Ernest Hemingway s `` A Farewell Of Arms `` War And Its...

Ernest Hemingway’s story, A Farewell to Arms, is a story of war and its effects on individuals and the relationships between them. Hemingway writes about how war may create stronger social bonds while simultaneously degrading societal integrity. Whether it is the social integrity of individual character or the society as a whole, both are degraded within A Farewell to Arms. A theme Hemingway conveys throughout A Farewell to Arms is the uninviting truth of war. The uninviting truth is that war only brings tragedy and death. Hemingway conveys his message by using the symbols of rain, the stars of officer’s, the hair of Catherine and Henry’s beard, and Catherine herself. The symbol of rain is used throughout the novel A Farewell to Arms in†¦show more content†¦Hemingway associates death with rain to show how unstoppable and random death or tragedy is during wartime. Catherine looked healthy, trying to deliver her baby throughout the night, death wasn’t even a thought, just pain. Catherine told Henry to leave and rest to get something to eat he decides to because he did not need to worry about anything, he didn’t think she and their baby would die when he returned. The nights when Henry moves it is raining. For instance, when he was transferred from Milan back to the front lines, the night of retreat for the entire Italian army, and when Henry and Catherine escaped Italy to immigrate to Switzerland by rowing across a lake that is between the two countries, it is raining. Because rain is associated with death, when Hemingway uses the symbol during Henrys’ transitions from different places it signifies that â€Å"no matte r how hard Henry tries to escape death, he can never outrun it.† (Litcharts). Which can be seen by the ending of the novel when Catherine and Henry’s child both die. The symbol of rain is used to show the uninviting truth of war, how brutal and tragic it is and how unpredictable it is. The war may have brought many of the soldiers together but it brought a mass retreat and separation of the troops and the execution of the officers. War destroyed Henry’s life, he no longer lives in his home in Italy and he lost the