hort while. In much the same way as Hemingway's life, the character Henry falls in love with Catherine. After being wounded by a trench mortar, Henry is also sent to Milan to recover from his injuries. While at Milan, he becomes romantically involved with Catherine and the two marry. Even though Hemingway and Kurowsky did not marry, the marriage of Henry and Catherine is a prelude to a more devastating event. The sexual activity of the couple leads to the pregnancy of Catherine, which convinces them to leave the war. During childbirth, Catherine dies, thus leaving Henry all alone in the world: "In the novel, though not in actual life, the submissive Catherine . . . is 'punished' by death in childbirth" (Meyers 41). The reason for this variation between real life and the novel is based on how Hemingway felt at the time. Apparently to Hemingway, Kurowsky was not punished enough for her deceit toward him. With his feelings full-blown, Hemingway produced a character that suffered the way he felt she should suffer. From the wounds to the love affair, "it is fair to say that the book is the crystallization of the war experiences" (Shaw 54). After the war, Hemingway returned to Oak Park for a brief stay at home. Mentally and physically hurt from his war wounds and failing romance with Kurowsky, Hemingway entered into an idle part of his life. All the returning soldiers had great war stories; most of them embellished beyond truth. Hemingway fell into this norm of lying about war experiences, which eventually made him sick of disgust: The deceptions he practices at home . . . uncomfortably remind him of the lies he and others have been forced to tell in order to sensationalize for home consumption the dull reality of war. (Meyers 55) Hemingway was later able to reflect his disgust of home life when he purposely portrayed himself as the character Krebs in "Soldier's Home". Krebs, a World War I veteran, is forced to lie about his involvement in th...
