Wu Ting
How would you interpret this phrase? How would you interpret this phrase ‘that it had all been a mistake to think you just died’ in the third sentence? Does it mean he had been wrong for having been thinking that he just died? In other words, he knew he was already dead, not that he just died, right? Thanks. It’s from A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway (Chapter 9).the context: Through the other noise I heard a cough, then came the chuh-chuhchuh-chuh—then there was a flash, as when a blast-furnace door is swung open, and a roar that started white and went red and on and on in a rushing wind. I tried to breathe but my breath would not come and I felt myself rush bodily out of myself and out and out and out and all the time bodily in the wind. I went out swiftly, all of myself, and I knew I was dead and that it had all been a mistake to think you just died. Then I floated, and instead of going on I felt myself slide back. I breathed and I was back. The ground was torn up and in front of my head there was a splintered beam of wood. In the jolt of my head I heard somebody crying.
Apr 18, 2016 3:12 AM
Answers · 3
2
I think the author is referring to the afterlife. He is stating that he knew he was dead, and the mistake is to think that when you die you simply die and that there is nothing for you to experience afterwards. What is confusing you is the word "just". Try substituting "simply" in the sentence: "...to think you simply died."
April 18, 2016
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