The gap between humanity’s noble words and its dishonorable deeds was never more obvious than during World War I. For this reason the war serves brilliantly as the setting for Hemingway’s novel of love and disillusionment. The story begins in the summer of 1915. This is about the time that Italy joined the war. The starting place is a city named Gorizia located in Northeastern Italy near the front with Austria-Hungary. This is where Frederic lives along with the rest of the officers. As the story develops, Frederic ends up in many different cities and towns, all along the Italian-Austrian front. The story ends in the late spring of 1918 not in Italy but rather in Lausanne,

Frederic Henry, the protagonist, is an American who is serving as a lieutenant in the Italian Army. Frederic Henry is a good example of dynamic character. When you first see him, he’s an aimless kid out for an adventure. He casually joined the Italian ambulance corps, mostly out of curiosity, and he throws himself into the rough military routine. He jokes, he drinks, and he chases girls. Excited by this existence, he sees it as a sensational solution to an ordinary American peacetime life. As the story progresses and Henry comes face to face with the realities of war, death, and love, he changes. By the time he’s caught in the massive, chaotic retreat late in the book, he’s learned a lot. He stops mimicking the official party line by defending the army and the war; he comes to distrust authority. Army life, once adventurous, is now absurd and dangerous. He deserts the army, leaves Italy, and deplores all the actions of the war: “I think I’m through with [the war]” (241. Henry has come a long way from the young man who joined a foreign army because he had nothing better to do. Frederic is also a dynamic character with respect to love. Before he met Catherine he never loved anyone. He considered their relationship a wartime flirtation, a little better than making love to one of the girls at the Villa Rossa, but hardly anything more permanent. However he realizes the minute she walks into the room after his injury that he loves her: “Christ that my love were in my arms and I in my bed again” (197).

Having decided to desert, Henry borrows civilian clothes and goes to Stresa and meets Catherine. The bartender in their hotel warn him that he’s to be arrested and offers a boat so that they can escape across the lake to neutral Switzerland. Henry rows all night. Eventually they get to Switzerland. They’re arrested but let go when the police find that they have valid passports and plenty of money.

e hospital in Milan, Frederic and Catherine Barkley spend every day together. They fall in love and Catherine becomes pregnant.

The loss of innocence is perhaps the most important theme, and Frederic Henry illustrates it best. At the start he is an innocent who goes to war for no good reason except perhaps a naïve search for excitement. The war becomes meaningless and his brush with death and Catherine’s death leave him empty and disillusioned. Another theme of this novel is that everything can be going great but it can quickly take a turn for the worse. Frederic was able to beat the odds and get out of Italy and away from the war to be with Catherine. Then all of a sudden both Catherine and their child are dead within a matter of hours. The irony is that in the end even this love can’t triumph over fate to give me

Some topics in this essay:
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