We learn a lot about the conditions for soldiers in World War I in Book I of A Farewell to Arms. Comment on some of those conditions including how the conditions affect the actions of the soldiers. Include quotes and page numbers for your examples. Once you have posted your ideas, please check back periodically to comment on at least two other posts.
In the book Farewell to Arms, by Ernest Hemingway, the conditions for the soldiers were not very good. There was limited food and water, there were a ton of injuries, injuries were not properly taken care of, and housing arrangements were cramped. Mainly the conditions were unsafe. “Fragments of enemy trench-mortar shell. Now I’ll probe for some of this if you like but it’s not necessary. I’ll paint all this and- Does that sting? Good, that’s nothing to how it will feel later. The pain hasn’t started yet. Bring him a glass of brandy. The shock dulls the pain; but this is all right, you have nothing to worry about if it doesn’t infect and it rarely does now. How is your head?” (60). This quote shows that care for the soldiers wasn’t the best. The doctor just gave him some alcohol for the pain and that is practically all he did. Soldiers also lacked food. In the infirmary Henry was only feed soup, and in order to get a good meal they had to steal it. Henry took some cheese and that was the only real food he got! Everything was unsanitary and unsafe. Soldiers were dying left and right from the poor planning on how to stay safe. Wounded soldiers had to help the severely wounded off the battlefield, because the medics were taking care of more wounded people. That is not safe and not fair to the soldiers. Gavuzzi and Manera had to carry Henry off the battlefield and they kept dropping him, which probably caused more injuries to him. The main problem throughout the story is the lack of concern towards safety for the soldiers. Many of the serious injuries could have been avoided if safety was taken into consideration. Not only are these conditions unsafe, but they make the soldiers angry and less eager to serve for their country. With the lack of food and water it makes them less aware and focused, which could also cause major injuries. Even though proper medical techniques were not as developed yet, there should have been more doctors and nurse to attend to all the wounded soldiers and avoid less problems on the battlefield.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you when you say that the main problem is that people don't have concern for the safety of the soldiers- good point!
DeleteI love how you really stuck to the point about the care for the wounded soldiers being unsafe!
DeleteI really like how you pointed out the little concern towards the soldiers.
DeleteDavid Anderson-Nelson
ReplyDeletePeriod 1,2
In the book Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway the soldiers face many poor conditions causing many to fight when injured or even die before getting to battle. Others injure themselves to get out of the army front lines. Many soldiers are kept from the treatment they need because their superior officers think that they injured themselves or are faking in order to get out of the front lines. "Why don't you ride the transport? I asked. Why don't you go to the hospital? They won't let me. The lieutenant said I slipped the truss on purpose."(Hemingway 34). The soldiers are being refused medical care even when they desperately need care such as this soldier who has a rupture. If the soldier gets the care he needs the soldier will just be put back into the front lines as soon as he gets surgery to fix his rupture. Even without the fighting soldiers were dying and getting sick from disease and the confines of the army. "At the start of the winter came the permanent rain and with the rain came cholera. But it was checked and in the end only seven thousand died of it in the army."(Hemingway 4). With soldiers dying before they even get to the battle field and being refused the medical care they need many soldiers try to hurt themselves in order to get out of the army. Some are stilled turned away such as the man with the rupture. Soldiers end up dying and getting the people around them sick who then try to hurt themselves to get treated and get out of the front lines. Some are not given the treatment necessary and the whole circle starts again. With the bad conditions that the soldiers are stuck in many try to get out the only way possible by injuring themselves. With the healthcare far out of reach, disease that spreads like wildfire unless taken care of,and food and water shortages the soldiers actions are not that surprising.
The quote you used supported what you were trying to say very well!
DeleteI really like how you explained your quote and the effects it has. You did a great job making sure it all made sense.
DeleteI really liked how you talked about how many people were hurting themselves and spreading disease.
DeleteYour post is very well written! I like how you compared disease to a wildfire!
ReplyDeleteYou brought up a good point how the superior officers think the soldiers are faking being injured. Your response was very well written!
ReplyDeleteFredrick Henry is a lieutenant in the book Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway. It takes place in World War One. The conditions for the soldiers during the war were very poor. The men’s gear did not fit most of the soldiers correctly, “Most of the helmets were to big and came down almost over the ears of the men who wore them.” (33) Men were not aloud to get the correct medical treatment because their officers would not believe them and forced them to go back out onto the front line. V. A. D.’s, who were not certified nurses, were aloud to give treatment to the wounded, for example, Catherine Barkley. It was also very dirty and cramped during World War One, dust and dirt is mentioned a lot through out the book. With the poor medical treatment, many injuries got worse instead of getting better, this opened up the door to infection and disease. If the injured soldiers were sent into battle, it affected the way they fought and weakened their chances of staying alive. The war itself was brutal as well. Many of the soldiers were killed in terrible ways. Barkley states, “He didn’t have a sabre cut. They blew him all to bits.,“ (20) when referring to the way her fiancé was killed in the war. Henry is also quoted saying, “Still I would probably have been killed. Not in this ambulance business. Yes, even in the ambulance business.” Which shows that in the war every soldier, even ambulance drivers were killed without second thought. Because of the high chance of getting injured, the soldiers would sometimes resort to religion. Henry talks about how Barkley gave him a St. Anthony necklace and how it was stolen from him. This was probably a result of another soldier’s last resort for hope. The soldiers were also not fed properly, as it shows when Henry was injured and did not get anything to eat besides soup. The hospitals did not take into consideration that the soldiers would need to be strong and fully healed before they could go back out into battle. The conditions for soldiers in World War One were terrible and unsanitary.
ReplyDeleteI really like all of the quotes you used. Everything tied into your point by the end of your explanation.
DeleteI like how you included all of the details. I really agree with you when you talked about the malnutrition and and last resorts.
DeleteI like how you referred to the St. Anthony necklace being stolen as a soldier's "last resort for hope." Your details throughout were great as well
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ReplyDeleteIn the book Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway, the conditions that the soldiers lived in were horrific. The injuries the soldiers faced were endless and not well taken care of in the least bit. The soldiers were often afraid to report injuries or seek medical attention for the fear that a lieutenant will think they’re faking or did it on purpose. “Why don’t you ride the transport?” I asked. “Why don’t you go to the hospital?” “They won’t let me. The lieutenant said I slipped the truss on purpose.” (pg.34) This soldier isn’t allowed to go to the hospital for his serious medical emergency. “Listen,” I said. “You get out and fall down by the road and get a bump on your head and I’ll pick you up on our way back and take you to a hospital.” (pg.35) This shows the extremes the soldiers had to go to in order to be taken to the hospital. Even when they arrived at the hospital, the attention they received wasn’t exactly “state of the art.” When Henry was injured, on his ride in the ambulance he rode on a stretcher and the man on a stretcher above him had a hemorrhage and was dripping blood all over him. Talk about unsanitary! The rooms in the hospital were hot, muggy and humid and flies flew everywhere. When out in battle, wounded soldiers would have to help and assist more heavily wounded soldiers because there weren’t enough medics. It seemed that carelessness lead to a lot of deaths and some were preventable. The soldiers were not well nourished and taken very good care of while injured and so when they were released, it just made them more susceptible to injuries again. Poor sanitation, malnourishment, and injuries left untreated led to a good amount of fatalities of soldiers in World War One.
ReplyDeleteI like how you put in the conversation between Henry and the soldier. It really did emphasize the extremes the soldiers had to go to in order to go to the hospital.
DeleteIn this book, you see just how badly these soldiers were treated. Not only treatment but neglect. "Does that sting? Good, that’s nothing to how it will feel later. The pain hasn’t started yet. Bring him a glass of brandy. The shock dulls the pain; but this is all right,” (60). In this quote you see a soldier with an injury be blatantly declined medical attention. He is simply given alcohol to numb the pain. In another quote you can see how a lieutenant denied a soldier to go to the hospital.
ReplyDelete"'Why don't you go to the hospital?'
'They won't let me. The lieutenant said I slipped the truss on purpose,'" (34).
It seems that there just isn't enough time for anyone to care about these soldiers and their injuries. Also, I mentioned how badly these soldiers were treated. Their equipment is not given to them with any concern to the fact that it will do it's job, but just given to them for the sake that they have something. “Most of the helmets were to big and came down almost over the ears of the men who wore them,” (33). Overall, the treatment of soldiers was not good at all.
I like how you used lots of quotes to back up what you were saying and based your passage off of the quotes your read.And how you said that is seemed there just wasn't enought time to care about the soldiers.
DeleteI like the part which you included about the truss. I agree that it seems odd how they wouldn't want him to go see a doctor. But also how bad everything must be if someone is willing to injure themself to avoid doing it.
DeleteIn Ernest Hemingway's novel A Farewell to Arms, Fredrick Henry is an ambulance driver in World War I. He was an American who joined the Italian Army to fight. He is stationed in a small Italian town that is constantly being shelled by the Austrian Army. The conditions in the town are terrible. All of the soldiers are crammed into one house while to officers are put into another. The food and water rations are not sanitary or common. The amount of care, which is very little, is extremely prevalent on page 60.
ReplyDelete"'How is your head?'
'Good Christ!' I said.
'Better not drink too much brandy then. If you've got a fracture you don't want inflammation. How does that feel?'
'Good Christ!' I said.(Hemingway 60)"
The doctor is talking about a SKULL fracture as though it was some sort everyday cut. He treats Henry with very little respect. Also there is very little antibiotics and very little medicine at the front so many people die of infection as well as injuries that could not be healed. Many of the people that are injured asre not allowed to go to the doctor because the officers think that they are hurting themselves to get out of the front. Soldiers on the front are distrusted because of the large number of them that hurt themselves to get out of work. Also the conditions in even the ambulances are horrible. While Henry was in one the man above him had a hemorrhage and the people did nothing to stop it. All in all the conditions on the front were awful, and the leaders did nothing to stop it.
I like how you pointed out that the doctor showed Henry little respect. It was also a good idea to mention the way he talks about Henry's injury.
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DeleteI like your quote, it shows the poor conditions they are in because they are using brandy as a painkiller.
DeleteIn the book Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemmingway, the soldiers had to live in unsanitary conditions. "They lifted me onto the table. It was hard and slippery. There were many strong smells, chemical smells and the sweet smell of blood" (59). A person with open wounds should not be put on a table covered in somebody's blood. It is an easy way to spread disease and is extremely unclean. Another example of the unsanitary conditions is when Lieutenant Henry was being transported to a hospital by an English driver. "I felt something dripping. At first it dropped slowly and regularly, then it pattered into a stream...'The man on the stretcher over me has a hemorrhage'...Where it had run down under my shirt it was warm and sticky...'He's dead I think'" (61). The hospitals themselves were also very dirty and full of flies. The soldiers were treated very poorly. “He [the captain doctor] drank a half tumbler of cognac” (60). It is negligent for a doctor to be drinking while operating or even looking at someone and is now illegal. That has been the case since ancient Greek times. Healthcare professionals have to swear the “Hippocratic Oath”. They swear to practice medicine honestly and ethically. During World War One, soldiers were treated as objects, like pawns in a game of chess. They were not cared for. Men with health issues still had to continue to fight on the lines and couldn't get help for a medical condition if they had purposefully hurt themselves. For example, one man had a known hernia and made it rupture by throwing a truss so he could get off the lines. His lieutenant told that he slipped the truss on purpose so he was not allowed to seek medical attention at the hospital. Another issue with the way soldiers were treated was how unsafe everything was for them. They were treated not only by nurses and doctors, but also by V.A.Ds which are practically untrained nurses. They were not trusted since they were inexperienced. The dugouts that were dug for the ambulance drivers to hide out in were not nearly deep enough, and it led to the death of Passini, the injury of Henry and Gordini, and minor wounds to Manera and Gavuzzi. They were also given insufficient food. One of their meals consisted of cold macaroni with cheese and rotten wine. In World War One, the combination of the unsanitary and unsafe conditions and poor treatment led to deaths, disease, self-inflicted wounds, and fear throughout the lines of soldiers.
ReplyDeleteI like how you pointed out how the shallow dugouts were the cause of Henry's injury and Passini's death. And how you explained that the table he was on was covered in blood because of the "sweet smell of blood" Henry had smelled.
DeleteIn the book “A Farewell to Arms” by Ernest Hemingway the medical treatment and living conditions of soldiers was not very good and far from what it is today. During the war many soldiers are injured as a result many hospitals were built. But when they were not being used to attend to wounded soldiers injured in a nearby battle they were pretty much empty. A problem with the medical treatment was that it was very rushed because of the amount of people there at one time and most of the doctors and nurses lacked a process they went through and instead almost guessed their way through helping some of the soldiers. Pg. 60 “Now I’ll probe for some of this if you like but it’s not necessary.” They had no pain killers and the only thing the doctors and nurses could give the wounded soldiers to help some of the pain go away would be to give them alcohol, usually brandy. Even once a soldier was on his way to recovery from an operation they were still living in unsanitary conditions. They were only fed soup and what good food was there they had to steal! Now a day’s food in a hospital is brought to you on a tray but during this time the soldiers if they wanted real food would have to get up no matter what kind of pain they were still in and steal food in order to eat something acceptable. Many bad things like this were happening outside of the hospital too. If there was a wounded soldier he would first have to help the almost mortally wounded soldiers off the battle field before he could receive medical attention for himself. It’s almost as if the people had written off the soldiers that fought and assumed they would die. Because no one seemed to make much of an effort to prevent it, and they probably caused more people to die than they did save because of the terrible conditions they put the soldiers through. The ill treatment of the soldiers wasn’t only just centered around the wounded and their care. It was also involved in their housing. The soldiers lived in very cramped housing with multiple people living in it at one time. And even though there were many people in each house they still put restrictions on food and water so not only did they receive extremely poor medical attention, they had to live with many other people and their food was rationed so they could hardly get enough food to survive comfortably never mind live on the battle field. Many soldiers couldn’t even seek medical attention because their superiors thought they were faking it. Pg. 34 ‘Why don't you go to the hospital? They won't let me. The lieutenant said I slipped the truss on purpose.’ Henry told this man to bang up his head so he could go to the hospital for other reasons and while he was there be simultaneously treated for the hernia he was suffering but wasn’t allowed to be treated for. This is a perfect example of how horribly the soldiers living and what kind of care they were given. Many soldier probably died because of the lack of good medical attention rather than the actual injury they suffered.
ReplyDeleteI really liked how you related the medical treatment in that time to the medical treatment now. It really helped me to see in even closer depth how different it was from now.
DeleteIn Book 1 of A Farewell to Arms, the conditions for soldiers and workers in World War 1 were disgusting and almost inhumane. One of the biggest and most serious problems was the food. It tasted bad and was rotten. Plus, there were many periods of food shortages. “It tasted of rusty metal. I handed the canteen back to Passini. ‘It’s rotten,’ he said. ‘It’s been there too long. I had it in the car” (pg. 54). Because of the shortage of food, it led people to steal food. However, it also prompted some to help one another out, like when Henry voluntarily shared his prized macaroni and cheese with his fellow drivers, “’Start in to eat, Tenete.’ ‘No,’ I said. ‘Put it on the floor. We’ll all eat’” (pg. 53).
ReplyDeleteAnother big issue of World War 1 was the overcrowded hospitals. The hospitals literally had to make piles of the dead and the rest was populated with the many wounded. “He walked across to the dressing station, stepping carefully among the wounded” (pg. 58). “I could see the light come out from the dressing station when the curtain opened and they brought some one in or out. The dead were off to one side” (pg. 56). Surgeons were pressed for time when doing operations because the wounded were coming in faster than they were going out. Henry said this on page 58, “They picked me up and took me into the dressing room. Inside they were operating on all the tables”. Even the ambulances were crowded! As Henry was transported back to Milan, someone in the canvas overhead was suffering and later died. Henry commented on the overwhelming aromas coming from the tent, “It was hard and slippery. There were many strong smells, chemical smells and the sweet smell of blood” (pg. 59). The fact that the medical tents were outside probably contributed to infections because they were not very sterile. One quote on page 68 describes the hospital, “The breeze came in through the window and it was cooler with the evening. The flies were on the ceiling now and on the electric bulbs that hung on wires”. A quote that struck me was on page 74 when Henry describes how fast people were dying in the hospitals, “If anyone were going to die they put a screen around the bed so you could not see them die, but only the shoes and puttees of doctors”.
All these horrifying conditions and events, like seeing people with limbs blown off and a pile of dead soldiers, will definitely desensitize some of them. After seeing injured people and gunshot wounds over and over, one would stop pitying and starting in disbelief, and instead would continue on because it’ s “nothing out of the usual” in World War 1. Henry, especially because he’s an ambulance driver, is surely not stunned nor surprised that people are dying at the rate they are and the actions taking place all around him during the war.
I liked how you said that by seeing things like limbs blown off and dead soldiers that it would desensitize the people. I think it's important to take that into account when trying to figure out why the soldiers acted the way they did.
DeleteI really like the emphasis that you put on the food that they ate while out on the warfront, and I hadn't given it as much thought as I did to other things.
DeleteYou used really good quotes to support your points! Also, I like how you described the conditions as inhumane.
DeleteThe conditions for soldiers in Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway were not good. They sometimes purposely ignored medical conditions so that they would get worse and the soldier could avoid fighting like the soldier who ignored the rupture he got. " Because the captain doctor knew I had this rupture. I threw away the goddam truss so it would get bad and I wouldn't have to go to the line again"(35) Even when the soldiers did seek medical attention it was not the best and some people were treated with a higher priority than others. "In a moment the blanket in front of the dressing station opened and two stretcher bearers came out followed by the tall Englishman. He brought them over to me. "Here is the American Tenente" he said in Italian. "I'd rather wait," I said. "There are much worse wounded than me. I'm all right. "Come on, come on," he said. "Don't be a bloody hero."(58) Lastly soldiers were also punished gravely if they did not comply. "Were you there, Tenente, when they wouldn't attack and they shot every tenth man?... It is true. They lined them up afterward and took every tenth man. Carabinieri shot them."(48) I'm sure this behavior was accepted as the norm during that time but I can sure say I wouldn't want to be a soldier during World War I.
ReplyDeleteIn the book "Farewell to Arms" by Ernest Hemmingway, the conditions which the soldiers had to survive through during World War I where very intense. "At the start of the inter came the permanent rain and with the rain came the cholera. But it was checked and in the end only seven thousand died of it in the army" (Hemmingway 4). The soldiers while in battle had a very high risk of falling ill and dieing of sickness not even death in battle. It was not uncommon for a soldier to die of a illness just because back then the doctors just couldn't do as much back then and they did not have the ability to take care of all of those soldiers who where sick. "'Because the captain doctor knew I had this rupture. I threw away the goddam truss so it would get bad and I wouldn't have to go to the line again" (Hemmingway 35). This passage shows how the conditions on on the front are so bad that someone would intentionally injure themselves so that they wouldn't have to go back out and fight again. The Officers durin the battle had to make sure that someone did not hurt themselves while they where out fighting. The condiditons out in battle where not like they are today and it would have been very dificult and hard to be a soldier back during World War I.
ReplyDeleteDuring World War I, the conditions for the soldiers were poor. The book, A Farewell to Arms, goes into detail about the conditions during the war. More specifically, the food wasn’t quality, the soldiers were not treated well medically, and the hospitals were crowed with the injured. These factors were key in explaining the poor conditions for the soldiers.
ReplyDeleteThe food that the soldiers consumed was not quality. On page 54, the food was described as “rotten”. Along with the food not being in good condition, there was also a lack of it. Stealing became common in order to get a meal. When Henry was in the infirmary—having been sent there after his leg was wounded during an artillery bombardment—he had others get him “real” food. On page 52, Henry told the major “I’ll take what you can give me”. The reader finds out that “the major spoke to an orderly who went out of sight in the back and came back with a metal basin of cold cooked macaroni” (52).
The way in which the soldiers were cared for when injured was poor. According to page 60, they were basically cared for through alcohol. While Henry was in the hospital, the medical captain stated, “Better not drink too much brandy… If you’ve got a fracture you don’t want inflammation…” (60). The way the soldiers were treated had a negative affect on them. The issues with the poor medical care had the potential to lead them to death.
Overcrowded hospitals were unsafe and unsanitary. As described in the book, it was almost as if there was no room to walk. With the infirmary covered in bodies, it made the patients more at risk to disease—having the potential of leading them to death. When Henry was in the hospital, he stated, “Inside (the dressing room) they were operating on all the tables” (58). The lives that the soldiers led during the time of war were filled with poor conditions.