A Farewell to Arms book cover

A Romance Tragedy of World War I

A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway 

 It is of course an old novel written by an American novelist who had a really outstanding life experiences and he poured them into his works. The story in this novel is kind of similar to what Ernest Hemingway had experienced based on the source I found. I can summarise this novel to you in  simple way. So, the story tells that the narrator whose name is Mr. Henry who is an ambulance driver, he is american but he joined into Italian army in World War I. One day, he met a woman named Catherine Barkley, an English nurse who also was in Italy to help the wounded army in the hospital. Henry and Catherine fell in love with each other and they did it in the hospital. Catherine was pregnant. Henry went back to the front and he was wounded, he had to be brought to the hospital until finally he went to the front again. He was with some Italian armies, something happened on the street, some Italians didn't do what he ordered, he killed one of them. One of those Italian decided to come with Henry until he ran and Henry was accused to be a traitor because of killing the Italian. Henry ran away, fled from the war and the front. He met Catherine and took her to Switzerland. They had a lovely time for a moment when finally it was the due date for pregnant Catherine. They child died and then Catherine died as well.

   The last sentence of the novel "After a while I went out and left the hospital and walked back to the hotel in the rain" tells that he was in a really deep grief and he didn't dare to see Catherine lay on bed not breathing. The rain added the pain and it really shows how sorrowful he was. 

 Personal Opinion:

  There are a lot of drinking wine, brendy, and other alcohol drinks. Well, that thing that catches my mind, Catherine was pregnant and she was supposed not to drink the alcohol too much or if possible, she shouldn't have drink alcohol drink. Poor Catherine, poor baby, poor Henry :( I didn't expect the end would be like that.

   I finished reading it at night when I just had my lunch, I couldn't for the end of the story and I thought the end of this novel would be Catherine and Henry lived happily with their baby in switzerland in peace and harmony, lol :D. But of course that's another boring ending, in-the-box ending. This novel however is sick. Awesome! Don't be sad Henry because time heals all wounds.

  One more thing to say:

A Farewell to Arms is one of Hemingway's finest novels published in 1929 when the author was at the height of his powers. It draws on his experiences serving with the Italians in World War One when he was severely wounded in action and awarded the Croce de Guerra. This is a vivid portrait of men at war which also explores their deeper responses to the cruelty and heroism of battle ( I took from the cover of novel published by The Millenium Library).