What is the main theme of A Farewell To Arms?

One of the themes of A Farewell to Arms is the inexorable path of fate. It is fate that first throws Catherine, a British nurse, and Frederic, an American serving in the Italian army, together. When he is wounded, he spends time in the hospital where she is working, and they get to know each other and fall in love.

Their relationship is continually interrupted by the war, another way in which fate constantly intervenes in their lives. After Frederic recovers, he is sent back to the front, where he experiences a disastrous Italian campaign and is pursued by the authorities for his role in the campaign. He and Catherine must escape to Switzerland.

There, she gives birth to a stillborn child and dies soon afterward. It is fate that causes them to need to flee and that causes her death as well as that of their child. Fate takes many forms in this book; Catherine and Frederic's love affair is affected by the war and, in the end, by her health. Catherine and Frederic cannot escape the inexorable path of fate.

Hemingway's Farewell To Arms deals frequently with the topic of war, masculinity, death, existentialism, and love. The novel's main theme, however, seems to be mankind's inescapable placement against two polar opposites, love and violence.

Henry experiences horror, utter brutality, and gruesome violence throughout his time served in the war. He and his fellow soldiers are often broken down and shaken to their core by the senseless violence that surrounds them. They aim to be traditionally masculine men, brave and heroic, but more often than not they buckle under the pressure.

Juxtaposed against these scenes are passages depicting Henry's limitless love for Catherine. Where war offers acts of violence, torture, and murder, their love offers acts of sexuality that, while physical, couldn't be further from the savagery of war. Furthermore, much of the couple's love comes from the violence; Catherine's fiancé is killed, and she buries her sorrow in Henry. Meanwhile, Henry, unable to cope with the depressing nature of his experiences, escapes from the horrors through his love for Catherine. They aim to escape the war together, literally and figuratively. They continuously find themselves deeply in love, scarred by the war, and unable to escape tragedy.

When I first read this story, I considered the horrors of war to be the primary theme.  However, there is an excellent link given below to an eNotes page that details all of the themes of "A Farewell to Arms" - identity, individualism, patriotism, and war.  Give that a close read, then give the story a re-read to more fully understand all of the themes.  Good luck!

Numerous themes are developed in the novel, each contributing to Hemingway's examination of man's essential condition, one of profound spiritual loneliness. Through Frederic, and to a lesser degree through the other characters, Hemingway develops the idea that life is nothing more than random, often tragic, events, occurring without any divine plan. Various characters in the novel often speak of God, but He is nowhere to be found; "religion" becomes an expression of personal need and is defined, pursued, or practiced differently by the characters. Absent God, Frederic and Catherine embrace each other. "You are my religion," Catherine tells Frederic.

The spiritual loneliness that pervades the novel is seen in the characters' attempts to cope with life, to either find meaning in it or to escape it. Rinaldi operates, drinks, and sleeps with many women; the priest prays; Count Greffi longs to become "religious" before he dies; Catherine dedicates herself to Frederic; and Frederic faithfully performs his duties as an officer, until he loses his ambulances and his men and is about to be shot during the insanity of war. Hiding under a tarp on a railroad flat car, Frederic declares a "separate peace" from the war and makes his way back to Catherine, who has become his anchor in a chaotic world without meaning. With her death, however, he is left alone. The brutality and futility of life is summarized in the novel's conclusion as Frederic waits for Catherine to die:

Now Catherine would die. that was what you did. You died. You did not know what it was about. You never had time to learn. They threw you in and told you the rules and the first time they caught you off base they killed you. Or they killed you gratuitously like Aymo. Or gave you the syphilis like Rinaldi. But they killed you in the end. You could count on that. Stay around and they would kill you.

Following this meditation, Frederic remembers watching ants die in a fire. He could have been their "messiah" and saved them, yet he had watched their suffering objectively and acted only to further their destruction. After praying in desperation to a god that does not save Catherine, Frederic's spiritual loneliness is complete. He walks back to the hotel in the rain, alone in the world with nothing to sustain him except his own courage. There is no salvation; life is a condition only to be endured.

What is the symbolism in A Farewell to Arms?

Much symbolism in Ernest Hemingway's A Farewell to Arms relates to the tragic love story of Frederic Henry, an ambulance driver for the Italian army and Catherine Barkley. his English nurse after he is wounded.  Such important symbols as weather, the seasons, hair, and officer's stars.

the officer's stars

Stars on the officer's sleeves are marks of duty and competence.  In Chapter 15, Doctor Valentini's confidence that his surgery on Henry will be successful, but his stars on his sleeves communicate his competence to Henry:  "There was a star in a box on his sleeve because he was a major." 

However, when Henry deserts the army, he removes the stars from his own sleeves as a way of destroying his identity.

hair

As they begin their relationship, Henry loves to let Catherine's hair down so that it is like being "inside a tent or behind a falls."  He wants to hide in Catherine, to be isolated with her from the rest of the world.  In Chapter 38 Henry watches as Catherine has her hair done up at a beauty shop.  Later, she suggests that he grow his hair longer and let his beard grow, as well suggested the idea of hiding from the world.  She tells Henry,

"No, let it grow a little longer and I could cut mine and we'd be just alike only one of us blonde and one of us dark."

the seasons

Throughout the novel, the change of seasons occurs, suggesting the changing of life as well as its temporal qualities, much like those of love. 

the weather

Interestingly, the novel begins and ends with rain, which symbolizes death in this Hemingway novel.  In his essay, "Hemingways's A Farewell to Arms:  The Novel as Pure Poetry," Daniel J. Schneider writes that "the dominant state of mind, the sense of death, defeat, failure" are conveyed with images of rain, mist, river, fog, and so on.  Chapter 1 ends with two symbols of death,

At the start of the winter came the permanent rain and with the rain came the cholera. 

While rain represents death, the snow represents hope as it is what ends the fighting in Chapter 2. And, in Book 5, Catherine and Henry seek security in the Swiss Alps with purity and snow around them.  Of course, Catherine foresees herself dead with Henry in the rain.  While they are in Milan she tells him,

"I'm afraid of the rain because sometimes I see myself dead in it...And sometimes i see you dead in it.

Catherine urges Henry to come in out of the rain.  ..."the trees were all bare and the roads were all muddy."

Rain threads throughout the narrative, following Henry at the train station, in the open boat trip across Lake Maggiore, and during Catherine's operation for having the baby, it is raining.  In fact, in despair the novel ends with Henry's leaving the hospital "in the rain."

What is the theme of futility in "A Farewell to Arms"?

Clearly, the theme of futility, as in so much of Hemmingway's fiction, dominates this excellent novel. It is important to realise how futility and the presentation of war are inextricably intertwined, as the war forms the backdrop against which the action in the novel occurs. War is depicted as showing the futility of life in the very real way in which its violence, chaos and anarchy are portrayed from the perspective of an ambulance driver. One of the most important scenes in the entire novel is of course the Italian retreat in which the disintegration of the tidy and ordered columns of men is paralleled by the loss of reason of the soldiers, as they realise the true futility of their lives and action. The novel, in a sense, is about characters struggling to find some sense of meaning in a universe that is shown again and again to be characterised by nothing more than chaos and violence. War in this novel is shown to be the inevitable by-product of a world that is without logic and just plain cruel. A world in which true love is not recognised or protected is therefore doomed to the kind of futility and violence displayed in this novel.

What are the themes and symbols in A Farewell to Arms?

Look out for any mention of hair or beards.  As weird as that sounds, this is symbolic for isolation/insulation from the world outside.  Also, pay attention to the riding crop that Catherine carries and the stars on the military officers' uniforms.  In any work of literature, weather is important, so watch out for rain.  As far as themes, obviously war and patriotism and the effect of both on individuals will recur throughout the novel, as will a search for identity.  Watch for the ways the characters respond to their environment, such as seeking love in the face of so much adversity.  Examine, too, the ways in which Hemingway is defining heroism in the novel.  What characteristics does the hero exhibit that set him/her apart from the rest of the characters?  Keep these things in mind as you read and you will have a much deeper understanding of the novel overall.

Hope this helps!

In A Farewell to Arms, how does the author use symbols to represent larger themes?

Throughout A Farewell to Arms, Ernest Hemingway uses water in varied forms as a symbol of personal transformation, which is one of the novel’s major themes. In particular, he makes numerous references to rain. As it contrasts with a sunny day, rain represents a gloomy environment. Rather than nourishing crops, rain makes muddy conditions that imperil the troops, and it promotes disease.

Hemingway uses foreshadowing in combination with the symbol of rain to alert the reader to the novel’s sad ending, which includes both death and despair. In a different form, however, water has positive connotations. In the form of water flowing through the land, as a river, water stands for optimism and positive growth. Frederic undergoes a symbolic baptism in a river.

In the first chapter of the novel, the negative associations of rain are established, as connected to winter and disease; more generally, it characterizes the hopeless situation of the Italian troops.

At the start of the winter came the permanent rain and with the rain came the cholera.

A notable instance where water as rain carries symbolic weight is Catherine’s premonition of her own death and Frederic’s death.

I’m afraid of the rain because sometimes I see myself dead in it .... And sometimes I see you dead in it.

Henry’s efforts to comfort her do not succeed, and it continues to rain. Much later, at the novel’s end, after Catherine and their baby both die, Frederic “walked back to the hotel in the rain.” The previously established association may imply that he feels part of him has died as well.

The river symbolizes positive personal transformation for Frederic, as it enables him to escape the war. At the point of capture, he jumps in and lets it carry him away. The association of this act of faith with baptism picks up on his earlier discussion of Christianity.