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there is nothing worse than war - Coggle Diagram
there is nothing worse than war
Author?
American ambulance driver, Lieutenant
Henry Frederick,
where is it?
On the Italian front during World War 1.
THEMES
Principal theme is the war: the novel offers vivid descriptions of the
war brutality and violent chaos, for example the scene of the Italian
army's retreat is one of the most profound evocations of war in
American literature.
War in the novel is presented as something you can't control,
something that is inevitable and that is created by a world which
refuses knowledge and to protect and preserve true love.
Also love is another theme of the work: in each other, Henry and
Catherine find temporary happiness and relief from suffering. And
this is also the main theme of the tragedy inside the novel, because
even if it's genuine and pure, it can't still fight the forces of the world
and it can only be a temporary thing.
TECHNIQUE
Hemingway uses the technique of the first-person narrator: Henry is
the narrator and he discovers what is going on step by step, as the
reader does. Henry is full of noble ideals when at first he joins the
army, but in the end his beliefs concerning church, patriotism and
love are shared due to what he lived during the war.
The language is very simple, but the active participation of the reader
in the act of understanding is still requested and it's also very
important, since the meaning of the story is not revealed directly.
STORY
This novel talks about the story of an American ambulance driver,
Henry, on the Italian front during World War I. There, he falls in love
with an English nurse, which name is Catherine. Then they meet again
in Milan, in a hospital were he is sent after being wounded. Henry
decided to desert the army, because all he wants it to be with
Catherine. Then, we find out that she is pregnant, so they escape to
Switzerland; at the end, she dies in giving birth to their baby, who also
dies.