Blog Entry #4: Text Connections

A frequent occurrence in A Farewell to Arms is the use of alcoholic beverages to null the hardships of war. The narrator, as well as the other characters in the story, drink wine and other alcoholic beverages on a regular basis in the novel. Their reasoning for this frequent consumption is that alcohol provides an escape from the horrors of warfare that they witness every day. When eating dinner after being called up to the front, Rinaldi tells the priest to “take a little wine for his stomach’s sake” (Hemmingway 173). This shows that alcohol plays a key role in the nullification of the mental and physical pain that the men endure while enthralled in conflict. This concept can be connected in a worldly view to many of today’s occurrences. In our world today, many people consume alcohol on a regular basis to “escape” from reality and hardship. In relation to the situation of the narrator, these individuals also become dependent on alcohol to alleviate their grief, and physical pain. It is apparent that the narrator’s reliance on alcohol to assuage his troubles can also be connected with the concept of alcoholism in our present era.