A Farewell to Arms Lesson Plan

In the opening chapter, what does Hemingway do to establish the novel's tone and themes?

The first chapter of A Farewell to Arms is an excellent introduction to Hemingway's writing style: the prose itself is detached and journalistic, but a powerful sense of loss and disillusionment belies the actual words. Ask students to consider what is meant when those who came of age during World War I are referred to as the Lost Generation. What does it mean to lose a generation? Why would the war have had such an impact on these people?

Once students understand the effect growing up in this world had on its youngest inhabitants, ask why Hemingway writes the way he does. After...