Hemingway's "Farewell to Arms"

Paper Summary:

This paper explains that "A Farewell to Arms", a novel of war and love, consists of two parts. The part before his surgery and convalescence at Milan, including Frederic Henry's wounding, and the part after he returns to the front. The author points out that Hemingway uses rain as a good or bad portent in almost every part of the novel, and it serves as a metaphor on numerous occasions. The paper relates that Hemingway was an alcoholic, and alcoholism plays an important role in "Farewell to Arms", thus showing a slice of Ernest Hemingway's life.

From the Paper:

"Catherine Barkley, in the novel, has many suitors, including a Dr. Rinaldi, a physician assigned to Henry's ambulance corps. Rinaldi, recognizing the extent of Henry's feelings, backs away from his pursuit of Nurse Barkley. This way, Hemingway felt that he had complete ascendancy over Catherine's very being. The love affair between Catherine and Frederic is not of mutual give and take. Catherine is completely giving of her body mind and soul. Frederic does not reciprocate any of this; indeed, he is constantly demanding. When he wrote the novel, Hemingway was older. He was married and divorced to his first wife Hadley. His real life wife, Pauline, was pregnant with his child and had a difficult cesarean birth around the time the novel was completed--almost a decade after World War I ended. This was the difficulty of childbirth that Hemingway forced upon the character of Hemingway attributed to his characters his feelings of that time. Catherine also combined the characteristics of both Hadley and Pauline."

More papers on Hemingway's "Farewell to Arms":

• Analytical Essay # 141424 : "A Farewell To Arms"
• Analytical Essay # 142239 : "A Farewell To Arms": A Review of Criticism"
• Analytical Essay # 32824 : " "A Farewell to Arms"
• Analytical Essay # 1380 : "Ernest Hemingway's "A Farewell to Arms"

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