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In "A Farewell to Arms, " Ernest Hemingway juxtaposes strong weather symbolism with the emotions and events of the characters in the story. The book has a theme of constant internal struggle between the protagonist and his perception of his reality world versus his fictitious one. This theme is expanded upon and clarified by the author, by the use of weather, particularly rain. Rain is the bringer of misfortune and destruction. Everyone who dies dies during a rainstorm or in some way the caused by the rain. Whenever something terrible happens to the main characters or the war worsens it is always accompanied by a storm and rain.
Weather plays an important role in setting the tone and mood of the story by juxtaposing it with the factual events in the story. At the beginning of the story the destruction the rain brings is literal. The rain brings the cholera which kills thousands of people. This first introduction of rain sets the tone for the weather in the rest of the book. By chapter 19 Catherine even senses the evilness of the rain and even fears it. She tells Fredric I dont know, darling.
Ive always been afraid of the rain Im afraid of the rain because sometimes I see me dead in it And sometimes I see you dead in it, this foreshadows the fate of the characters to come (126). Rain is such an obvious transitional image that, when it is mentioned the reader automatically knows something dreadful soon follows. At the beginning of chapter 22, Fredric observes it turned cold that night and the next day it was raining it rained very hard and I was wet when I came in (142). Fredric is drenched in rainwater; he is soaked in the bringer of destruction, thus the next morning he wakes up and feels sick (and) nauseated (142).
Fredric finds out he has jaundice. Not only was the rain foretelling the coming of bad news but it almost seems as though it was the cause of it. It is raining outside the night Fredric and Catherine spend the night at the hotel in Milan. It is here where Catherine says she feels like a whore (152). The reason she feels so much like a prostitute is because, she has already told Fredric about the baby and here they are for one night in a cheap hotel room. The characters at this point seem completely aware of what the rain means.
Catherines last gesture to Fredric as he is leaving is to get under an archway out of the rain, thus demonstrating she understands how destructive the rain is (158). Book 3 is at the center of the book and is the most rain-soaked of book. These are the chapters in which the book gets its theme and tone. Fredric finally allows himself to discover who he really is and what he wants. Fredric realizes he is only in the war because of his friends not because of the cause or for pride of his country. Hemingway gives the reader a sense of how the war is going when Bonello says, I like a retreat better than an advance on a retreat we drink Barbera, and the Aymos responds with, We drink it now.
To-morrow maybe we drink rainwater (191). Hemingway is using their conversation and the image of rainwater to hint that they have luxuries now, but will probably be dead the next day. Filling the body with rainwater is certain death, recall how sick Fredric Henry got when he was just covered in it. Hemingway uses rain as a poison to help lead the reader in their predictions of what is to happen next. It is the rain that causes the vehicles to get stuck in the mud. This directly causes Fredric to kill one of his own men, which in turn sends everything downhill from there.
Aymos who ironically suggested drinking rainwater earlier is the first killed and by a member of his own army. Aymo's death was unjustified and senseless. Aymos lay in the mud on the side of the embankment while the three of (them) squatted over him in the rain (213). Fredric covers Aymo's face with Aymos cap that had fallen. This gesture can either signify the finality of his death or it could be Fredric trying to keep the rainwater off Aymo's face and out of his mouth. This implies that the rain could even be dangerous after death and that there is no escape from the rain or the inevitable.
Piani, Bonello, and Fredric retreat into an old barn, in which Fredric could hear the rain on the roof (215). The barn was a shelter from not only the war and the death that would bring, but also protection from the destructive rain. Fredric states that the barn: smelt dry and pleasant in the rain (215). While inside, the barn protected from the rain and the men become very relaxed.
Fredric feels so comfortable and relaxed he recalls he had nearly been asleep (217). Bonello is taken as a prisoner and Piani and Fredric continue on, until they come to a bridge. They were stopped to be questioned at the end of the bridge. They stood in the rain and were taken out one at a time to be questioned and shot. So far they had shot everyone they had questioned (224). Once again Hemingway has it raining because once again people are dying.
Every time someone has died it has been raining or directly caused by the rain. Fredric Henry deserts the army and stows away on a train, as he is sitting there his head begins to bleed, but ironically the rainwater washes it away. Once again rain washes away the past, almost to be forgotten, but still holds its ominous attitude. In chapter 34, Catherine and Fredric are staying at a hotel and Fredric thinks, outside the windows the rain falling we had finally come home, we immediately know something bad is about to happen (249). Yet Fredric wakes up in the morning and the rain has stopped and there is sunlight. The couple is happy for a brief time.
Catherine says she had a lovely night (250). The two discuss plans to escape, but they do so in a loving playful manner, at first. Then the lake began to darken and it started clouding over outside (251). The tone of their conversation turned to playful and hopeful to gloom and guilt.
During this Fredric and Catherines conversation, Hemingway makes a point to emphasize the difference in mood right before and right after the rain begins to fall. Hemingway's diction emphasizes the tone before with words such as: lovely, darling, and silly. He uses words such as: criminal, deserted, boy, girl, and morning-sickness to express the tone after the weather changed. Unpleasantness of pregnancy is brought up and they both refer to each other using immature pronouns. Fredric Henry is discovered and he and Catherine must flee in the middle of the night in the middle of a rainstorm to Switzerland to keep from being arrested. Once in Switzerland the couple finally feels safe and they get so intertwined in their surreal world to the point where nothing around them matters.
Catherine is even so bold as to say, Isnt the rain fine? ... Its cheerful rain, furthermore suggesting their detachment from reality (280). The rain is what brings them down from their mountain retreat. Catherine goes into labor and is rushed to the hospital. Unfortunately she has complications and is told they will have to do a caesarean.
Fredric walks down the hall and looks outside; it is raining. The rain basically gives the end away, because it is very apparent now that with the rain comes misfortune and death. Fredric and Catherine give birth to a stillborn and a few hours later Catherine dies as well. Fredric doesnt want to talk about it with anyone and finds no remorse from saying good-by to his dead wife (332).
So he left the hospital and walked back to the hotel in the rain (332). What Fredric Henry does, after he walks home from the hospital, is left up to the speculation of the reader, but one would most likely be accurate in assuming Fredric takes his own life. This is justified by the fact that Fredric walks home in the rain, in which he will be saturated in the rainwater and in the past has always meant illness or death. Hemingway uses the rain as a transition because rain brings a sense of gloom, darkness, and dreariness.
Also the rain washes away the past with every new rain the problems of the old are almost completely forgotten. When they reach Switzerland there is very little talk of the war, his friends, her friends, or his wound. It is as if the rain keeps washing all the past sadness away bringing temporary comfort to the characters, but eventually the rain comes again inevitably bringing destruction and turning their comfort sour. Rain can best be compared to death.
It is always coming there is no hiding from it or escaping it. Neither ones arrival is predictable yet both are inevitable. One can never truly escape from either.
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Research essay sample on Rain Washes Away The Past Fredric And Catherine Rainwater
