Mapping and Merging: A Cartographic Approach to A Farewell to Arms.

Great War mapping techniques held a deeper sway on Hemingway's prose style and themes than critics have previously understood. As a process that clears away visual clutter for better absorption and execution on the battlefield, the cartographic technique of "restitution" is of particular relevance for A Farewell to Arms. As the novel unfolds, Frederic and Catherine's love affair becomes so intense and filled with bodily risk that their consciousnesses begin to merge in ways that, after Catherine's death, Frederic's narrative seeks to process and sort out. To the extent that his prose account of the experience resembles a restituted map, he achieves a clarity of vision to safely place Catherine's memory in emotionally delineated parameters that will allow him to navigate a life without her. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]