Symbolism in a Farewell to Arms

In the novel "A Farewell to Arms", Author Ernest Hemingway uses many different symbols. One of the most used symbols is nature, and most importantly rain.

From the beginning up until the very end, rain serves as a powerful symbol of death and all the accompanying emotions of grief, pain and despair. As the rain pours down on a beautiful day, it turns all that is joyful or hopeful into desolation. This is seen on the very first page, where there is rapid progression of the seasons from summer into autumn. Summer is identified with dryness and a plain "rich with crops" (Page 7). This is immediately contrasted with autumn, where "the branches were bare and the trunks black with rain" (Page 7). This miniature transition of seasons foreshadows the larger transitions to come later on in the novel.

From the very first chapter, rain clearly symbolizes death. (Page 7) "In the fall when the rains came, the leaves all fell from the chestnut trees and the branches were bare and the trunks black with rain," Henry tells us. "The vineyards were thin and bare-branched too and all the country wet and brown and dead with autumn."

The first part of the novel takes place in relative dryness of season... up until when Catherine informs Henry that she is going to have a baby. As soon as she tells him the news, it starts raining, ending the dry part of the novel: (Page 104): "It turned cold that night and the next day it was raining". Therefore, we can see that the novel is separated into two segments, just as the first chapter is separated in summer and fall.

The first half of the novel is dry and sterile, while the second half is wet and sickly. The dry part is the world of success, where Henry falls in love with Catherine and the army wins some battles. The wet, 2nd half of the novel is the exact opposite: the army loses and is forced to retreat, and Henry loses Catherine.

This separation of the seasons helps to set up the transition in the plot from good to bad. "Good" is represented by the dry season, "bad" by the wet season. The first page of the novel describes the bed of the river as being "dry and white" (Page 7), an image that changes drastically by the end, where the river has turned into a raging torrent.

Hemmingway also uses rain to understate the obvious, or replace emotions. For instance, when Catherine dies, there is no emotional outpouring. Instead, the novel just ends with the word "rain" as the only hint of the emotional stress that Henry is experiencing. This kind of understatement is even introduced at the beginning of the novel:

On Page 8, it says: "At the start of the winter came the permanent rain and with the rain came the cholera. But it was checked and in the end only seven thousand died of it in the army."

In this passage, rain and death are linked for the first time, yet there is no emotional content connected to the fact that seven thousand men have died. This understatement, we come to see, is a key feature of the novel and will be used every time a death occurs.

For instance, when Aymo, the driver, dies after being shot, Henry informs the reader that, "He looked very dead. It was raining." Those two lines embody the full extent of the emotion that Henry shows.

Throughout the novel, we see that Hemmingway uses rain to replace death or emotions. This allows him to foreshadow many of the events to come.

On Page 138, before getting killed, Aymo states: "We drink barbera now. Tomorrow maybe we drink rainwater" (138).

Another example is Catherine's death, which is foreshadowed in a similar manner: (On Page 93), she is terrified of the rain and states that she sometimes sees herself dead in the rain. Henry comforts her and stops her crying. However, Hemingway shows that this is a false comfort; in one of the very infrequent uses of the word "but", the chapter ends with the sentence, "But outside it kept on raining" (93). Here we are assured that the rain foreshadows Catherine's upcoming death. On Henry's last night with Catherine, they are on their way to the hotel near the train station. The fog that has covered the city from the beginning of the chapter turns to rain, meaning Catherine's death is near.

It rains almost continuously throughout chapter 27, when the Italians begin their retreat from Caporetto. Then, the rain turns to snow one evening, holding out hope that the offensive will cease, but the snow quickly melts and the rain resumes, and so does the killing.

It is raining while Henry rides the train to Stresa as a fugitive. It is raining when he arrives, and raining while Henry and Catherine spend the night together in his hotel room. Their boat trip across Lake Maggiore takes place in the rain, with an umbrella used as a sail. Ironically, the umbrella breaks, also possibly foreshadowing one of their deaths.

Hemingway by this time has developed the rain symbolism to such a degree that the reader sort of gets a sense of premonition.

Finally, when Henry leaves the hospital for lunch during Catherine's delivery, (Page 226) "The day was cloudy but the sun was trying to come through"-a literal ray of hope. During the operation, however, he looks out the window and sees that it is raining. Just after the nurse has told him that the baby is dead, Henry looks outside again and "could see nothing but the dark and the rain falling across the light from the window." Catherine infact dies of a hemorrhage from the Casearean. The baby also dies during the operation. On the last page of the novel, (Page 236), Henry leaves the hospital and walks back to his hotel in the rain. This symbolic phrase represents the death of the only person he has ever loved and also the sadness that Frederic is feeling. It is raining all the way from the first chapter of this novel to the last word, which is evidence of the weather's importance in the story overall.

Hemingway doesn't quite trust us to detect the rain/snow pattern of symbolism and understand its meaning; therefore he underlines the significance of precipitation in his book by having Catherine tell Henry that she sees them dead in the rain. And so the weather symbolism in A Farewell to Arms is perhaps unnecessarily obvious. Yet Hemingway's use of this literary device is hardly rote symbolism for its own sake. Rain and snow both drive his plot and maintain our interest, as we hold our breaths every time it rains in the novel, praying that Catherine will not perish during that scene. (We know that Henry will survive the rain, because he is the story's narrator.) Thus, while writing a brutally realistic saga of life during wartime, Ernest Hemingway also crafted a novel as literary as the great-war stories that preceded A Farewell to Arms. Arguably it is as powerful as any story ever told.

Death is both brought by rain and can be considered similar to it. Catherine is the first person to make this analogy explicit when she tells Henry that she is afraid of the rain. I am afraid of the rain because sometimes I see me dead in it (126). Although Henry dismisses her words at the time, they continue to haunt the novel up until she dies.

Hemmingway uses rain as a symbol for both happiness and destruction.Whatever momentary happiness Chaterine and Henry enjoy is quickly invaded by a rainstorm.

One of the main forms of symbolism in this novel is nature. Dryness and abundance are identified by summer. Summer is contrasted by autumn with wetness and bareness. The first part of the story takes place in dryness up until Catherine tells Henry that she is pregnant. Once she tells him her news, the rain comes, ending the dry part of the novel: "It turned cold that night and the next day it was raining" (142)......

From beginning to end, Ernest Hemingway floods his novel A Farewell to Arms with rain and other images of water, using them not only to set the scene but as symbols for both destruction and happiness. The rain seems to always be the messenger of grim news, the omen of destruction and death. Whatever momentary happiness Catherine and Henry are able to grasp is invaded by a rainstorm. However, Hemingway uses other images of water, such as rivers and lakes, to actually indicate joy and life. In this novel, Hemingway offers water to be both a symbol of death and ruin and a bearer of life and happiness, as this whole novel is the fight between love and war.

In the novel, rain serves as a powerful symbol of the inevitable disintegration of any type of pleasure or love in life. Just as rain floods a beautiful day and darkens a blue sky, it turns all that is joyful and even hopeful into a muddy misery. It is the emblem of sterility, the mark of a barren life doomed for destruction. Catherine instills the dismal weather with meaning while she and Henry are lying in bed listening to the storm outside. Catherine admits to Henry, as the rain is falling on the roof, that she has a fear o

Rain: symbolizes death because every time rain is mentioned it is followed by death. In the beginning, the author states that when rain comes so does cholera, a deadly disease that kills.

In addition, when it was checked in the army only seven thousand died from it in Italian army. This symbolization is awkward because rain usually symbolizes life because water supports life. Rain is used as a symbol for death repeatedly. In the first chapter, Frederic says that in the spring came the permanent rain, and with the rain came the cholera. It is raining when Catherine dies, I believe it is raining when Frederic is wounded, and Hemingway uses it as a way of showing how death is "permanent" and ultimately, unavoidable.

Shift of seasons: shift in novel... from dry to rain, good to death

The structure of the novel occurs largely through natural symbolism, i.e. symbols drawn from nature. This is set up in the first chapter, which shows the rapid progression of the seasons from summer into autumn. Summer is identified with dryness and abundance, a plain "rich with crops" (3). This is immediately contrasted with autumn, where "the branches were bare and the trunks black with rain" (4). This miniature transition of the seasons relates to the larger transitions in the novel as a whole. For example, the first part of the novel takes place in relative dryness up until when Catherine informs Henry that she is going to have a baby. No sooner has she told him this news than the rains start, ending the dry part of the novel: "It turned cold that night and the next day it was raining" (142). Thus the novel is separated into two segments in the same manner that the first chapter is separated into summer and fall.

This separation of the seasons helps to set up the transition in the plot from good to bad. "Good" is represented by the dry season, "bad" by the wet season. Thus, the opening scenes describe the bed of the river as being "dry and white" (3), an image that changes drastically by the end, where the river has turned into a raging torrent. This contrast is explicated by the events that occur on hard versus soft surfaces. For instance, the first military operation (in which Henry is wounded) is fast paced, with the wounded are rushed away in trucks, and everything is described as being hard, including the road and operating table. This contrasts with the second military operation, a defeat, that takes place on wet roads, with vehicles stuck in the mud, and where rivers have to be crossed instead of river beds. Thus the world of the first half of the novel is a dry, sterile version of the wet and sickly world that follows it. Within this world, the dry part is the world of success; Henry wins Catherine and the army wins some battles. The wet world is the exact opposite: the army loses and is forced to retreat and Henry loses Catherine.

The natural world thereby provides the setting within which Henry's personal and military experiences can take place. Natural changes from dryness to wetness are paralleled in the plot by both Catherine's pregnancy and the corrupt horse races. These scenes are juxtaposed onto each other through their side-by-side placement. They define the transition from love to "marriage" and advancement to retreat, respectively. Thus, after Catherine announces that she is pregnant, she and Henry consider themselves "married," thereby catapulting their relationship from casual to serious. Similarly, the war with Austria goes well for the Italians until Henry describes the corruption of the horse races, a corruption that permeates every level of the Italian army and political machine. After the horse races, the Italian army no longer is able to win battles; instead, the war turns into a retreat and becomes far more serious and deadly.

This structure is complemented by natural symbols that substitute for emotions or feelings. The most important of these symbols is that of rain. Rain represents death and all the accompanying emotions of grief, pain, and despair. Death is both brought by rain and can be considered analogous to it. Catherine is the first person to make this analogy explicit when she tells Henry that she is afraid of the rain. "I am afraid of the rain because sometimes I see me dead in it" (126). Although Henry dismisses her words at the time, they continue to haunt the novel up until she dies. Indeed, immediately after Henry visits her dead body in the hospital, the novel ends with the passage: "I...walked back to the hotel in the rain" (332). The novel thus ends with rain being used as a substitute for Catherine's death.

Rain is also symbolically used by Hemingway to understate the obvious. For instance, when Catherine dies, there is no emotional outpouring. Instead, the novel ends with the word "rain" as the only hint of the emotional stress that Henry is experiencing. This form of understatement is ironically introduced right at the beginning of the novel:

At the start of the winter came the permanent rain and with the rain came the cholera. But it was checked and in the end only seven thousand died of it in the army. (4)

In this passage, rain and death are linked for the first time, yet there is no emotional content connected to the fact that seven thousand men have died. This understatement is a key feature of the novel and will be used every time a death occurs. For instance, when Aymo dies after being shot, Henry informs the reader that, "He looked very dead. It was raining." Those two lines embody the full extent of the emotion that Henry shows.

This form of understatement, where a symbol substitutes for emotions, allows Hemingway to omit key facts. A good example of omission occurs right after Henry has been wounded. He is placed in an ambulance and driven to the hospital while the man above him bleeds to death. "The drops fell very slowly, as they fall from an icicle after the sun has gone" (61). This simple description omits all the pain and suffering and replaces them with the image of "drops" from an icicle.

Using symbols to replace death or emotions allows foreshadowing. Rain, for example, is frequently used to foreshadow death. Before getting killed, Aymo states, "We drink [barbera] now. To-morrow maybe we drink rainwater" (191). Catherine's death is foreshadowed in similar manner: she is terrified of the rain and states that she sometimes sees herself dead in the rain (126). Henry comforts her and stops her crying. However, Hemingway shows that this is a false comfort; in one of the very infrequent uses of the word "but", the chapter ends with the sentence, "But outside it kept on raining" (126). Thus symbols are used to foreshadow the things they substitute for.

Quote 37: "It's all nonsense. It's only nonsense. I'm not afraid of the rain. I am not afraid of the rain. Oh, oh, God, I wish I wasn't." Chapter 19, pg. 126

Quote 70: "I sat down on the chair in front of a table where there were nurses' reports hung on clips at the side and looked out of the window. I could see nothing but the dark and the rain falling across the light from the windows. So that was it. The baby was dead." Chapter 41, pg. 327

Quote 71: "It seems she had one hemorrhage after another. They couldn't stop it. I went into the room and stayed with Catherine until she died. She was unconscious all the time, and it did not take her very long to die." Chapter 41, pg. 331

Quote 72: "But after I got them to leave and shut the door and turned off the light it wasn't any good. It was like saying good-by to a statue. After a while I went out and left the hospital and walked back to the hotel in the rain." Chapter 41, pg. 332

10. The final paragraph of the story which relates the moments after Frederic has ordered the nurses to leave and sequestered himself in the room with Catherine's corpse: "But after I had got them out and shut the door and turned off the light it wasn't any good. It was like saying good-by to a statue. After awhile I went out and left the hospital and walked back to the hotel in the rain." (332)

INTRO:

Rain represents death and all the accompanying emotions of grief, pain, and despair. Death is both brought by rain and can be considered similar to it. Catherine is the first person to make this analogy explicit when she tells Henry that she is afraid of the rain. I am afraid of the rain because sometimes I see me dead in it (126). Although Henry dismisses her words at the time, they continue to haunt the novel up until she dies. Indeed, immediately after Henry visits her dead body in the hospital, the novel ends with the passage: I...walked back to the hotel in the rain (332). The novel thus ends with rain being used as a substitute for Catherine's death. Using symbols to replace death or emotions allows foreshadowing. Rain, for example, is frequently used to foreshadow death. Before getting killed, Aymo states, We drink barbera now. "Tomorrow maybe we drink rainwater (191).

Author Ernest Hemingway uses many different symbols in his novel A Farewell to Arms. One of the most used symbols is nature. Nature varies from the different seasons to weather.

He uses symbols to replace any form of feeling or affection. He uses different physical features of the characters in the novel as symbolism. Symbols shape this novel in a big way.

One of the main forms of symbolism in this novel is nature. Dryness and abundance are identified by summer. Summer is contrasted by autumn with wetness and bareness. The first part of the story takes place in dryness up until Catherine tells Henry that she is pregnant. Once she tells him her news, the rain comes, ending the dry part of the novel: "It turned cold that night and the next day it was raining" (142)......

Rain: symbolizes death because every time rain is mentioned it is followed by death. In the beginning, the author states that when rain comes so does cholera, a deadly disease that kills.

In addition, when it was checked in the army only seven thousand died from it in Italian army. This symbolization is awkward because rain usually symbolizes life because water supports life. Rain is used as a symbol for death repeatedly. In the first chapter, Frederic says that in the spring came the permanent rain, and with the rain came the cholera. It is raining when Catherine dies, I believe it is raining when Frederic is wounded, and Hemingway uses it as a way of showing how death is "permanent" and ultimately, unavoidable.

The Rain

The rain is a metaphor for death in the story. Toward the end of Catherine and Frederic's idyll in Milan, she tells him that she has always been afraid of the rain because she can imagine herself or him lying dead in it. He replies that he has always liked the rain and through this comment we understand that though he has suffered a combat injury and seen men die, he has not been touched by fears of mortality. Catherine on the other hand has been deeply affected by her fiancé's death. For her, death is a more immediate and palpable and the rain serves to remind her of her mortality and the mortality of those she loves. Thus the rain falls when death is most tangible, such as when they part at the train or when Frederic narrowly escapes being shot by diving into the river. Most significantly, when Frederic leaves the hospital after Catherine has died, we are told that he walks back to the hotel in the rain. He is familiar with the emotional ramifications of death and its ability, like the rain, to fall upon anyone at anytime.

"Destruction and Happiness through Rain and Water"

From beginning to end, Ernest Hemingway floods his novel A Farewell to Arms with rain and other images of water, using them not only to set the scene but as symbols for both destruction and happiness. The rain seems to always be the messenger of grim news, the omen of destruction and death. Whatever momentary happiness Catherine and Henry are able to grasp is invaded by a rainstorm. However, Hemingway uses other images of water, such as rivers and lakes, to actually indicate joy and life. In this novel, Hemingway offers water to be both a symbol of death and ruin and a bearer of life and happiness, as this whole novel is the fight between love and war.

In the novel, rain serves as a powerful symbol of the inevitable disintegration of any type of pleasure or love in life. Just as rain floods a beautiful day and darkens a blue sky, it turns all that is joyful and even hopeful into a muddy misery. It is the emblem of sterility, the mark of a barren life doomed for destruction. Catherine instills the dismal weather with meaning while she and Henry are lying in bed listening to the storm outside. Catherine admits to Henry, as the rain is falling on the roof, that she has a fear o

In A Farewell to Arms, Ernest Hemingway attempts to tell the unvarnished truth about war-to present an honest, rather than a heroic, account of combat, retreat, and the ways in which soldiers fill their time when they are not fighting. Yet Hemingway's realistic approach to his subject does not rule out the use of many time-honored literary devices.

For instance, weather is to this day a fundamental component of the war experience. Hemingway depicts weather realistically in A Farewell to Arms, but he uses it for symbolic purposes as well. Rain, often equated with life and growth, stands for death in this novel, and snow symbolizes hope: an entirely original schema.

Rain

Starting in the very first chapter of A Farewell to Arms, rain clearly symbolizes death: "In the fall when the rains came the leaves all fell from the chestnut trees and the branches were bare and the trunks black with rain," Henry tells us. "The vineyards were thin and bare-branched too and all the country wet and brown and dead with autumn." The rain symbolism is not entirely a literary conceit, either, as rain actually precedes an outbreak of fatal illness, the cholera that kills seven thousand that fall.

Later, during their Milan idyll, Catherine makes the symbolism of the rain explicit for Henry-and for the reader: "I'm afraid of the rain because sometimes I see myself dead in it," she says to him. "And sometimes I see you dead in it." Lo and behold, during Henry and Catherine's trip from the armorer's to the hotel near the train station on his last night with her, the fog that has covered the city from the start of the chapter turns to rain. It continues to rain as they bid one another farewell; in fact, Catherine's last act in this part of the novel is to signal to Henry that he should step in out of the rain. Back at the front, "the trees were all bare and the roads were muddy."

It rains almost continuously during the chapter when the tide of battle turns and the Italians begin their retreat from Caporetto-and from the Germans who have joined the fighting. The rain turns to snow one evening, holding out hope that the offensive will cease, but the snow quickly melts and the rain resumes. During a discussion among the drivers about the wine they are drinking with dinner, the driver named Aymo says, "To-morrow maybe we drink rainwater." Hemingway by this time has developed the rain symbolism to such a degree that the reader experiences a genuine sense of foreboding-and indeed, the following day will bring death to Henry's disintegrating unit.

It is raining while the fugitive Henry rides the train to Stresa, raining when he arrives, and raining while Henry and Catherine spend the night together in his hotel room. The open-boat trip across Lake Maggiore takes place in the rain, with an umbrella used as a sail. (Ominously, the umbrella breaks.) And in Chapter XL, as Henry and Catherine are bidding farewell to their wintertime mountain retreat for the city in which Catherine's baby is to be born, Henry tells us that "In the night it started raining."

Finally, when Henry leaves the hospital for lunch during Catherine's protracted, agonizing delivery, "The day was cloudy but the sun was trying to come through"-a literal ray of hope. During the operation, however, he looks out the window and sees that it is raining. Just after the nurse has told him that the baby is dead, Henry looks outside again and "could see nothing but the dark and the rain falling across the light from the window." At the novel's end, Henry leaves the hospital and walks back to his hotel in the rain. In fact, the final word in A Farewell to Arms is "rain," evidence of weather's important place in the story overall.

Hemingway doesn't quite trust us to detect the rain/snow pattern of symbolism and understand its meaning; therefore he underlines the significance of precipitation in his book by having Catherine tell Henry that she sees them dead in the rain. And so the weather symbolism in A Farewell to Arms is perhaps unnecessarily obvious. Yet Hemingway's use of this literary device is hardly rote symbolism for its own sake. Rain and snow both drive his plot and maintain our interest, as we hold our breaths every time it rains in the novel, praying that Catherine will not perish during that scene. (We know that Henry will survive the rain, because he is the story's narrator.) Thus, while writing a brutally realistic saga of life during wartime, Ernest Hemingway also crafted a novel as literary as the great-war stories that preceded A Farewell to Arms. Arguably it is as powerful as any story ever told.

A Farewell to Arms

Summary: Rain, the seasons, and the mountains are symbols in the novel, A Farewell to Arms, that kept reappearing. Rain is symbolic of terrible events and death. In the novel it is raining when ever something bad has happened. It also makes bad things happen such as the cholera at the start of the novel as well as the cars getting stuck in the mud during the retreat. After talking to Ettore Moretti, Frederic has a discussion with Catherine about rain.

Rain, the seasons, and the mountains are symbols in the novel, A Farewell to Arms, that kept reappearing. Rain is symbolic of terrible events and death. In the novel it is raining when ever something bad has happened. It also makes bad things happen such as the cholera at the start of the novel as well as the cars getting stuck in the mud during the retreat. After talking to Ettore Moretti, Frederic has a discussion with Catherine about rain. She says, "I am afraid of the rain because sometimes I see me dead in it. . . and sometimes I see you dead in it" (126; XIX). This foreshadows the death of either Frederic or Catherine. On the night that Frederic left Catherine to go to the front, it is raining. There is a great deal of rain at the front where everything was going badly. It rained during the retreat. During the train ride to Stresa, where Frederic meets up with Catherine, it is raining. This rain is symbolizing his desertion. It is also raining during the boat trip from Italy to Switzerland. This rain shows that they are scared that they will not make it to the Switzerland part of the river before dawn. If they do not, Frederic will be killed for deserting the army. At the end of the novel, Catherine dies of a hemorrhage from the Caesarean. The baby also dies during the operation. After their deaths Frederic says, "After a while I went out and left the hospital and walked back to the hotel in the rain" (332; XLI). This symbolic phrase represents the death of the only person he has ever loved and also the sadness that Frederic is feeling. It is raining all the way from the first chapter of this novel to the last word. Another symbolic element that is represented throughout the entire book are the seasons.

The seasons also are very symbolic in this novel. Spring is the birth or the rebirth. Summer is the highlight of life and the happiest times of life. Fall is the depression and everything starts going wrong. Winter is the season of death, dismay, and sadness. Catherine and Frederic are reunited after his injury during the spring. During the summer, they get to spend a great deal of time with each other and this is also when she gets pregnant. Hemingway writes, "We had a fine time that summer," (112; XVIII) and he also writes, "The summer went on that way. I do not remember much about the days, except that they were hot and that there were many victories in the papers" (117; XIX). When he says the summer went on that way, he is talking about the great times that they had together. That fall, Frederic had to go back to the front. This is showing how the good times are ending. The retreat took place during the winter. When Frederick meets up with Catherine in Stresa again, it is the beginning of spring. They also made there escape to Switzerland during this time. Summer is again nice and wonderful because they are together, and they are free. That winter, Catherine has the baby and she dies from a hemorrhage from the caesarean.

The mountains are also a symbolic element of this novel. The mountains represent peace and purity. Snow symbolizes safety in this novel. The height of the mountains provide this peace because they are protected. In the mountains they are above it all and removed from the cares below. Snow is also symbolic in the novel. The mountains and snow are tied together because there is snow on the mountains. Snow symbolizes purity in the novel because it is clean and untouched from the horrors of war. The priest talks about his home land being beautiful and a great place and tells Frederic to go there. He says, "I had gone no place where the roads were frozen and hard as iron, where it was clear cold and dry and the snow was dry and powdery and hare-tracks in the snow" (13; III). This talks about the Abruzzi, which is an area in the mountains that is not affected by the war and also a beautiful place. Switzerland is full of mountains and snow. When they go there later in the novel, they make an excuse that they came for winter sport. Frederic says, "For the winter sport. We are tourists and we want to do the winter sport" (280; XXXVII). This enabled them to go to a mountain in a very empty area. They got the entire area to themselves and they feel better when they are alone. The plains are the opposite of the mountains in that they are dangerous and scary. The plains are dangerous and scary because the retreat is taking place here. The Germans are also invading and the war is at its peak in the plains area. Therefore the mountains are above the fray of war, providing them safety, peace, relaxation, and a way to release their fears about the war.

Catherine is the main code hero in the novel but the priest exemplifies a code hero, too. A code hero is one that faces experience with grace, courage, and dignity. They also accept the worst in life. Catherine is an example of this in every way. She takes all the blame for any misfortune that happens to Frederic or herself.

When they are in Switzerland they are discussing marriage and she says, "I like the ride. Don't worry about me, darling. I feel fine" (296, XXXVIII). She makes Frederic stop worrying about her and the baby by telling him she has it under control. She has no religion; she believes in love. At the end when she is dying of a hemorrhage she tells Frederic, "Just you. I'm not afraid. I just hate it" (330, XLI). She does not want Frederic to get a priest she just wants to be with him. When she says that she is not scared, she is demonstrating the code hero in her. The priest is similar to Catherine is some ways.

The priest relies on God and religion to get him through the hardest times of the war. The priest accepts the hard times that the world is going through and he prays that they will be over soon. He understands the hardships of life and knows how to get through them. His mood goes along with the mood of the war. When Frederic returns to the front, he has a talk with the priest about the war. The priest says, "I believe and I pray that something will happen. I have felt it very close" (179, XXVI). He is saying that he wants this war to be over and he has felt that it is ending. The priest also makes the best out of every situation especially even if it is the hardest times of his life. He accepts the fact that they have happened and keeps on going. Even though everyone makes fun of him for being so young and naive, he makes the best out of it. The war really shapes this young man into a firm priest that loves God, and nothing can separate the two. Heminway writes, "He is surer of himself now than when I had gone away" (178, XXVI). This shows how the war has developed him into this code hero.

Frederic is the true hero of this novel. A true hero in Hemingway's mind is a sensitive and possibly even insane man who suffers from nightmares, but focuses on the concrete and sensory things in life. Frederic focuses on the concrete and sensory things in life when he goes on leave at the beginning of the book. The only things he does are get drunk and go to the whorehouse. Hemingway writes, "I had gone to no such place but to the smoke of cafes and nights when the room whirled and you needed to look at the wall to make it stop, nights in bed, drunk, when you knew that that was all there was, and the strange excitement of waking and not knowing who it was with you. . ." (13, III). He has no purpose in life yet because he has not met Catherine. The only thing he has ever loved is Catherine. After she dies at the end of the novel, he will probably never love again. Frederic talks about waking up in the middle of the night a great deal and he talks about trying to stay out of dreams. When Frederic is talking with Count Greffi, they discuss many things that are related to the true hero. Frederic has admitted that he is agnostic. The only times that he believes in God are when he is scared and doesn't know what to do. During the conversation they say, "Count Greffi says, 'Perhaps I have outlived my religious feeling.' Frederic responds, 'My own comes only at night'" (263, XXXV). This is representing his need for God because he is scared from his nightmare. In Switzerland he would wake up in the middle of the night. He says, "We slept well and if I woke in the night I knew it was from only one cause and I would shift the feather bed over. . ." (291, XXXVIII). This describes how he still felt paranoid about deserting the army, and he was still having nightmares from the war.

Frederic and Catherine believe their relationship is perfect because they so deeply love each other. They see themselves united as one and it is them against the world. They only feel comfortable when they are alone together. At the horse races in Milan, they had to leave the others because they could not stand so many people. Catherine says, "I felt very lonely when they were all there" (132; XX). Catherine calls this feeling loneliness because other people get in the way and break down their unity. Since they are so close that they are one against the world she feels threatened and alone when others are around. To protect herself and their oneness, Catherine does anything that Frederic wants. She wants to be him so they are completely one and no one can separate them. She wants to cut her hair to look like him. She says, "No, let it grow a little longer and I could cut mine and we'd be just alike only one of us blonde and one of us dark" (299; XXXVIII). She also says, "It might be nice short. Then we'd both be alike. Oh darling, I want you so much I want to be you too." and Frederic says, "You are. We're the same one" (299; XXXVIII). These quotes further explain how much they want to be one and how much they love each other. Catherine says that she wants him and she wants to be like him countless times in the novel. She may say it more often, but it is true for Frederic too. They are entirely engrossed in each other. They complete each other. Alone they are lacking, so Catherine's death shatters Frederic. Frederic looses everything because the only thing he truly cared for was her. This would be the same if Frederic was the one to die and Catherine lived. They honestly cannot live without each other.