Farewell to Arms

Ernest Hemingway was indelibly impacted by his experiences both with war and romantic love, which is why love and war feature together prominently in novels like A Farewell to Arms. The double meaning of the title of this novel refers to the protagonist Lieutenant Henry's saying goodbye both to the arms of war and also to the arms of his love. In Henry's experience, both war and love are linked to death. War and love make strange bedfellows, but each does bring out a mixture of hope and devastation. The confluence of love and war remains the prevailing theme in A Farewell to Arms. This theme creates opportunities for the main characters to grow and change, or to stagnate and die. In the case of Lieutenant Frederic Henry, war and death cause him to grow and change even though in the end he is left feeling bitter...
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