Experts often agree that to write an extraordinary piece of literature, the author must write of his, or her, first-hand knowledge or experience, of a subject matter; and Ernest Hemingway knew this. He was best known for his plain spoken, straightforward, no-frills writing style. Plain words, simple sentences, and frequent repetition earned him the prestigious Nobel Prize for Literature in 1953. He was a literary scholar. Ernest Hemingway’s A Farewell to Arms is a magnificent result of literary magnificence that combines its author’s real life experiences and writing perfection. The five-book fiction novel contains autobiographical elements in its core. As one of the best American writers of the early 20th century, Hemingway rolls his personal experiences together with fiction and serves us an exquisite work of art that keeps readers craving for more. A Farewell to Arms was one of Ernest Hemingway's greatest novels, because it was based on his own experiences.
Likewise, the main theme in A Farewell to Arms is the futility of war, its protagonist is Lieutenant Frederick Henry, whose private thoughts and actions mirror Hemingway’s life events around the time he met his first wife, Agnes von Kurowsky. Both Henry and Hemingway shared some common events during their lives. “…A Farewell to Arms, deals even more directly…with the impact of World War I. The book is actually set during the war and focuses on the experiences, in conflict and love, of a young American ambulance driver…” (Evans). Hemingway and Henry, both, were volunteers in the Red Cross and drove an ambulance during World War I. They were also wounded in the Italian front during an Austrian attack, by a mortar exploding a few feet away from them. They caught shrapnel. Henry was transported to a hospital in Milan to recuperate from injuries, which consisted of over 200 metal fragments inside his right leg. He had to undergo surgery,