"You are all a lost generation" Gertrude Stein. These are Gertrude's word to Ernest Hemmingway. It describes the disillusioned young men who survived World War I. It defines the loss of morality and the aimlessness in the lives of soldiers, their feelings at the time. The War destroyed their idea that if you where good, good things would come your way. But for many men who went to the war and experienced death, they returned physically and mentally damaged. The faith that had once given them hope and helped them before had been destroyed by the countless number of deaths. The novels written during the post war period showed these feelings. Hemingway's "farewell to arms" is clear evidence of these new beliefs. Hemmingway explains all the feeling that soldiers of his time felt during and after the war.
In a Farewell to Arms Hemingway uses painful experiences of his own life and places them in the novel. The main character of the novel Henry is based on himself and his personal experiences. His personal pain enables him to describe him and his feeling to a great amount of detail. The characters views of the world change with war just as Hemmingway's did. But henrys pain is greater than the physically pain he experiences. In Hemmingway's writing there is always an emotional pain of a past love. Mentally Hemmingway was damaged by a past love. While he was recovering from his wounds Hemingway fell for a woman by the name of Hannah Agnes von Kurowsky. She was older than him and not very interested in him. They dated but Hemingway had the idea of marrying her. Agnes had another idea. The dating never went farther than a date. so they ended things and parted their own ways. But this caused on him a great pain that led him to alienation and to make all his work including AFWTA to have a tragic end when it comes to love. "Poor, poor dear Cat. And this was the price you paid for sleeping together. This was the end of the trap.