Farewell to Arms Book Report

A Farewell to Arms In the fictional novel A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway there are many characters throughout the book, however six characters stood out the most. The narrator Frederick Henry is an American, who served as a lieutenant in the Italian army to a group of ambulance drivers during World War I. The next major character is Catherine Barkley; she was an English nurse and shortly became Frederick’s wife. Rinaldi is an Italian surgeon who is a very close friend of Frederick. Count Greffi was a father figure to Frederick during the novel. Helen Ferguson is a close friend to Catherine and becomes very jealous of her and Frederick’s relationship. Lastly, there is the priest; he is a spiritual young man who shares his beliefs with Frederick Henry. The setting of A Farewell to Arms is Italy, where they were fighting Austria, during World War I. The story is about Frederick Henry who was a drunk who traveled from one house of prostitution to the next. Yet he was not satisfied with his unsettled lifestyle. The war is winding down, its winter time and Frederick is planning a tour in Italy. Frederick meets Catherine Barkley an English volunteer nurse, who serves in Italy, at a nearby hospital. In the novel, there were three main themes in the story. There is love, reality and hopelessness. Love is a major theme throughout the story, Frederick falls in love with Catherine and they spend a lot of time together being in love. Reality sets in when Frederick gets injured and then has to go back to the frontline leaving Catherin behind. World War I was a horrible war, not having all the right equipment and men dying everywhere. Hopelessness is shown all through the story because no matter how hard we fight to live, we end up defeated, but we are here and we must go on. An example is when Catherine is fighting to stay alive, she gives everything but she dies. Frederick wants to live with Catherine forever, but she’s taken away from him and in the end,