Hemingway!
You knew he'd come up sooner rather than later. I just finished my literary analysis on his A Farewell to Arms, and I'm always looking for constructive criticism on my writing, and what better place to get it than here? So here it is, any comments on either style or content would be appreciated:
American writer John Steinbeck once noted, “One can find so many pains when the rain is falling.” Steinbeck’s contemporary, Ernest Hemingway, explored the meanings of this statement in his 1929 novel A Farewell to Arms. At once a brutally honest commentary on war and a moving love story, this book exemplifies Hemingway’s uniquely efficient, journalistic prose style. Despite his innovation, however, Hemingway does not abandon the tried and true literary technique of symbolism. The most prominent, as well as the most important symbol in A Farewell to Arms is the rain, which is present from the first chapter to the very last line, and which serves to add a dark atmosphere and sense of foreboding to any scene in which it appears.
Whereas most authors associate rain with themes such as nourishment and rebirth, Hemingway takes a more macabre outlook, choosing to have it symbolize death. This association is evident from the first chapter, when Hemingway writes “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…and all the country wet and brown and dead with the autumn” (4). Later, in the very same chapter, the connection is stated even more directly: “At the start of the winter came the permanent rain and with the rain came the cholera…and in the end…seven thousand died of it in the army” (Hemingway 4).
Much later in the book, the symbolic relationship between rain and death is expressly stated by Catherine Barkley when she says, “I’m afraid of the rain because sometimes I see me dead in it” (Hemingway 126). This statement is important, as it serves as more than symbolism; it also foreshadows Barkley’s untimely death. Now that Hemingway has clearly established the symbolic relationship between rain and death, he can use it more effectively to create suspense. Now, whenever it rains, the reader holds his breath, wondering what it means for the characters, especially Barkley. Later, Barkley is impregnated by the narrator, Frederic Henry. The day after she tells Henry the news, it begins to rain, making the reader worry not only for Barkley’s well-being, but for that of the couple’s unborn child, as well. It is raining on the day when Henry must leave Barkley to return to the front. As he watches her depart, she “pointed in toward the archway…I realized she meant for me to get in out of the rain” (Hemingway 158).
Once back on the front, Henry is thrown almost immediately into the climatic battle at Caporetto. Hemingway writes, “It stormed all that day” (185), referring to the beginning of the Austro-German assault on Caporetto. As Henry and his fellow ambulance drivers prepare to retreat, one of them says, “To-morrow maybe we drink rainwater” (Hemingway 191). At this point in the novel, Hemingway has so strongly established the rain’s symbolism that the reader almost thinks of the symbolic meaning before the literal. As it turns out, the ambulance driver is correct both symbolically and literally. The day after his prediction, it is still raining, and Henry’s unit disintegrates, culminating in the death of one member and Henry’s desertion from the Italian army. When Henry and Barkley are reunited following his abandonment, their first priority is to escape to Switzerland, where Henry will be safe from arrest by the military police. As they row across Lake Maggiore from Italy to Switzerland, rains beats down on them, trying to break their spirits just as Death tries to end their lives. Ominously, their umbrella snaps before they reach shore.
Finally, the symbolism and foreshadowing of the rain culminates in the last chapter. In this chapter Henry takes Barkley to the hospital, where she endures a long, agonizing childbirth. As Henry is eating lunch, he notices a beam of sunlight trying to break through the clouds, a literal ray of hope. However, as Barkley undergoes a Caesarian-section, Henry notices that it is beginning to rain. When the nurse informs him that the child is stillborn, he looks outside and “could see nothing but the dark and the rain falling across the light from the window” (Hemingway 327). After Barkley dies due to complications from the operation, Henry “went out and left the hospital and walked back to the hotel in the rain” (Hemingway 332). And so Hemingway ends the novel much like he begins it -- with rain and death intricately connected. Although the symbolism is far from subtle, its prevalence allows the author to use it to create an effective sense of gloom and foreboding, and to build tension and suspense.
American writer John Steinbeck once noted, “One can find so many pains when the rain is falling.” Steinbeck’s contemporary, Ernest Hemingway, explored the meanings of this statement in his 1929 novel A Farewell to Arms. At once a brutally honest commentary on war and a moving love story, this book exemplifies Hemingway’s uniquely efficient, journalistic prose style. Despite his innovation, however, Hemingway does not abandon the tried and true literary technique of symbolism. The most prominent, as well as the most important symbol in A Farewell to Arms is the rain, which is present from the first chapter to the very last line, and which serves to add a dark atmosphere and sense of foreboding to any scene in which it appears.
Whereas most authors associate rain with themes such as nourishment and rebirth, Hemingway takes a more macabre outlook, choosing to have it symbolize death. This association is evident from the first chapter, when Hemingway writes “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…and all the country wet and brown and dead with the autumn” (4). Later, in the very same chapter, the connection is stated even more directly: “At the start of the winter came the permanent rain and with the rain came the cholera…and in the end…seven thousand died of it in the army” (Hemingway 4).
Much later in the book, the symbolic relationship between rain and death is expressly stated by Catherine Barkley when she says, “I’m afraid of the rain because sometimes I see me dead in it” (Hemingway 126). This statement is important, as it serves as more than symbolism; it also foreshadows Barkley’s untimely death. Now that Hemingway has clearly established the symbolic relationship between rain and death, he can use it more effectively to create suspense. Now, whenever it rains, the reader holds his breath, wondering what it means for the characters, especially Barkley. Later, Barkley is impregnated by the narrator, Frederic Henry. The day after she tells Henry the news, it begins to rain, making the reader worry not only for Barkley’s well-being, but for that of the couple’s unborn child, as well. It is raining on the day when Henry must leave Barkley to return to the front. As he watches her depart, she “pointed in toward the archway…I realized she meant for me to get in out of the rain” (Hemingway 158).
Once back on the front, Henry is thrown almost immediately into the climatic battle at Caporetto. Hemingway writes, “It stormed all that day” (185), referring to the beginning of the Austro-German assault on Caporetto. As Henry and his fellow ambulance drivers prepare to retreat, one of them says, “To-morrow maybe we drink rainwater” (Hemingway 191). At this point in the novel, Hemingway has so strongly established the rain’s symbolism that the reader almost thinks of the symbolic meaning before the literal. As it turns out, the ambulance driver is correct both symbolically and literally. The day after his prediction, it is still raining, and Henry’s unit disintegrates, culminating in the death of one member and Henry’s desertion from the Italian army. When Henry and Barkley are reunited following his abandonment, their first priority is to escape to Switzerland, where Henry will be safe from arrest by the military police. As they row across Lake Maggiore from Italy to Switzerland, rains beats down on them, trying to break their spirits just as Death tries to end their lives. Ominously, their umbrella snaps before they reach shore.
Finally, the symbolism and foreshadowing of the rain culminates in the last chapter. In this chapter Henry takes Barkley to the hospital, where she endures a long, agonizing childbirth. As Henry is eating lunch, he notices a beam of sunlight trying to break through the clouds, a literal ray of hope. However, as Barkley undergoes a Caesarian-section, Henry notices that it is beginning to rain. When the nurse informs him that the child is stillborn, he looks outside and “could see nothing but the dark and the rain falling across the light from the window” (Hemingway 327). After Barkley dies due to complications from the operation, Henry “went out and left the hospital and walked back to the hotel in the rain” (Hemingway 332). And so Hemingway ends the novel much like he begins it -- with rain and death intricately connected. Although the symbolism is far from subtle, its prevalence allows the author to use it to create an effective sense of gloom and foreboding, and to build tension and suspense.