Love in a Farewell to Arms

How does a World War I love story relate to facebook? A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway is the story of Henry, an American ambulance driver in the Italian army, and Catherine, a British nurse, who fall in love during World War I. Rather than facing their struggles head on, Catherine and Henry use their love as a shield from the real world. This is dangerous because when they are not together or thinking about each other, reality comes flowing back into their lives. Today, many people use this same tactic to hide from their own problems. A Farewell to Arms shows us the consequences of hiding from reality so that we can learn from the story of Henry and Catherine and deal with struggles in our lives.
The war that surrounds Henry and Catherine is horrific; they both see terrible devastation all around them and begin to lose hope in humanity. When they meet, they are both looking for a way to distract themselves from the sadness and despondence in their lives. Catherine especially needed something to distract her from the loss of her fiancé in battle. The perfect escape is love. At first, Catherine and Henry pretend to be in love just to get away from their real lives. Henry even says, “God knows I had not wanted to fall in love with her” (XIV, 93). They fall deeply in love and create another world away from all of the death and destruction of the war. Henry eventually deserts the army so that he can stay with Catherine. Nothing seems to matter when they are together. Although falling in love under their circumstances seems remarkable, Catherine and Henry actually create trouble for themselves with their love. Instead of dealing with their problems, they create their own world where nothing bad ever happens. Unfortunately for them reality is not perfect, and no matter where they run trouble finds them. It seems in the book that every time Henry and Catherine think life is perfect and nothing could ever happen, something goes wrong to split