Read the excerpt from Hemingway’s A Farewell to Arms. “I believe we should get the war over,” I said. “It would not finish it if one side stopped fighting. It would only be worse if we stopped fighting.” “It could not be worse,” Passini said respectfully. “There is nothing worse than war.” “Defeat is worse.” “I do not believe it,” Passini said still respectfully. “What is defeat? You go home.” “They come after you. They take your home. They take your sisters.” “I don’t believe it,” Passini said. “They can’t do that to everybody. Let everybody defend his home. Let them keep their sisters in the house.” “They hang you. They come and make you be a soldier again. Not in the auto-ambulance, in the infantry.” What does Hemingway’s indirect characterization of the narrator reveal? The narrator agrees with Passini, although he does not admit this. The narrator recognizes that war is cruel, unjust, and inescapable. The narrator has little patience for opposing reasoning. The narrator tends to patronize those who disagree with him.

In literature, the word characterization refers to the way the characters and in some cases the narrator are presented to the reader including their personality traits, physical feature, believes and ideas. In the case of indirect characterization, the characters are not described directly, but their actions and ideas suggest the way they are or think. Considering this, in the case of the excerpt presented from "A Farewell to Arms" the narrator and main character is speaking to Passini another character as he believes the war needs to finish but also claims they need to continue fighting and defeat the opposing side to end with the war as otherwise, he believes if they are defeated the enemy will still persecute them and go back to war. This means the narrator believes the war is cruel and unjust as in any case people would be killed and persecuted; however, the narrator stills supports the idea of keep fighting so they would get the victory over those being defeated. Thus, the words and ideas from the narrator as part of indirect characterization mainly reveal the narrator recognizes that war is cruel, unjust, and inescapable.