How Does Hemingway Use Rain In A Farewell To Arms

“In the fall when the rains came the leaves all fell from the chestnut tree and the branches were bare and the trunks black with rain.” In A Farewell to Arms by Hemingway, Hemingway utilizes the weather to portray the effects of war. Rain is one element that Hemingway highlights in the book to emphasize the war. He describes the setting in detail to emphasize how much of an impact it has made. In the novel, Hemingway’s usage of rain symbolizes death and despair. In the first chapter of the novel, Frederic Henry immediately begins describing the setting around him, using rain as one of the principal motifs. For example, in paragraph three Henry states, “The vineyards were thin, and bare-branched too and all the country wet and brown and dead with the autumn.” Hemingway includes rain because it symbolizes the war’s impact of death and depression. As a result of the rain continuously falling throughout a majority of the
At the end of chapter nineteen, Catherine and Henry share a short dialogue on their views of rain. Catherine tells Henry that she has always been afraid of the rain and she explains, “All right, I’m afraid of the rain because sometimes I see me dead in it. And sometimes I see you dead in it.” Catherine’s response describes how Hemingway symbolized death in his novel. In A Farewell to Arms rain also represents bad luck. The war and the outbreak of cholera are important examples. Not only did death take place in these two events but Henry’s luck was plummeting. Although he had the company of Catherine, it seemed as though the rain had become part of his life- a dark shadow that followed him around. For example, at the very end of the novel, Henry has been stripped of his possessions and Catherine has died. The very last sentences are, “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