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A Farewell to Arms
A Farewell to Arms Summary and Complete Study Guide
by Ernest Hemingway
Published: 1929Historical FictionModern Library #74
Complete Study Resources:
✓ Full plot summary
An American ambulance driver and a British nurse fall in love during WWI, but war and fate conspire against them.
Complete Plot Summary
Frederic starts the war feeling detached—it's not really his war. He and Catherine begin a relationship that starts superficial but deepens when Frederic gets wounded. Catherine nurses him in Milan, and they fall genuinely in love. She gets pregnant. Frederic returns to the front, but the Italian retreat from Caporetto becomes chaos. Officers are executing their own men for desertion. Frederic narrowly escapes execution and decides he's done with the war. He deserts, reunites with Catherine, and they flee to neutral Switzerland.
Main Characters in A Farewell to Arms
A Farewell to Arms features complex characters representing different aspects of society and the human condition.
Frederic Henry drives ambulances for the Italian army despite being American. Catherine Barkley is the British nurse he pursues as a game before actually falling in love. Rinaldi is Frederic's friend and fellow officer who introduces them. The priest provides moral guidance. Helen Ferguson is Catherine's friend who sees through Frederic's initial shallowness.
The Ending Explained
They create a peaceful life in the mountains. Catherine goes into labor, but the baby is breech. The doctors perform a C-section. The baby is born dead, strangled by the umbilical cord. Catherine starts hemorrhaging and dies despite blood transfusions. Frederic is left with nothing—his love dead, his child dead, his army service meaningless. He walks back to his hotel in the rain. That's it. No redemption, no lesson learned, just loss. Hemingway is saying war makes everything meaningless. The universe doesn't care about your love or your plans. "The world breaks everyone and afterward many are strong at the broken places. But those that will not break it kills." Some people don't get to be strong at broken places—they just die. It's based on Hemingway's own WWI experience and it's determinedly anti-romantic about both war and love. Sometimes there is no silver lining.
Famous Quotes from A Farewell to Arms
“The world breaks everyone and afterward many are strong at the broken places.”
Why This Book Matters
Published 1929, based on Hemingway's WWI ambulance driver experience in Italy where he was wounded and fell for a nurse. The brutal honesty about war and the tragic ending shocked readers used to romantic war stories. It became a bestseller and established Hemingway as a major voice. The spare prose style influenced generations of writers. Critics debate whether Catherine is a real character or a male fantasy, but the emotional impact of the ending is undeniable. It remains one of the greatest war novels for showing how war destroys love, not just lives.
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