Ernest Hemingway's A Farewell to Arms has been considered the greatest war and love story of all time. As a lost generation writer, Hemingway, like many others, wrote about World War I. The story takes place during the war where an American ambulance driver is in an Italian front. This American, Frederick Henry, later slowly falls in love with an English volunteer nurse, Catherine Barkley. In Hemingway's novels, the female characters he writes about are described as women who act in the service of men rather than in their own desires. The women that he describes are more like most women of that time, where it is considered a more traditional role. However, in A Farewell to Arms, Catherine seems to be a more liberal character who has escaped from the traditional roles of women. Catherine does not suppress her own needs to care for Frederick; neither does she mask her own individuality. Catherine is not affluence by the ambiance around her showing her independence and her strives for her dreams display her ambitious needs, however, she does present some submissive behavior.
Catherine has her own independent personality with an identity of her own. She has more liberal views towards traditional matters. When she and Frederick were in love with each other, Frederick suggests that they should get married. Catherine did not believe that being wedded in a church is necessary for their relationship. Catherine felt that standing before a priest would not hold their union together. She saw doing rituals of any sorts are just empty forms performed, she did not see it having any real effect. Similar to not getting married, Catherine did not see baptizing a child as any useful form. In this case it was Frederick who again brings it up again. Catherine's refusal to adapt religious ceremonies in her life show that she does not do as Frederick pleases. This shows her strong hold on her position to do whatever she wants, not what others want her to do.
