like to present my ideas more precisely in future writings, without the distracting deadwood apparent in this piece.

The Scarlet Letter As A Romantic Novel-Revision-January 17, 2008

Steeped in the ideals of American Romanticism, The Scarlet Letter is much more emotionally charged than a basic narrative tale, and embodies the transcendentalist principles of the literary era in which the novel was produced. A favor of feeling instead of logic permeates the book, as well as acknowledgment of the higher meaning displayed by nature. The hero–or in this case, heroine–of the Romantic American novel is also present in the tale of Puritan social repression.Hester Prynne, although a woman, is Hawthorne’s embodiment of the American hero. Separated from the village by the insignia upon her chest, Hester is an individual of self-sustenance: a trait belonging to most heroic figures in Romantic literature. Hester cooks and sews for herself and her child without the assistance of another person and lives in a house outside of town; indeed, even within civilizations she stands by internal support alone, as on the scaffold during her condemnation, and thenceforth, when a ring of space is formed around the stigma. Bad luck with the opposite sex is another facet of the American hero present in Hester. First married to an older man with whom she shared no love, the heroine then cheats on him with another man. To worsen her plight, Hester faces the condemnation of not only her husband, but also that of her lover (as his position of secrecy requires). Just as the hope of finally binding herself with Dimmesdale reaches Hester, he dies, leaving her forever in solitude. The steadfast determination of Hester’s spirit despite cruel adversity is indicative of the transcendentalist ideas of the Romantic era in American literature.

To reach beyond earthly experience is touted by Hawthorne when he demonstrates the persistence of Hester’s selfless love in spite of the repressions of her community. Even with a scarlet badge of shame upon her breast, Prynne experiences life as deeply as the Puritan townspeople, forging a position of matronly importance in the town that thinks itself punishing her. In time, Hester even brings herself to discard her letter in a brook, realizing that her life with Pearl and Dimmesdale is greater than the epithet of a red “A.” Just as the heroine continues to radiate humanity despite a sign supposed to rob her of it, she and Dimmesdale maintain their love regardless of their removed positions in society (he as the pious clergyman, and she as the ignominous sinner). Meeting in the trees seven years after they first admitted their passions, Prynne and Dimmesdale still desire to live in the company of one another, though years have passed without even the intimacy of a true word. A plan to move beyond the restricting Puritan community embodies the transcendentalist ideas of a reaching a high place (union of the man and woman) despite earthly circumstances (the secrecy of their relationship that must be maintained in the critical town). The emotionally bound motives that carry Hawthorne’s novel are harmonious with the theories that American Romanticism is based upon.

By characterizing a classic American hero and the beliefs of transcending earthly bondage, Hawthorne has written a novel of American Romanticism. The independent, generous spirit of Hester Prynne matches that of the other heroes of the period, and transcendentalsim is clearly expressed in the literary work. The Scarlet Letter may be considered the “perfect” novel of American Romanticism due to the completeness with which it fulfills the ideals of the literary style.

The Scarlet Letter As A Romantic Novel-Original-October 23, 2007

    Steeped in the ideals of American Romanticism, Nathaniel Hawthorne’s novel is much more emotionally charged than a basic narrative tale. The Scarlet Letter embodies the transcendentalist principles of the literary era in which the novel was produced. An emphasis of the importance of feeling over logic permeates the book, as well as the acknowledgment of the higher meaning displayed by nature. The hero–or in this case, heroine–of the Romantic American novel is also present in the tale of Puritan social repression.

Hester Prynne, although a woman (unlike Natty Bumpo, for example), is Hawthorne’s embodiment of the American hero. Separated from the village by the insignia upon her chest, Hester is an individual of self-sustenance: a trait belonging to most heroic figures in Romantic literature. Living in a house outside of the town, Hester cooks and sews for herself and her child without the assistance of another person; even in the town she stands alone, as on the scaffold during her condemnation, and thenceforth, when a ring of space is formed around the stigma attached to the adultress. Despite the scorn presented by her neighbors, Ms. Prynne provider her servitude to the community by employing her skills as a seamstress and domestic caregiver. Even the townspeople who ostracized her relinquish their judgments to claim her as their own and praise her skill with needle and thread, as well as her generosity to those sick or otherwise in need. Hester’s duty is relentless, as Hawthorne notes that she is only at home when the sky is dark. Another facet of the American hero that is present is Hester’s character is a trait of bad luck with the opposite sex. First married to an older man with whom she shared no love, the heroine then cheats on him with another man. To worsen her plight, Hester faces the condemnation of not only her husband, but also that of her lover (as his position of secrecy requires). Just as the hope of finally binding herself with Dimmesdale, the man she loves, reaches Hester, he dies, leaving her forever in solitude. The steadfast determination of Hester’s spirit is indicative of the transcendentalist ideas of the Romantic era in American literature.

To reach beyond earthly experience is touted by Hawthorne when he demonstrates Hester and all of her love existing despite the repressions of her community. Even with a scarlet badge of shame upon her breast, Prynne experiences life as deeply as the Puritan townspeople, forging a position of matronly importance in the town that thinks itself punishing her. In time, Hester even brings herself to discard her letter in a brook, realizing that her life with Pearl and Dimmesdale is greater than the epithet of a red “A.” Just as the heroine continues to carry humanity despite a sign supposed to rob her of it, she and Dimmesdale maintain their love regardless of their removed positions in society (he as the pious clergyman, and she as the ignominous sinner).Meeting in the trees seven years after they first admitted their passions, Prynne and Dimmesdale still desire to live in the company of one another, though years have passed without even the intimacy of a true word. A plan to move beyond the restricting Puritan community embodies the transcendentalist ideas of a reaching a high place (union of the man and woman) despite earthly circumstances (the secrecy of their relationship that must be maintained in the pious town). The emotionally bound motives that carry Hawthorne’s novel are harmonious with the theories that American Romanticism is based upon.

By characterizing a classic American hero and the beliefs of transcending earthly bondage, Hawthorne has written a novel of American Romanticism. The independent, generous spirit of Hester Prynne matches that of the other heroes of the period, and transcendentalsim is clearly expressed in the literary work. The Scarlet Letter may be considered the “perfect” novel of American Romanticism due to the completeness with which it fulfills the ideals of the literary style.

Journal-November 11, 2007

I’m more of a marcher

into battle

is it a mad, sick mind

that strides arrogantly forth into death

rather than,

in a frenzy, squeals vindictively

into barrels of lead

{I was inspired to write this poem after an epic egg fight, and recorded it in a personal journal. I chose to include this piece because both of the deaths described are full of the energy of war. The marcher has become “arrogant” in battle and dies with pride, just as others manifest the excitement in frenzied rushes forward.}

Journal-January 10, 2008

this bread tastes like gasoline and blood

photographs of the bodies, stale in the freezer

sometimes I hear treads on my stair

and fear it’s the people we never disposed of

my eardrums shudder, rippling neurons in the cortex.

the stairs I ascend with terror, as if a great white

angel with a machine gun in his hand wants to liquify

me, or a large boar is chasing my soft flesh

Those stairs are dangerous! And watch your back!

This bread tastes like the day I realized I was CRAZY.

{Another personal journal entry, I included this as an example of syntax because the slight disconnection between complete thoughts is evidence for the final purport of insanity. I am considering revision of the 6th, 7th, and 8th lines because they seem awkward, but I want to determine their enhancement of the speaker.}

Personification-November 9, 2007

Isn’t it funny

that what I want you to be,

a great glorified specter,

has no reverence for my sticky black soul

and you can’t take your eyes off it.

I love you still,

your eagerness hungrily mouthing my outstretched palms

like an overzealous puppy.

{Journal: In a paragraph or a poem, personify an abstraction or inanimate object. Though I had constructed the personification simile earlier (see the October 2, 2007 entry), I am prided by my description of the audience’s eagerness–I feel like I fully embodied the behavior in a young dog.}

Journal-October 2, 2007

Oh God: to live this earthly tumult of man is blinding, though the slow pain of a growing squint and not as monumentally painless as a flash of light. And as that erotic sun laps the last bit of day from my hands, I pat her upon the head and repeat such mindless duties as “Hurry along now.” Her ferocity makes me lover her right now, but my eyes have…(incomplete)

{I discovered this incomplete piece in my English 3 journal, but I was unable to locate the prompt for it. My description of a blinding mankind is tactilely focused to me, and I feel the pain of a growing squint each time I reread the sentence. The hand-lapping personification reappears in my November 7 journal entry, though I am undecided about which context I favor.}

Research Paper-December 18, 2007

Margo Eatmon

Ms. Robinson

Hn English 3, 4th Period

18 December 2007

Sister Love

Low confidence is crumbling into a self-hatred apparent in the behavior of adolescent American girls. Biological and social factors have predisposed the group to be easily influenced by societal interactions: negative input damages their self-esteem and handicaps their social skills. The psychological vulnerability of this group be addressed and fortified, but lasting reform requires action by the girls themselves, who bear the most influential sway. An agenda to promote confidence and exploration may be synthesized from honest discussions between classmates, teacher, and parents. A focus on strength-building and positive reinforcement will arm girls against criticisms and provide them with the courage and communication skills necessary for personal achievement. Without proactively strengthening themsleves, the young females will trip on their insecurities.

Sensitive to minute discrepancies, teen girls’ psyches persistently experience shock. Self-obsessed, they are unable to logically scale the significance of personal events (Pipher 59-60). An ugly outfit is ridiculously painful to a girl, and contains the potential to extend-like many negativities-into depression. She also contrives that all of her peers are concerned with her offense…No one is truly afflicted by her fashion faux pas, but her discontent is magnified by imagined scorn. Relational insights are lost to self-inversion, and many girls are unable to identify the sentiments of peer interactions. Often is malice insinuated from neutral commentary, and some social conflicts exist only in imagination. Teen self-absorption produces tremendous mood swings, as each progressive event takes center stage. A good test grade will make her happy for the rest of the week…until her books get kicked in the hallway.

Also contributing to the volatility of their emotional conditions are hormonal stimuli, and the uncontrollable shifts can further confuse and upset girls (Pipher 19-20). Even if one can socially incorporate her wild emotions, internal contradictions are eventually revealed. Girls resolve character ambiguities by testing for favorable social reciprocations; but by establishing a social character with approved behaviors, the group multiplies their vulnerability to peer judgment. Girls inevitably fail unanimous approval-a miserable degradation to their raw emotions. The need to please is integral in personality development (Newman, Lohman, and Newman), as social coping skills are developed by the validations (or criticisms) bestowed by surrounding persons; however, when the magnitude of these social interactions is inflated by the adolescent ego, the fascination with failure undermines growth potential. External pressures may as well discourage healthy self-exploration. Girls are unsure how to incorporate their dynamic persona in the treachery of social interaction, and suppress their revolutions. Career goals, assertion of private interest, and optimism are expressed in varying degrees of brilliancy, and though healthy personality development that eventually arises from this experiment in self-definition, girls lack confidence in themselves. Uncertainty further exposes self-actualization to the peer definitions.

Body image awareness, though perverted by the media, is nevertheless prevalent in teenage girls. As puberty and extreme hormonal activity impose terrific changes, they are fascinated with every curve, hair, and pimple that seemingly materializes overnight. Girls sense of peer demands of physical image and discontent imbeds itself in the vanity-as the malleable female ego is clawed by others.

Girls-with or without intention-dictate the self-image of peers. Peer inclusion, emotional destruction, and harassment are all woven into the communications of the teens. Group inclusion and role appropriation motivates the behavior of adolescent girls, as an identifiable social role is a source of pride. Clearly defined friendships are a source of confidence to the members, who tout their ideals and excursions with pride, but the ability to identify cliques distresses those who consider themselves unincluded (Newman, Lohman, and Newman). Group exclusivity may be implied or directed intentionally. Some activities (birthday parties, weekend trips to the movies) are not consciously exclusive, as the participants are determined by an existent companionship. Inclusion of outsiders with such a group is unlikely, but exclusions are unintentional; uninterested for whatever reason, peer groups do not incorporate all who desire their company. Demeaned and frustrated, girls who are “left out” lack the insight to recognize futility and unremittingly attempt to win attention. Their admirations will never be returned, though, and social anxieties arise when motivated to please the group (despite inevitable failure). Even within an identifiable peer group, emotional stressors are aggravated by unreciprocated friendships. If she feels unappreciated by an esteemed friend, the girl will steep in the rejection (Newman, Lohman, and Newman). Although some social, educational, and therapeutic measures may be necessary to triumph implied social insecurities, the most stringent reforms must focus on conscious discriminations.

Fifteen out of 26 high school students surveyed reported peer abuse, which generally perpetuated low self-esteem and suppressed self-expression. Intentionally distressing a certain girl with rumors, malicious judgments, and harassments (both physical and verbal) is unacceptable in the social interactions of adolescent females, yet ill sentiments litter student populations. All exclusions provoke depression and social anxiety (following outrageous attempts to seek approval).

Fearing societal retributions, girls recognize and adapt to norms with great sensitivity. Social norms are established at all levels of congeniality, from the attire pressures present in the entire student population (as identified by survey takers), to the moral rigors imposed by intimate posses (also identified in survey). Though some behavioral pressures protect virtue, others are instated arbitrarily-such as participation in athletics. Group activities that do not suit individual goal foci force teens into discontented exclusion or inclusion. Likewise, superficial standards of achievement are established within a group. These external motivations produce a higher rate of failure and self-criticism than the personally contrived goals that are sacrificed to societal devotions. Conformity and the associated pressures are obviously unhealthy and unproductive for the developing mind: adolescent disposition requires positive encouragement rather than incessant defeat.

The stream of emotion that imbues all female interactions has must be recognized. Girls are expressive of their emotions-openly sharing frustrations (parents!) and glorifications (boyfriends!) with intimates and peers. Disgust and cheer are obvious, and girls wield offensive with their critical honesty. Perversely, their reliance on nurture and appreciation from comrades leaves female personas vulnerable, and when necessary encouragement does not come from peers, girls are hurt. “Ruminative coping” arises when the ego is traumatized, and the readiness of girls to share the wallowing negativity sucks entire factions into pessimism (Newman, Lohman, and Newman). In the high school swamps of dissatisfaction, girls are exhibiting their unhappiness in destructive behaviors, unable to articulate or otherwise communicate angst.

Adolescent girls are losing the ability to appreciate their strengths, and their dissatisfaction leaks destructive behaviors. Appearing as depression, internal turmoil perpetuates into self-hatred. Wrist cutting, burning, and skin picking are all behavioral disorders among teen girls that may be motivated by depression and inability to healthily express dissatisfaction. Physical obsessions are inspired (aside from media pressures) by the superficial regulations of peer groups. Vanity overwhelms wholesome pursuits, as girls sacrifice even sleep to achieve physical perfection. Girls remain unsatisfied; the absurdity of faultlessness is beyond teen comprehension. Eating disorders: anorexia, bulimia, and compulsive “binge” eating arise from food and weight insecurities. Tanning beds quietly cook girls in time for prom. Eighteen of the 26 survey takers wore makeup daily; they straighten, curl, gel, and perm their hair; brand labels can readily be identified. Money is poured into chemical treatments, hair removals, and new wardrobes that flaunt the latest trends: they do not recognize that their time and money is invested in short-term images. Superficial devotions compensate for otherwise insecure personas, rendering social destruction inevitable. Peers quickly recognize low self-confidence, but undue pride is as vehemently retorted. Likewise, conformity is as brutally ridiculed as non-conformity. Personal assertions must transcend social encouragements because unanimous peer approval does not exist. Girls who do not know how to assert themselves are miserable and uncomfortable, unable to build healthy relationships because they focus on the concessions to the friend, relative, boyfriend.

Logically, not all demeaning behavior can be eradicated from the female teen population, but a societal change must be impressed. A compromise cannot be reached until the girls recognize that the behaviors they are displaying are inappropriate-consider this text a “call to arms.” Education in women’s health and behavioral psychology is needed…with a reciprocated desire to learn from the girls. Furthermore, they must reform, and encourage positive self-actualization in peers; and take action, by establishing goals, volunteering, and confronting internal discord.

Although adolescent conflicts are self-generated, girls lack the education needed for resolution. Health and psychological education will clarify developmental tribulations, and classes in etiquette should reinstate the endangered tact. Whether instated by the school, established as a club, or provided by an outside organization, teenagers need a women’s health class that is more extensive and specialized than a high school physical education curriculum provides. Assurance that their physical and emotional revolutions are “normal” is comforting to the individual. Education of proper health habits-hygienic cleaning, appropriate diet and exercise, skin protection-is not only an excellent ward against health problems, but it also promotes a healthy body image that values agile muscles and calcium-rich bones instead of 24-inch waists and arched eyebrows. Psychological education will also bolster a health body image, teaching girls to love their body as is. Interactive programs that focus on individual strengths, as presented by Doctor Johnson, teach girls realistic self-evaluations and buttress the ego. Understanding their emotional pathways will help girls consciously recognize insecurities, as well as the embellishments and disproportions that they interpolate themselves. Group discussions can formulate defenses against bullies and show girls how they may be depressing their peers; realization of other girls’ emotions may inspire girls to refrain from certain behaviors. Because we don’t know how to express ourselves appropriately, girls have resorted to verbalizing all of their feelings. Tact and manners, enforced through social pressures or an actual class, are vital to social harmony.

Communications between teen girls are riddled with negative input. End all malicious exclusion. No rumors. No gossip. No name-calling. No undue criticisms. And no toleration of others: peers are responsible for enforcing positive behaviors from classmates. Reformation should focus on encouraging self-worth, and appreciation must be more readily expressed-whether for a classroom favor, a secret’s confidence, or the acquaintances shared. Girls deserve to be recognized, even just for being in existence. Encourage the formation of personal goals and the pursuit of individual interests among friends; attendance at sporting events, respect of study time, and involved inquiries all reinforce amiable significance. Girls can also influence their friends by establishing a healthy body image and correlating negative/positive connotations with health instead of cultural standards. Esteem can be constructed for the self by engaging in a cooperative project.

Membership of a sports team may delight some girls, while other girls seek less demanding functions, but a need to be needed is intrinsic to adolescent females. And volunteer outlets need. An integral role in completion of a project shows a girl her importance to group activities: purpose and worth are actualized in a volunteer situation. Teenage girls are desired everywhere. Schools and churches often provide clubs or other outlets for volunteer service, and girls have a world in which to create new ones. Not only are volunteer clubs an excellent production for adolescents, the leadership imposed by the creation of any club solidifies individual purpose. With the proper resources and encouragement, teen girls can learn the focus of improving poverty instead of pimples.

America is endless in the opportunities for young women. Rather than attacking the vulnerabilities in others, girls should be unifying in celebration of our healthy minds and bodies–an easy feat with proper educational outlets, social reforms, and personal augmentations. If informed of their potential, teenage females can rock the world.

 

Works Cited

Johnson, Norine G. “On Treating Adolescent Girls: Focus on Strengths and Resiliency in Psychotherapy.” Journal of Clinical Psychology 59 (2003): 1193-1203.
Newman, Barbara M., Brenda J. Lohman, and Philip R. Newman. “Peer Group Membership and a Sense of Belonging: Their Relationship to Adolescent Behavior Problems.” Adolescence. 42 (2007): 241-263.
Pipher, Mary. Reviving Ophelia: Saving the Selves of Adolescent Girls. New York: Grosset/Putnam, 1994.
Powers, Theodore A., Richard Koestner, and David C. Zuroff. “Self Criticism, Goal Motivation, and Goal Progress.” Journal of Social & Clinical Psychology. 26 (2007): 826-840.

Analytical Essay-November 18, 2007

Margo Eatmon

Mrs. Robinson

Hn English 3, 4^th Period

18 November 2007

Hemingway’s War On War

“One is left with the horrible feeling now that war settles nothing; that to win a war is as disastrous as to lose one.” states author Agatha Christie, verbalizing the bleak anti-war judgments from Ernest Hemingway’s novel of World War I military existence. Influenced by the author’s own military jaunt, A Farewell To Arms expresses many of Hemingway’s biased sentiments—including his negative opinions of war—as inarguable fact. Energizing the exploration of the emotional ruins inflicted by wartime experience, mental quips and conversational narrative construct a text from which the horrors of war are to be inferred. With wild narrative insight, the writer has eliminated dispute of militant dehumanization as the tale climaxes in a misery that is rooted further than triumph and defeat.

The detachment expressed by the characters is most thoroughly perpetuated by the narrative form that lacks intonations of an ego, though a human spirit is forever present (as Frederic Henry). Unannounced revelations of the dormant persona, “feeling lonely and hollow” (41) shock the bland, matter-of fact storytelling of “[I] felt him take me by the collar” (222). Hemingway’s refrain from interjecting Henry’s “feelings” subtly imparts the disconnection apparent in the characters involved with the war, an indifference that the author may have found in himself during World War I. Although factual observations notify the audience of Henry’s position as a military officer, battle scenes lack expressive zeal, as if the war has no relevance to the protagonist; and quotes such as “there was fighting in the mountains” (3) are weakly presented, as if the narrator truly is uninvolved with the war and its details. Henry’s wartime apathy is epitomized by his explanation for joining the Italian army as an ambulance driver, “’I was in Italy’…’and I spoke Italian’” (22), as though he holds no personal estimations of the war and his role. Disinterest spills from Henry’s military existence into his private being, exemplified by Henry’s refrain from religion and his initial unconcerned bearing toward Catherine. Disinterest and detachment culminate in a combatant population void of analytical logic or personal emotion, dehumanized by their militant life.

“’If there is a war I suppose we must attack.’ ‘Must attack. Shall attack.’” (14), an exchange between the pious priest and a captain, reveals a lack of individual thought, which is resigned in the priest and patriotically nonexistent in the captain. Even when seemingly exclusive perspectives are revealed, the narrator explains them to be automated as well, as he did when describing the conflicting views of an Italian soldier: “Gino was a patriot, so he said things that separated us sometimes, but he was a fine boy and I understood his being a patriot. He was born one.” (185). An assumed need for war permeates the forces that are dehumanized to automaton existence. The mental processes of the soldiers become purely factual, and “[a]bstract words such as glory, honor, courage, or hallow were obscene beside the concrete names or rivers, the numbers of regiment, and the dates” (185). The great reliance on the titles of countries and citizenship solidifies the purport that the war is not the fulfillment of individual vendettas, but the concrete destruction of names. During the novel, Hemingway describes a night battle in which German soldiers cross the battle lines in Italian uniform, causing chaos among the Italian army. Because the uniforms serve as titles of ally, they are able to muddle a battle: ironically, the titles and allies of the countries on the war scale are just as interchangeable and malleable as the clothing. Despite the immensity of the disjointed thoughtlessness apparent among the characters, apathy is finally beaten by the misery of the infinite fight.

Morbid emotions eventually overcome the soldiers as comprehension of the deadly, heartless scope of the war is reached, and mindless automaton is replaced with aching despair. “You cannot believe how it has been,” Rinaldi confides in Henry, “Except that you have been there and you know how it can be. Many people have realized the war this summer. Officers whom I thought could never realize it realize it now.” (178). Progressively among soldiers in conversation, and even Henry’s narrative conscience, an expression of hopelessness appears, and the soldiers speculate of an endless war in which victory is unattainable. Even the brutal ache of jaundice—self-inflicted through alcohol consumption—serves more appeal to Henry than the unbounded bombings and warfare of World War I which are escaped with hospitalization. The pessimistic visions inspired by the front spread from Henry with increasing fervor, as he notes during Catherine’s childbirth “[T]his was the price you paid for sleeping together. This was the end of the trap. This was what people got for loving each other.” (320), indicating his perception that all is destined to end in destructive tragedy. Personal detachment is recognized as the result of fighting a war for someone else (like the national leaders), and the soldiers’ patriotic spirit degenerates. Likewise, the disinterest of the fighters is intensified by the atmosphere of resigned defeat, constructing a cycle of apathy and gloom. Ironically, most militants continue to battle in spite of their acknowledged insignificance to the war and the unattainability of victory: solidifying the ideal that human spirit and logic are washed away for war, leaving identical soldiers who, unquestioning, leap to serve orders. None of the facets of emotional destruction exist freely, without the motivation of the other changes imparted upon the war’s soldiers.

Irrefutably revealing his biased opinion through factual narrative, Ernest Hemingway expresses his distaste for war in his autobiographically inspired novel, A Farewell To Arms. The appalling degenerations of the human personality through apathy, uniformity, and anguish are evidence for the author’s proposal, clearly proving that war destroys the ego. Even though Hemingway did not tout his book as an outcry against war, the literary piece serves as a flawless stand against the desolation of combat.