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Structure of a Farewell to Arms

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Structure of a Farewell to Arms
Structure of A Farewell to Arms

A Farewell to Arms is a 1929 novel by Ernest Hemingway set during World War I. The structure of the novel is mainly focused on the love story between the protagonist and his love interest catherine. It follows the structure of a dramatic tragedy: exposition, rising action, climax, falling action and resolution or denouncement. The novel begins with exposition. Here, the narrator, which is the protagonist, establishes the setting. It is an Italian countryside where the lushness of the vegetation and the beauty of the mountains are corrupted by a series of ground soldier fighting and bombings. The once serene roads are now being destroyed by lines of trucks that carry Italian soldiers and big guns. The whiteness of the snow is stained by the blood of the wounded and dead. Hemingway conveys a stark contrast between the chaos of war and the stillness of nature, and it seems as if nature is definately giving way to the tides of war. This part of the novel also shows that the protagonist, Frederic Henry, is an American who serves as an ambulance driver in the Italian military in their campaign against the Austrians. The exposition, to me, seemed kind of long as the protagonist undergoes some activities that don't appear to be all that relevant to the story. Longwinded or not, this parts of the novel serves it's purpose by introducing readers to Catherine Barkley a British nurse who volunteers for the war. A woman, who is about to make henry's life in the campaign quite a bit more complicated because almost instantly sparks fly between them and love inevitably blossoms. Their love, however, is not without conflict as henry is torn between his duties in the campaign and his love of Catherine. The action starts to rise when Henry is called for duty and he and his fellow soldiers they brace for an attack. During this attack several Italian soldiers either die or get wounded, including one of Henry’s fellow drivers. Henry himself is

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