s conclusion has surrounded him throughout the entire course of the novel and was even directly pointed out by Catherine. She says of her fianc, “…then of course he was killed and that was the end of it” (Hemingway 19). Frederic’s final revelation encompasses this same thought: “It was like saying goodbye to a statue” (332). This is Frederic’s final learning experience and it is also the biological trap that he had described before. Death cannot be alluded, no matter what the circumstances may be. Regardless of the life a person lives, death is the ultimate sacrifice and “those who play by the rules lose more and faster than others” (Spanier 93). If trust is put in something other than oneself, such as love, then it will ultimately be lost with mortality. If man is to live and be content in his heart and soul, then he must live for himself only. In the third chapter Frederic says, “I did not know that then, but I learned it later” (Hemingway 14). The “it” is Frederic’s insight. Man must live according to an inner code and cannot put faith and hope in anything else. Although a story of initiation of Frederic Henry’s life in fiction, A Farewell to Arms is also the product of Ernest Hemingway’s nonfictional experiences. After being rebuffed numerous repeatedly from the American forces in WWI, Hemingway eventually succeeded in joining the American Red Cross Volunteer Ambulance Corps. Like his protagonist, Hemingway was injured, shot in the leg while carrying a dying soldier to safety. He was taken to a hospital in Milan where he met and fell in love with a night nurse by the name of Agnes Hannah van Kurowsky. After being wounded in Italy, he received a promotion to Second Lieutenant, the same as Frederic Henry. Although he was extremely engaged in his courtship with Agnes, duty called and he was sent back to the front. After corre...
