A Farewell to Arms

Description

A Farewell to Arms
Setting
The novel is set against the background of World War I, mainly in Italy and Switzerland.
Plot
It is a novel of romance between Frederic Henry, an American ambulance driver, and Catherine Barkley, an English nurse. They met accidentally in Gorizia, Italy, and began a whirlwind romance.
As the war heats up, Frederic sustains an injury and is hospitalized in Milan; then Catherine joins him there. Again, they spend a blissful time together before war’s fever chases them apart.
Catherine had been pregnant, and so the two of them reunited in Lausanne, Switzerland. Now, tragedy grips when Catherine died in childbirth as Frederic was riveted at such sight.
Themes
Through this novel Hemingway developed themes of:
Love and loss
The effects of war on humankind
Identity and disillusionment
Mortality and human existence
Characters
Frederic Henry: The narrator, an American ambulance driver.
Catherine Barkley: The love interest, an English nurse.
Rinaldi: A friend and fellow ambulance driver of Frederic’s.
Miss Gage: A nurse working alongside Catherine.
Style
A Farewell to Arms uses simple, direct, and concise language.
The iceberg theory: much of the story meaning is implicit, lying beneath the surface.
Autobiographical elements: Hemingway drew from his own experiences as an ambulance driver in World War I
Overall, A Farewell to Arms is a classic novel that explores the human cost of war and the devastating power of love and loss.