Plain of Destruction
The plain has appeared dimly at the very beginning. Then it comes out clearer and clearer with the development of the story. “Troops went by the house and down the road and the dust they raised powdered the leaves of the trees. The trunks of the trees too were dusty and the leaves fell early that year . ”In the autumn, we see the dust and fallen leaves. The leaves are just rotting and rotting to dust. The troops are just marching on to dust. Hemingway creates such a strong impression on the readers that everything is going to dust and everything is going towards destruction. These things happen on the plain.
The big destructive retreat also happens on the plain. There are deserted cars, houses, carts, axes everywhere. There are also the fighting and cursing soldiers, the sad country people, the dead bodies, the shooting and the unreasonable battle polices. Everything is in mess and everything ends up in chaos and destruction.
Plain of Death
“Straight through to the end of February, to the end of winter, we lived very happily. Occasionally, we decided to go to Lausanne, where the hospital was. ”﹙Chapter 34﹚
Catherine’s death also happens on the plain. When, they both flee to Switzerland, they really have a quite happy life on the mountains. But in the spring, with the coming of rain and an urge for a hospital for the childbirth, they move down the mountain to Lausanne, a small town in the plain beside the lake. There Catherine dies of the childbirth and the child is stillborn. Though it seems to be an accident, there is a kind of inner association between the misfortune and the plain. So while the mountain symbolizes the peace and family, the plain just symbolizes the destruction and death.
Ⅲ. Symbolic Meaning of the Weather
In A Farewell to Arms, many of symbols are provided by the weather description. These natural weather images enlarge the realistic framework of the novel by suggesting that the elements of nature lie under the social life of human being, whether life is urban, rural. Thus, weather images become very important in establishing emotional tone of the novel. In the novel, we are greatly impressed by the weather images of rains and snows. Hemingway has made the best use of these images .Rain, is represent unfortunate things .The snow, on the other hand, stands for happy things.
A. Symbolic Meaning of Rain
As a kind of set-off of the symbolism, the use of rain receives highly praise .In fact, it just likes a refrain of the main tune.
1. Rain of Despair
“Rain” gets appropriate application as a pessimistic symbol. In part three, Henry comes back to the frontline and the army is defeated. All of the muddy ground, fallen leaves and damaged houses demonstrate the bad situation. What’s worse, it rains all the time:
The ground was muddy and wet, and the leaves already had fallen from the trees. It stormed all that day. The wind drove down the rain and everywhere there was standing water and mud. The plaster of the broken houses was grey and wet.
It describes the fallen leaves at this time, which symbolizes the soldier’s bad mood, to forebode the defeat of war, and the soldier’s despair. Just as the driver Aymo says that they maybe drink rainwater tomorrow. By this time, Hemingway developed the symbolism of the rain to such a degree that the reader experiences a genuine sense of foreboding. And indeed, the following day will bring death to Henry’s disintegrating unit. Besides, in part three, there are many words which point to describe the rain:
On a raining night, Henry and Catherine start to hard retreat. Rain always comes down. In this part, “rain” often appears. Horses and people are walking in the muddy. As if the muddy predicts everything as the muddy road. In Henry’s heart, the war has no meaning, and he just wants to accompany with Catherine. Then Italian soldiers kill Aymo. Everything becomes disorder. “Rain” does not only predict Henry who must face the danger in the course of retreat, but also indicate the war’s destroy to humanity and leave shadow in the human’s heart.
2. Rain of Death
Henry and Catherine live in a little, comfortable and wooden house in the mountain in Montreux during the rest of the fall and the winter. The life looks peaceful: they discuss marriage and they hike, read and talk about what they will do together after the ending of the war. The war just goes away, but the protagonist is in anxiety. From the newspaper, Henry knows that the war is still on. It rains again after a peaceful winter:
In the last chapter, Catherine dies of a difficult delivery— just like she fells. She is afraid of the rain because sometimes she sees herself die in it. At last, Henry comes back to hotel lonely and the tragic story ends up with the rain. The ending is so simple, having no cry, but the readers will feel that Henry’s tear is falling down with the rain:﹙Chapter 41﹚
I could see nothing but the dark and the rain falling across the light from the window. After a while I went out and left the hospital and walked back to the hotel in the rain. ﹙Chapter 41﹚
The death of Catherine strikes Henry. There is nothing he could do, no one whom he could talk with, and no place where he could go. To him, tomorrow is just too far, and the dark nights have no lover’s accompany. The war destroys everything of Henry, including his belief. Henry comes back to hotel lonely that indicates he has bid farewell to war and love.
Symbolic Meaning of Snow
Regarding the novel’s symbolism ,notice that snow comes unusually late during the winter described .Rain and snow both drive the plot and maintain our interest ,as we hold our breaths every time it rains in the novel .Snow gives us different feeling .
Snow of Dream
The opposite image of rain is snow .While rain always appears with death and despair; snow just appears with peaceful life and beautiful dream.
“One day, as my friend and I were enjoying some wine in one of the local bars, it began to snow outside .we knew then that the fighting would stop until spring.”﹙Chapter 1 ﹚
When snow first comes I the fall ,the war is all over that year .It’s a happy thing for soldiers that snow falls because they do not like the war ; they disgust it and hate it .
Shortly thereafter, Henry describes the priest’s home region of Abruzzi as a “place where the roads were frozen and hard as iron, where it was clear and cold and dry and the snow was dry and powdery….”When Henry goes to the front, from the car, he can see two ranges of mountains, green and dark to the snow line and then white and lovely in the sun .Maybe it’s a dream.
2. Snow of Peace
When Henry deserts the army and makes a separate peace in Switzerland .The snow accompanies Catherine and Henry the whole winter until the coming of spring and rain. With the disappearing of the snow, it has turned into slush; their happy life also comes to an end.
Through the whole novel, the snow impresses us as coldness and clearness. It’s connected with the mountain. Together they symbolize the peace and happy life and to some degree they also symbolize an unrealized dream in the mind of the war-wounded people.
Ⅳ. Emblematic People
