A Farewell to Arms | Ernest Hemingway: A Farewell to Arms
In the following excerpt, Carlos Baker explores how Hemingway adds depth to his novel through the repitition of symbols.
Symbolic effects in this novel are achieved through a subtle process of reiterated suggestion. Among the many which might be mentioned, we shall be concerned with only three: the weather, the emblematic people, and the landscapes. The best known of these is the first: the almost poetic care with which Hemingway slowly builds up in his readers a mental association between rain and disaster. This was an association which came naturally enough to Hemingway himself. His letters throughout his life are full of complaints against rain and damp weather. He always took it personally,...
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