Final Post: Bringing it together

Reading A Farewell To Arms was an interesting challenge. I spent a lot of time thinking about the various events of the book, and trying to piece together what the theme of the book is. One thing I noticed is that the book has a fascination of rain. Catherine says she’s “always been afraid of the rain” (109) and it rains a lot in this book. One important thing I noted about rain is that it rained when they fled to Switzerland, as well as when Frederick left the hospital after Catherine dies. I originally thought that rain was a representation of death, due to it raining when Catherine, however many times it rains when no one dies, such as when they fled to Switzerland. Now, it has become clear to me that rain represents loss in general.

               When Frederick is fleeing the front on the train, for example, it rains as he hides under the canvas (198). The events leading up to this point are pivotal, he is accused of being a German spy by a group of desperate soldiers and only barely escapes death. When Frederick leaves the army, he lost his remaining desire for war, as I detailed in the first blogpost. He lost all desire for combat or Italy, and thus it rains when he leaves. It also rains almost continually as the Italians retreat and lose ground to the Germans. Considering all of these, especially when it rained after Catherine dies, I’m convinced that rain represents loss. However, I have noticed that the first mention of rain in the entire book doesn’t seem to correlate with any loss. It only describes how the rain caused “the leaves” to all fall from the trees and made the trunks black (4). Some could argue that this descriptions evokes feelings of loss, however this description of rain also correlates with dead vineyards and the failure to capture a mountain. This description seems to be more about death than loss; however I think my theory still stands.

               In my second blog post, I discussed the importance of Bonello’s character and how his attempts to appear hardened are only to gain approval by his peers. Combining the ideas of rain and Bonello, I think Hemingway is trying to set up a world of chaos. I believe he’s trying to tell the reader in this book about the nature of suffering. Loss, as symbolized by rain, pervades all throughout the book, and the behavior of Bonello is indicates a theme of personal suffering to me. Catherine, at the beginning of the book, is dealing with the loss of her finance due to the war, her worry that Frederick will follow her dead fiancé was a real worry of hers, and was a big point for the novel. Ultimately, Hemingway's novel isn’t simply a discussion of the destruction of war, after all the last fifth of the book has nothing to do with war, but a discussion of personal suffering in general.

               Moving on, my reading of Nabokov, Prose, and Foster drastically changed my methods of reading for this novel. With other books I’ve read, I’ve gone against Prose’s method of close reading, and Nabokov’s non bias approach. In the past, I would read a book, and then I would immediately forget many of the important details of the book. Even if I did remember, I wouldn’t be able to find what page the detail occurred, and it was impossible to use these details in my interpretation of the book. So, starting with this book, I’ve been typing up a list of important events and their corresponding page numbers. While I haven’t even used one percent of all the notes I’ve compiled, it was much easier to write these posts. It was looking at these notes that allowed me to get ideas of the symbolism of rain, Like Foster. Speaking of Foster, he actually gives a short interpretation of A Farewell To Arms’s use of Rain on page 72. It kind of makes sense that a cleansing force like rain used for moments of loss and death is Ironic. If this is the case, this actually strengthens my argument because what could be a bigger sign of personal loss than the irony of rain being used as a symbol of loss.

               Finally, I highly recommend this book to readers. Although it’s a difficult book, I did actually enjoy dissecting the book. For the first time, it was actually kind of joyous to dissect a book with the ideas of Foster, Nabokov, etc. Talking with a few people who’ve read the book, the main criticism seems to be the lack of a coherent plot. And I would have to agree, however I’d have to argue when did plot ever matter to our good friends Nabokov or Foster? Overall, I was impressed with the depth and complexity in this novel. I’d recommend it to any student of literature, but I doubt a reader of entertainment would find anything engaging.