The Struggles of the Italiian Army in A Farwell to Arms, written by Ernest Hemingway

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Introduction A Farwell to Arms, written by Ernest Hemingway, is an excellent book that describes the struggles for one man to juggle his war life as a soldier in the Italian Army and his love life during World War One. Written in 1930, Hemingway wrote an excellent 330 page novel in describing the life of Lieutenant Frederic Henry, an American serving in the Italian Army and juggling the two most important things in his life right now, his job serving in the war, and his love, Catharine Barkley. Summary: In the mid 1950’s, World War One broke out, leaving American Frederic Henry to serve in the Italian Army as a lieutenant. At first, Henry thinks all that is important is to win the war against the Austrians and get home. After a while in the war, he thinks differently. After he meets Catherine Berkley, a Scottish nurse serving in Italy, all his ideas change. He believes Berkley is the love of his life and starts going crazy about her. Through various adventures, the two seem inseparable, and when it is revealed she is pregnant, he just can’t stand not being without her. But when the war comes calling, he is forced to head back to the front and hope for the best of his future wife. In the end, the two escape Italy and head for Switzerland to live and build a family. Once complications arise from birth, Catharine dies due to birth complications and the kid dies. In the end he can’t say goodbye and leaves for his hotel room very sad. Content Summary The book is organized in sequential order. Each event happens one after another with no going back, unless mentioned in dialogue. Chapters usually start with some sort of idea of what is happening in the war, then depending on the situation, can either get perso... ... middle of paper ... ...rywhere, and shell shock just got the best of people eventually. 6. Trench life for soldiers was difficult, never knowing what was going to happen, terrible rations and always a constant fear of death. 7. The front line was somewhere where you did not want to be. Henry hated going to the front and so did everybody else since the front was usually the place you were going to get hurt. 8. Austria made a lot of advances into Italy and Italy pushed back, leading the wart to be a stalemate, just like how trench warfare was. 9. There was a diversity of gender helping out. Usually it was all males doing the nursing, but now there were female nurses, and even doctors, which was unheard of in wartime. 10. Some countries, like Switzerland, were neutral countries during wartime, leading a lot of people, like Henry and Berkley to escape there to live and avoid the war.

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