Ernest Hemingway’s
A Farewell to Arms


Hemingway’s A Farewell to Arms is mainly a love story set in Italy during the first World War. Each of the characters in the novel each has a distinct personality and attitude, yet they all have one thing in common; they all hate the war. The main character, Fred Henry, is good at containing his emotions. He responds indifferently to death, even to the death of friends and comrades. He shrugs off religion, or joins in to make fun of it. Obviously, Henry is not a religious person, and when he turns to God to save his lover, Catherine, his prayers are once again unanswered. The death of his “wife” and child only contribute to his walking away from a seemingly pointless religion. He leaves the hospital numbly while the rain “cries” down upon him.