It is sad to say, but it seems that everything in life today, in some way, circles around war. The essence of power brings a person to carry out actions that he/she would never even think about committing otherwise. With people persistently proclaiming their love for peace how can a universe be so centered on war? Life seems as if it is becoming a battlefield. In Ernest Hemingway's classic love story, A Farewell to Arms, he shows war as a senseless universe that refuses to acknowledge what true love really is. Although the novel does not exactly condemn war, it shows the emotional drift of characters views on the war at hand.
Fredric Henry is one of few Americans enlisted in the Italian army. Even with his fluent dialect it is still evident that he is not a true Italian. Why go and fight someone else's war many people ask? It brings a question to mind that is never really answered in whole in the story. One item that is easy to see, is in the beginning Henry loves being in the action of war. His action of war includes sitting around the dinner table drinking wine and eating fine meals. His hard war life brings him to a leave in which he travels throughout Europe. When asked where he went Henry replies, "I went everywhere. Milan, Florence, Rome, Naples, Villa San Giovanni, Messina, Taormina" (Pg. 11). During this extremely enduring era he appears to have no real worries at all, he is in a play land of some sort. .
When others ask about the war being dangerous he replies truly believing that his life is in no danger at all. Once again this brings in his feelings of being untouchable. This is most apparent when he is at the front with his drivers and he is trying to get them food. Once he actually does find something for them to eat the Austrians start firing, and instead of staying in the safe zone, which is what the major advised him to do, he decides to run in the open field to get the food back to his men.