IDEOLOGY USED AS A WEAPON BY PEOPLE IN POWER TO MANIPULATE THE SUBORDINATE PEOPLE IS THE INDIRECT SUBJECT OF THE NOVEL “A FAREWELL TO ARMS” BY EARNEST HEMINGWAY

Abstract

When World War I (1914-1918) finally ended, an estimated 10 million people were dead, and 20 million were wounded. The assassination of the Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria-Hungary triggered the war in June 1914, but the causes of the conflict go deeper. A brand of aggressive nationalism had taken root across all of Europe. Political power utilised not only the state's people but also the colonised people through the underlying workings of ideology. Germany, France, and England had become imperial powers with economic rivalries around the globe. The interlocking royal families of Europe created far-flung political alliances and pledged to take sides in the conflict. Add to this the coming revolutionary struggle in Russia, and all the pieces were in place for a catastrophe. A four-year conflict followed. Germany, Austria-Hungary, and the Ottoman Empire (mostly today’s Turkey) fought against the Allies, led by France, England, Russia, Italy, and, eventually, America. Ernest Hemingway’s A FAREWELL TO ARMS depicts the manipulation of the Ideological State Apparatuses, which are glory, duty, honour, and obligation, and how they work inside people, and how Oppressive State Apparatuses work against the people who understand the exploitation of ideology. From a postcolonial perspective, this paper highlights the conspiracy of ideological weapons, which instils in people a sense of self-betterment, prompting patriotism and nationalism, but this only draws them into service.