How Does Hemingway Use Rain In A Farewell To Arms

Symbolism in A Farewell to Arms In Ernest Hemingway’s A Farewell to Arms, rain is a constant symbol of approaching disaster. It serves as a forewarning of bad things to soon come like physical pain, emotional struggles, and death. The symbol of the rain also sets the gloomy mood of the novel, giving an insight of the direction the war is going and the way the people are feeling. Its analogy towards death and its influence on the Hemingway hero, Lieutenant Frederic Henry, to accentuate the characteristics of the leading role. In the long run, it connects all of the many tragedies in the novel. It reiterates the message of the heartbreaking effects of war and death that goes hand-in-hand with it. From the beginning of the novel, the reader is told of a permanent rain that is death itself, the menace that emerges throughout the entire novel.

Also, to reinforce his hero’s understandings about life and what comes after it. Says Catherine, “I’m afraid of the rain because sometimes I see me dead in it (118).” Her great distress of the rain reflects her feelings toward the war, and the knowingly constant threat of death that Frederic Henry encounters. As she feared bereavement in the rain, it represents the Hemingway hero’s theories that death is the cold ending of everything. Hemingway also hints at more hard times ahead for Catherine and Frederic saying, “Outside the rain was falling steadily (117).” Ernest Hemingway once again uses rain as a representation for the harsh realism of expiry in Book II during Catherine and Frederic’s sentimental farewell. As they share a parting feast together, the narrator tells us, “After a while we were very still and we could hear the rain (143).” Once again, Catherine’s death is