Love is impossible to explain or fully understand; it is enfable and war is merely an outcome of disputes between ignorant aristocrats. A Farewell to Arms,by Ernest Hemingway, is a novel about love and war. The narrator, FredrickHenry is a war-time ambulance driver, and Catherine Barkley is an English nurse,who find themselves in a love affair which must maneuver itself around therestrictions of World War I. The novel begins in Gorizia, Italy the center of operations for Fredrickstroop, World War I. Fredrick is an American volunteer and in the AmbulanceCorps for the Italian Army. He meets a English nurse Catherine namedBarkley and does not truly fall in love with her until he gets badly wounded and isput in a hospital. They begin to have alove affair and Catherine becomesimpregnated. With a baby on the way Fredrick feels a real sense of responsibilitytowards Catherine. When he finaly recovers from from his lengthy stay in thehospital he returns to front. When the two part it is very rainy, cloudy, andgloomy. Hemingway makes good use of weather in pursuit of verisimilitude. There is so much violence and death in the war Fredrick no longer wants to bea apart of it and deserts the army to return to Catherine. When they reunite therain stops and there is light. They then escape to Switzerland by boat and begin tolive happily. When Catherine goes into labor there is complications. The babydies and later Catherine dies from hemorrhaging.What is love? Love is difficult to explain but, it involves a deep affectionfor a person or thing. At the beginning of the novel, lieutenant Frederick Henrylacks a sense of value and order in his life. He chooses to intoxicate himself andmake visits to prostitutes frequently. During this time of intense stress andpressure this lifestyle is common amongst his fellow comrades. It provides themwith an escape from a hostile and undesirable reality of war. Lieutenant Rinaldi ,Fredricks enthusi...
