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The Woman Warrior

In A Farewell to Arms, by Ernest Hemingway, the novel concerns itself primarily with Hemingway\'s philosophy of life: unordered and random. There is no God to watch over man, to dictate codes of morality, or to ensure justice. Hemingway’s hero must accept his place as something insignificant, yet continue to fight endlessly against the meaninglessness of life. The universe is indifferent to man\'s plight. In the book, this indifference is best exemplified by the war -- an ultimately futile struggle of man against man and the death of Catherine Barkley – someone good and pure. She did not die due to her “sins”, but merely because life is short, unfair, and unorderly.
The Hemingway hero must first accept many things, the first of which is a disbelief in God, faith was a cheap way of falsely instilling order upon existence. This is why the priest falls short of everything and the reason behind his constant teasing, he held no true power. Because there is no God, there are no universal moral codes, no abstract values such as \"justice\" or \"glory,\" and certainly no need for moral conventions. The hero rejects these, but imposes order upon his life through personal values-integrity, dignity, and courage.
“If people bring so much courage to this world the world has to kill them to break them, so of course it kills them. The world breaks every one and afterward many are strong at the broken places. But those it will not break it kills. It kills the very good and gentle and the very brave impartially. If you’re none of these you can be sure it will kill you too but there will be no special hurry.” (Hemingway 249) Such a person must accept the finality of death, knowing himself to be caught in a meaningless existence. The true hero can hold this meaninglessness in his mind while simultaneously creating meaning and order through life. He does this first by seeking a worthy adversary to struggle against, the war. He endures the pains of life without...

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