In A Farewell to Arms, Ernest Hemingway uses his idea of the code hero to introduce us to an amazing character. Hemingway takes his own ideas and conveys them through Frederic Henry. During World War I Frederic Henry proves to us that war and lost love can change a strong and willing man. Most men are not willing to change and Frederic Henry realized that in order for him to survive the many problems he was faced with, he would have to become a more mature man, love and solider.Hemingway’s code hero is portrayed in most every novel that Hemingway wrote. He takes his main character and makes him someone that is hard to change and even harder to make realize the situations around him. His code heroes are attractive, but not too attractive. They are very masculine and strong-minded. They stand for “what is right.” The code hero always believes in doing his job completely and putting it first, no matter what. Hemingway’s code hero consists of one very strong, willful man that is willing to do what he needs to do in order to get the job done. The main focus of Frederic Henry as a code hero is serving to his greatest extent in the war (Hemingway, A Farewell to Arms 124). Fredric Henry was injured while in the war, but as soon as he was healed he went back to the front. Henry returns to the front because he believes in finishing something that he was involved with in the first place. These actions are heroic because although he wasn’t forced to go back to the front he felt an obligation to the war. This reflects an aspect of Hemingway’s code hero because Henry wasn’t going to walk away and take the easy was out of the situation. “He was serving in a war and he gave absolute loyalty and as complete a performance as he could give while he was serving” (Hemingway, For Whom the Bell Tolls 136). This was a performance for Jordan (the main character in For Whom the Bell Tolls) because he felt t...
