Symbolism In Ernest Hemingway's A Farewell To Arms

Ernest Hemingway’s novel of A Farewell to Arms depicts the harsh veracities of World War 1, based on Hemingway’s personal accounts. His novel, written with simplicity and sensory detail, develops a zealous affair between an injured ambulance driver and his nurse. Hemingway’s illustration of lovers amidst a war allows readers to create their own interpretation of how the story evolves. His writing entails the reader to examine the chaotic circumstances throughout the novel. For example, on page 172, Hemingway writes, “Well, we were in it. Everyone was caught in it and the small rain would not quiet it. ‘Goodnight, Catherine,’ I said out loud. ‘I hope you sleep well. If it’s too uncomfortable, darling, lie on the other side,’ I said. ‘I’ll get you some cold water. In a little while it will be morning and then it won’t be so bad. I’m sorry he makes you so uncomfortable. Try and go to sleep, sweet!’ I was asleep all the time, she said. You’ve been talking in your sleep.” Hemingway collaborates all the lovers’ troubles into a simple understanding. He allows the reader to acknowledge frustration and concern in daily life and plan how to overcome such obstacles. On page 169 he writes, “When we were out past the tanneries onto the main road the troops, the motor trucks, the horse-drawn carts and the guns were in one wide slow-moving column. We moved slowly but steadily in the rain, the radiator cap of our car almost against the tailboard of a truck that was loaded high, the load

Hemingway has made use of the book as a symbol of war to stress the soldier’s inability to lead a normal life (McKenna and Raabe 210). The symbol is used in the context of many other elements that convey Krebs’ distance from his own life. The book about war is a literary symbol that Hemingway employs in a specific context.

    There are two major themes in A Farewell to Arms that Hemingway clearly conveys: war and love. The war theme is obvious because the book is set during the World War. The theme of love is less obvious, it begins faintly because of the uncertainty between Frederick Henry and Catherine Barkley. Neither desire love or commitment to anyone, but act upon their desires of passion. As the story progresses, so does their love. The strength of their love is enforced by various understandings and agreements. Love is the theme that closes the book, leaving a final allusion of what their love is about.

As a symbol of tragedy rain is frequently used by Hemingway in this novel. Rain is a symbol of disaster already beginning in the first chapter when the reader learns that the war is not going well and that the " the permanent rain brought the cholera". Here rain is related to illness. Rain also falls when Frederic and Catherine are looking for a hotel room so they can be together before Frederic must leave for the front. Catherine buys a nightgown for the evening. And when they find a room, she looks in the mirrors and feels cheap, while Frederic looks outside at the storm. The rain degrades the farewell of Frederic, and Catherine tells him that „[she] never felt like a whore before". Rain also falls during the troop's retreat which is symbolizing a failure. One night when Catherine and Frederic are in the hotel in Italy, Frederic awakens to the sound of rain and learns that he will be arrested. And during their time of escape from Italy to Switzerland it is very windy and rainy. That symbolizes how their escape would definitely be difficult. It takes them many hours to row to Switzerland’s shore.

Ernest Hemingway wrote A Farewell to Arms, a celebrated historical fiction, amidst a time of war and personal suffering. Hemingway believed at this time that “life is a tragedy that can only have one end” (Hemingway, VIII). He continues further, calling war a “constant, bullying, murderous, slovenly crime” (Hemingway, IX). Hemingway also suffered at home, in addition to his issues regarding the state of the world. His wife had just endured a difficult pregnancy and delivery, which contributed to the last bitter chapter of his story. Keeping in mind the tortured and surly mental state of Hemingway, it is difficult to swallow the idea that he would write a wholesome, well founded love story that attracts people. To some readers, A Farewell to Arms tells of a whirlwind romance between an ambulance driver and a nurse that is based on an unbreakable foundation of love, trust, magnetism, and compassion. Anxious modernists, like Trevor Dodman who are cited in Joel Armstrong’s nonfiction text, will come up with a remarkably different outlook on this tragedy. With aid from “‘A Powerful Beacon’ Love Illuminating Human Attachment in Hemingway’s A Farewell to Arms”, the loveless relationship between Frederic Henry and Catherine Barkley will be seen as rushed, meaningless, and mentally destructive to the parties involved.

After spending some months in their snowy cabin in Switzerland, Catherine is finally just a month away from labour. The decision is made when the rain comes: “‘Let’s see how the weather turns out.’ It rained for three days. The snow was all gone now on the mountain-side below the station. The road was a torrent of muddy snow-water. It was too wet and slushy to go out. On the morning of the third day of rain we decided to go into town.” (Hemingway 263). The rain is what causes them to move into the town where Catherine dies in labour. Also, the description of the rain being so miserable gives a very melancholy feeling to the reader. Henry mentions that the rain prevented them from going out, reinforcing that rain has a direct negative effect on their lives. In the article “A Farewell to Arms”, Keith Neilson further expands on Hemingway’s use of rain: “Hemingway associates the plains and rain with death, disease, and sorrow; the mountains and the snow with life, health, and happiness. Catherine and Henry are safe and happy in the mountains, but it is impossible to remain there indefinitely. […] When Catherine and Henry descend to the city, it is, in fact, raining, and she does, in fact, die.” (Neilson 3). This further shows the rain’s foreshadowing of negative events because of how it coincides with Henry and Catherine moving to the city. Also, there are other natural symbols such as the snow, mountains, and plains that act with and against rain. Since this shift to rainy weather coincides with Catherine being a month away from going into labour, it foreshadows her and their daughter’s death at the end of the novel. In summary, rain foreshadows Catherine’s death when it coincides with Catherine being close to

“Weather is just weather. It’s never just rain” (44). If a setting in a story involves rain it’s not because outside was hot and all the water evaporated into the clouds and couldn’t hold anymore so it started to pour. I mean who would ever think of such a thing? Usually when a story contains raining it can mean the character is being “purified” or transformed. However with rain comes mud, which can cause the character to be more tainted then before. Rain is also associated with spring, which is a period of rebuilding and all the more imperatively, trust. Mist can include the wretchedness element, additionally disarray among characters and circumstances. Snow is generally as critical and negating as downpour. It can be spotless, welcoming, lively, or even warm (like a protecting blanket).However it can likewise be stark, serious, cold choking, and even grimy. The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald, Gatsby and Daisy's get-together starts amidst a deluge which

Hemingway was with a woman even while he was injured and in the hospital from World War I. That is where he met his first attempt at marriage and a wife. Her name was Agnes von Kurowsky and she was a nurse at the hospital where he stayed in Milan. He proposed to her and she eventually accepted his proposal, but not very long later she left because she found a new man. This was devastating to Hemingway, but providing a great vision for some of his other renowned works. These stories include A Very Short Story and A Farewell to Arms. He met someone who was going to be his first actual wife in Chicago after returning home from the war. He was working at the Toronto Star at the time. Her name was Hadley Richardson. Once they were married they went to Paris for a while and continued working for the Toronto Star. Hemingway’s first child was born in 1923 to Hadley and Ernest. His name was John Hadley Nicanor Hemingway. Hemingway’s second wife Pauline Pfeiffer would be closely following Hadley because Hemingway and Pauline had an affair. This is why Hadley and Hemingway divorced, but Hemingway didn’t take long to marry again. Once his first divorce was finalized he was already married. He was working on a book of short stories at this time called, Men Without Women. Pauline became pregnant and they moved back to America. Their first son together was named Patrick Hemingway. In 1928, they settled in Key West, Florida. This was when Hemingway finally finished his World War I novel

In a well-written short story, different literary elements and terms are incorporated into the story by the author. Ernest Hemingway frequently uses various literary elements in his writing to entice the reader and enhance each piece that he writes. In Hills Like White Elephants, Hemingway uses symbols to teach the reader certain things that one may encounter during daily life. Symbolism may be defined as relating to, using, or proceeding by means of symbols (Princeton). The use of symbols in Hills Like White Elephants is utterly important to the plot line and to the fundamental meaning of the story. Through this use of symbolism, the reader can begin to reveal the hidden themes in this short story.

The protagonist in this story is Lt. Frederic Henry who happens to be the narrator is an American ambulance driver who is in the Italian army during WWI. Although he is courageous and heroic, Henry does not want any part in boasting about medals and such. Henry meets a girl named Catherine and it changes his aspect on love, and we see his character transform into new perspectives throughout the book. Henry is a good caregiver and leader among his peers also.

Whoever said, "War was hell," must have read Ernest Hemingway 's A Farewell to Arms. It is a decade defining controversial piece of American Literature. It was not only controversial because Hemingway was a depressed drunkard, but it was controversial because it doesn 't glorify war; it shows the brunt reality of the Great War. He provides the evidence of his depression through his writings by allowing his characters to be placed in horrid situations. He also shows his alcoholism this way, by allowing his characters to be alcoholics. For example, in A Farewell to Arms, Frederic Henry used alcohol to get over his pain, which would eventually lead to Henry 's jaundice, a lack of liver function, which is a symptom of cirrhosis of the liver,

Catherine decides to reveal her pregnancy, and “It turned cold that night and the next day it was raining” (320). Frederic goes back to the front, leaving Catherine behind pregnant in Milan and it is also raining. The train ride to Stresa where Frederic meets up with Catherine it is raining. This rain symbolizes abandonment. The boat trip from Italy to Switzerland it is raining. This rain means that Frederic and Catherine are scared they will not get to the Switzerland side of the river before daybreak. Frederic will be killed for abandoning the army if they do not make it. The nurse told Frederic his baby is dead during the operation on Catherine and he looks out of the window and it is raining. Catherine dies from a hemorrhage during the cesarean section and it rains. "It seems she had one hemorrhage after another. They couldn't stop it. I went into the room and stayed with Catherine until she died. She was unconscious all the time, and it did not take her very long to die (320)”. Henry leaves the hospital back to the hotel in the rain. This rain symbolizes he is devastated he lost everyone he loves and the rain is his sadness. Rain is all throughout the novel from beginning to end.

   Ernest Hemingway has been greatly criticized for a supposed hatred of women that some feel is evident in his writings. One of the primary books that critics believe shows this misogynistic attitude is A Farewell To Arms. It is counterproductive to interpret the book using such a narrow focus because the author is dealing with much more profound themes. Hemingway is not concerned with the theme of gender equality, but rather with the greater themes of the inherent struggle of life and the inevitability of death.

Ernest Hemingway's WWI classic, A Farewell to Arms is a story of initiation in which the growth of the protagonist, Frederic Henry, is recounted. Frederic is initially a naïve and unreflective boy who cannot grasp the meaning of the war in which he is so dedicated, nor the significance of his lover's predictions about his future. He cannot place himself amidst the turmoil that surrounds him and therefore, is unable to fully justify a world of death and destruction. Ultimately, his distinction between his failed relationship with Catherine Barkley and the devastation of the war allows him to mature and arrive at the resolution that the only thing one can be sure of in the course of life is death

Hemingway died July 2, 1961, at his home, as the result of self-inflicted gunshot wounds. Ernest Hemingway had a different style of writing than the other authors in his