A Farewell to Arms, by Ernest Hemingway, is a story about love and war. Frederic Henry, a young American, works as an ambulance driver for the Italian army in World War I. He falls tragically in love with a beautiful English nurse, Miss Catherine Barkley. This tragedy is reflected by water. Throughout the novel Ernest Hemingway uses water as metaphors. Rivers are used as symbols of rebirth and escape and rain as tragedy and disaster, …showed first 75 words of 839 total…

…showed last 75 words of 839 total…events in A Farewell to Arms. He distributes water through the entire story. Escape, or a cleansing effect, of Frederic Henry takes place in a river. Rain predicts unfortunate events, such as the death of Catherine, which causes Frederic to sadly begin a new life. However, this time he does not have a companion - he must learn to survive alone. Hemingway uses a lot of water to show many symbols and affect the story.