The Crucible Response

     There is great power in being an author; you can make things happen which do not necessarily occur in real life. Hemingway felt throughout his life, powerless, and so to escape this, he created alternative lives by writing stories. Hemingway, who fell in love with Agnes, an American nurse, seven years older than he, while wounded in Milan, was deeply hurt after she didn't return his affections. While the beginning of A Farewell to Arms, up until this point is similar, this is where the story changes. In the book, Frederic and Catherine are both in love with each other. Hemingway continued his affair with Agnes through Frederic and Catherine. He put his dreams of what his faded love affair would have been like in the love scenes between Catherine and Frederic:

In Hemingway’s A Farewell to Arms two individuals, who are polar opposites, fall in love with each other and their love is so strong and passionate that they are willing to start over entirely for one another . The rain, mountains, and loss of St. Anthony’s medal symbolize the troubling times Frederic and Catherine will go through in a way that shows the love and security that they have in each other. Rain symbolizes the difficult times in the novel for the developing characters. The rain starts off as a symbol of sadness. Hemingway states that this novel starts in the summer when it is hot and dry outside, but when the rain comes it is going to bring an infectious disease and it is also going to be when Frederic and Catherine have their first bout of troubling times.

One of the first items the author states is that all symbolism is intentional, there are no accidents when it comes to analyzing famous literature. He describes certain authors like James Joyce and T.S. Elliot as “intentionalists” or writers who purposely try to control every part of the story through symbolism. The author Thomas Foster teaches us never to overlook anything in a novel even if it be little things like the color shirt they are wearing or what the weather is like outside. Building more off the last statement, precipitation, whilst being a little detail added into a story, holds a lot of important roles in moving the story along and even providing hardships for characters to overcome. Even more than that though, he says “It’s never just rain”, rain provides as a symbol in the story so that if someone is in the rain it’s almost as if they are being cleansed.

Hemingway uses many instances of symbolism in this short story to coincide with the themes and feelings of the characters, such as the description of the scenery surrounding the train station. On one side of the station there is vegetation and fields of grain, while the other side is dry and barren (Short Stories for Students 159). The fact that the station divides these contrasts of environments is a symbol for the couple’s decision. The choice to have the abortion symbolizes sterility, which coincides with

Alvarez uses the weather as a symbol for different things throughout the novel. In one scene the weather might depict happiness, love and good fortune. However, in other scenes the weather could indicate destruction or bad luck for the Mirabal family. The descriptions of rain bring unpleasant and destructive outcomes. Alvarez describes the aftermath of Trujillo’s dinner party with a huge rainstorm that took days to go away the party ends with Minerva slapping Trujillo and leaving the party soon after. Minerva then describes in great detail the weather during the days after the party. She states “ rain is falling and night is falling in as we pass, the soil soggy with drowned seeds” the rain is a symbol of the fear that is going through the girls heads as they contemplate what Trujillo and his men could be doing to their father(116). This rain also symbolises destruction as it “destroys” things as it was falling and causes floods throughout the whole island. Another instance in which rain is used to foreshadow and symbolise something different in the novel was when the sisters were on their way to pick up their father.Alvarez writes “we’ve traveled almost the full length of the island and can report that every corner is wet” the wet and muddy grounds represents the terrible news that is soon to come to the mirabal family (117). The description of the

Rain brings life to the earth, ending drought and watering crops. However, Ernest Hemingway uses rain as a much more negative symbol in A Farewell to Arms. In the first chapter of the novel, rain is immediately established as a sign of bad things to come. Then, it is raining right before Henry’s friend warns him that the Italian police are coming to arrest him. Thirdly, rain comes in at the end of the novel at the same time that Catherine is close to giving birth, foreshadowing that something bad will happen to her. From these three points, it is clear that Hemingway portrays rain as a symbol that foreshadows negative events in Henry’s life.

Momaday uses imagery to help describe the scenery in his situation. Momaday uses the words “grass belts,” “river,” to pinpoint what the Rainy Mountain has. The Rainy Mountain has all the necessities for citizens to survive in this ecosystem. There are green plants to produce oxygen to have a lasting world with oxygen. The word “river” shows cleanliness and purity because in the Native American culture, water exemplifies life and purity..

The lack of rain in this piece of literature symbolizes the bitter karma the murderer had coming their way, which ultimately punished the entire town and it’s residents. Parallel to this idea, the victim’s girlfriend, Kate, is left viewing the dried up lake as a sense of hopelessness leaving her with constant thoughts of wanting

“When I saw her I was in love with her. Everything turned over inside of me.” (Hemingway 91).This lead to Catherine becoming the only thing he cared about and she soon became the light of his life. He felt as if he could not live without her. Both of them want to be married but knew that the army would just split them apart and it would defeat the purpose of getting married.

Weather is used as a symbol in this story with mixtures of emotions especially pertaining to death. People often try to paint a better and braver picture about the men at war, but Ernest Hemingway uses Henry’s character to tell the naked truth about the emotions that war can create. It is also stated in Caine’s article that the plot is connected

These hills make a girl remember all those unwanted things that can happen on hills. Hills are also the place where the girl sees the white elephants that make her realize her guilt (Loveboat 1-2). These hills are the first symbolic piece of scenery a reader notices while reading this short story. In addition, train station is the second symbol used by Hemingway. In the course of the reading, reader realizes that the train station is a junction between Barcelona and Madrid, which makes him think that it runs in both directions; backwards and forward (Loveboat 2).

The novel A Farewell to Arms takes place in Italy during World War 1. The protagonist, Frederic Henry, is an American volunteer ambulance driver for the Italian Army. Henry meets and eventually falls in love with Catherine Barkley, a tall, blonde haired British nurse, who he meets through Rinaldi, Henry’s roommate and bestfriend. Henry gets injured in the knee during an artillery bombardment, he is sent to a hospital in Milan for an operation and Catherine is transferred to the same hospital. Once Henry’s knee is healed and before he returns to the front Catherine reveals that she is pregnant.

The rain appears whenever complications arise in the novel. First, it appears in the war as a “permanent rain and with the rain came the cholera” (FTA, 4). When Henry promises to love Catherine, she says she is “afraid of the rain because sometimes I see me dead in it” (FTA,126). When he left her to go to war, he said goodbye and “stepped out into the rain” (FTA, 157). Finally, Henry said goodbye to a dead Catherine and “walked back to the hotel in the rain” (FTA, 332). Every time tragedy comes to Henry, it begins to rain. The rain is a constant symbol of the failure that awaits Henry. Malcom Cowley, contributor to Twentieth Century Interpretations of A Farewell to Arms, explains, “The rain becomes a conscious symbol of disaster.” Henry is always facing uncertainty with his love, which is a central part to Hemingway’s literature. Wilson even states, “The uncertainty, nevertheless, almost become a constant, the horror almost taken for granted.” Henry is always uncertain about if he made the right decision. Even in Switzerland, Henry knows “that they were still fighting” (FTA, 291). The complications and hopelessness of life always lurk in the back, constantly coming to him in the rain. The rain gives Henry the remainder that his meaning will not prevent tragedy, furthering the nihilistic belief that meaning serves no

Hemingway highlights the hollowness of the relationship between Catherine and Frederic. Catherine is now pregnant with Frederic’s child yet there is no true plans for the future as a family. There is an awkwardness between them at the hotel. Catherine states she feels like a whore with the stay. Yet, is it really the stay or is it the condition that she finds herself in that makes her feel this way. Two things stick out about their relationship. The first is when Catherine tells Fredric that she is pregnant, in a by the way fashion, she comes out with the truth that she has never loved anyone. It is not overt but muddled in one of her rambles. She has gotten trapped by her own game. It is telling that Fredric does not question this and simply accepts it. The second is that in the final chapters they were speaking of each other’s

Frederic's education is enhanced by his relationship with the English nurse, Catherine Barkley, as well. Originally, Catherine is nothing more than an object of sensual desire, but as the novel progresses, Catherine becomes symbolic of Frederic's final resolution. At first Frederic views Catherine as a replacement for the boring prostitutes that he is accustomed to visiting. He takes advantage of her situation; Catherine's fiancé has been killed in the war.