In this novel, the main character was a nineteen-year-old ambulance driver in World War I. He was injured and fell in love with his nurse. They courted, despite the rules, but she eventually married another Italian man. He was heartbroken and became bitter. The main character's life was based on that of Hemingway and his World War I experiences. The major theme of A Farewell to Arms is the reality of war and death. He shows this in the detail of how bad war really was, and that nothing good, not even love, can grow out of war.
In 1937, Ernest Hemingway wrote his third novel, To Have and Have Not. This work is about the effects of the depression on the people of Key West, Florida. The "Haves" are the rich tourist who pays little attention to the poor, the "Have Not's." The main character is Harry Morgan, a Have Not, who is trying to make ends meet by chartering his fishing boat, and by running illegal goods between Florida and Cuba. The theme of To Have and Have Not is that money can't buy happiness. Hemingway shows this well through Harry Morgan, who is poor, but happily married. Also, most of the Have Nots are unhappy people in the story. I think Hemingway expressed his own unhappiness in the Haves. Hemingway had money, yet he was never happy or happily married. Though some say that Hemingway's works after 1936 weren't as good, To Have and Have Not was still a well-written book. .
Hemingway's next novel, written in 1940, was For Whom the Bell Tolls. This was his first optimistic novel, portraying "The brother hood of man (Young 82). For Whom the Bell Tolls is another great piece of work, describing three days in the life of a man in the Spanish Civil War. Robert Jordan, an American College teacher, volunteers his service to the loyalist in the Spanish Civil War. He falls in love with a woman, Maria. During the explosion, Robert is injured trying to escape, and he is left to die.